How to Say “NO†To Junk Food – 6 Easy Tips for Better Eating Habits
Junk foods are those that are low in nutrition value but have higher calorific values. Furthermore, they contain an excessive amount of sugar, fat, oil and salt. Food containing low nutrition value tends to reduce the IQ level of children while food containing vitamins and minerals helps to increase it. Examples of junk food items include burgers, French fries, candies and almost every over-friend item that is available in the market while healthier food items include fruits, milk and vegetables.
For a better health, it is essential to stay away from junk food. Children are more exposed to junk food than adults and due to the ever-changing food culture their eating habits have deteriorated over time. All the advertisements on TV, newspaper, internet or even on roadside billboards create an unnecessary desire in your children’s minds to eat junk food. Even then it is our responsibility as parents to direct our children to healthier food alternatives. So, how to prevent your kids from eating this unhealthy food? Here in this article I will be discussing six tips that will ensure that your children receive a nutritious diet and live a healthy life.
1. Introduce healthy food and make them health conscious early on in life. It is very important because in an early age they learn much fast and easy. Children develop their brain rapidly during the first 3 years of life. Practically, it’s the time to make or break the situation. You have the choice to either let your children become “junk food†freaks or health conscious.
2. Be a role model for your children. It will have a negative impact on your children if you eat junk food yourself and ask them to avoid it. This is fairly logical because children usually look up to their parents for inspiration. The more you are health conscious, the more you will affect your child’s eating habits.
3. Never let your children associate good things with eating junk food. If you are celebrating something outside, find a place where they cook healthy food rather than the common burger and potato chips.
4. It’s fair enough to let them eat and enjoy junk food once a while. This way your children will be in a much balanced situation. Otherwise their desire for junk food might take a huge step forward. Eating junk food once a while will not do any significant damage to your child’s brain therefore sometimes letting them follow their desire is appropriate.
5. Encourage your children to take part in physical activities, whether it is a sports activity or a performance based activity. This makes their brain develop in the right direction and makes them physically active too.
6. If you are not satisfied with the eating habits of your child and are unable to change his/her diet, then you can try “Neuro-Linguistic Programming “(NLP) or a hypnotherapy. NLP therapy keeps your child motivated. Such therapies introduce the whole family to healthy eating habits. The NLP therapist and hypnotherapist address the children on problems related to obesity e.g. confidence, self-esteem etc. NLP and hypnotherapy can be an effective tool to divert your children towards a healthier diet and life.
Meat is important for young developing brains so I’m not sure burgers in general are bad maybe just the fast food type aren’t as good as what you can make yourself from grass fed beef (that has more omega 3 fatty acices than fish). NLP and hypnosis can be very useful for assisting with getting compliance from children. The reframe and double binds can be very effetive. Many parents don’t effectively use these tools and they are pretty simple to learn at most hypnosis training and NLP training courses available today.
This is a nice and informative article but the challenge that an everyday career woman faces are those of pressure from work such that sometimes it becomes difficult to make a good menu timetable for your family. You are always on the move and you’ve got no time to prepare a good meal. You can’t help but give your child that junk food for breakfast and lunch. It is high time we re-adjusted and tried to strike a balance between career and family health
It is really a very practicable suggestions. However, it has become difficult to implement it. The modern day child psycology many times come in a way of disciplining children. But Parents need to do it in the interest of their health.