Healthy eating habits for your child

Healthy eating habits for your child

What does having healthy children really mean to you? What can we do to maintain healthy eating habits for your child? I strongly feel that we all have different values around “being healthy” or having “healthy eating habits”. I believe that the Japanese children’s diet is a very healthy one and we can consider them as one of the heathiest groups of children in modern society. Therefore, I’d like to introduce some tips on how I believe we can help our children to live a long healthy life.

PS. For me, it’s still OK for you like junk food and I DO LOVE IT!

Eating together and be a role model

Children are always curious about what their friends and teachers are eating. Seeing adults eating vegetables can sometimes make them want to try it, even though they never tried it before. You don’t have to tell them many times, “You have to eat” or “You have to try it.” What I would like to suggest is to sit together with them and eat healthy food together. Don’t forget to have a nice chat with your child! I still remember that when I was in elementary and junior high school, my teachers came to sit with us and we ate lunch together. Having a chat with the teachers made us feel something special. I really enjoyed those moments.

Encourage your child to try food.

I strongly feel that there is a strong correlation between the adult teaching a child about food and the child’s relationship with food, later. The rules that we learn around food, at an early age are the key to having healthy eating habits. As I mentioned earlier, encourage them to try new food. Trying new food leads them to try again, and again. This action may help them to like the food and possibly, the new food they tried may become their favorite food. It’s ok if they say, “I don’t like it.” “It’s yucky!” Continue to encourage them to try little by little. We always say to children: Did you try it? Let’s taste a tiny little bit and if you don’t like it, you can leave it.

Cook with your child and eat it at home.

Children love to help us! I love doing cooking activities with them. I just did a wonderful cooking activity with them in class recently. We had a discussion about the foods we liked and the foods we disliked. Some children said, “I don’t like broccoli” or “I don’t like onion” and a whole lot of other vegetables. We took all those things that they disliked, and made a pasta dish out of it. When it was time to try what they cooked, they were surprised to find out that it was very yummy! It’s always worth it to give it a try! Especially if it is in disguise!

Most Japanese families tend to eat at home. I still remember when I was little, how much I enjoyed cooking together with my mother. So, I really recommend to parents, to let your child help cook with you and eat at home as much as possible. You can even ask them for help when packing their lunch. This can motivate them to enjoy their lunch, even with the new food or something they perhaps, they don’t really like.

Don’t be afraid to take authority.

When I was in elementary and junior high school, I had to finish all of my lunch. We could not leave the table until we finished lunch completely. One of the reasons for this was showing respect for food and the people who prepared it for us. Our teachers also said that there are children who don’t have food so we have to appreciate what we have. I sometimes had a hard time to finish everything. I didn’t like milk, and some vegetables. Then my teachers said, “You have to finish.” and so I had to finish it. It was not easy but I actually really appreciate what they did for us. Constantly finishing my food in my childhood became my habit now. It also makes sense for me to show appreciation to the people who cook for me. Even though my mother always asked me to finish everything, she also said if you don’t want to eat, that’s fine, but there was not going to be any other food for me, if I was still hungry. You don’t have to be that strict with your child. But, I would say that you can ask and tell them to try as it is BEST to finish food. One of our classes has the 100% rule which is strong motivation and children love to push themselves to say: I had 100%.

Eating healthy food helps avoid having health problems

Even though we all know this, however I’d still like to mention this last little tip. If we compare western countries to Japan, I believe that we eat more fruit, vegetables, and beans; less fat and sugar. We do use a lot more salt in our food than western people, but I still believe that we do eat healthy food. Eating healthy food helps prevent obesity and serious health problems. I believe that Japanese children’s obesity levels are much lower than other countries.

I strongly feel that having a good balance is also important for your child. As I mentioned before, it’s ok to eat food they already like. Just don’t forget to encourage them and make some opportunities for them to try new food and/or what they think they don’t like now. I hope these tips can help your child’s eating habits!

Written by:

Sayaka Michigoe (Petals Class)

Reference:

Naomi Moriyama, Mar. 8, 2019. Here’s Why Japanese Children Are the Healthiest in the world. https://www.thehealthy.com/family/childrens-health/why-japanese-children-are-the-healthiest/ Accessed November 15 2019

Photo by https://cukidz.com/8-best-ways-to-encourage-healthy-eating-habits-in-children/