A Healthy Diet For Kids

A healthy diet for kids is essential for their healthy development and you will be laying the foundation of healthy eating which will last them a lifetime. Encourage your kids to join in cooking and eating healthily and to learn about the importance of healthy food.

Perhaps you enjoy cooking, or perhaps you don't feel you have the time or confidence to cook. On previous pages we've given you just a few simple recipes to whet your appetite and here we just want to summarise what a healthy diet can look like and show you it's easy to attain, even without cooking much.

The basics of a healthy diet for kids are a mixture of:

• Fresh fruit and vegetables
• Proteins: meats, beans, fish, cheese, eggs
• Carbohydrates: rice, pasta, couscous, oats, etc.
• Dairy products: full fat milk for children up to the age of 5, cheese, yoghurt

In today's society advertising often bombards us - TV, radio, billboards, internet, layout of shops, magazines, but remember the companies bombarding you want to buy their produce and make a profit. Most are not thinking of what's actually best for you and your children.

For a healthy diet for kids you need to avoid excessive:

• Cakes
• Biscuits
• Pastries
• Sweets and confectionary
• Crisps
• Take aways e.g. burgers and fries
• Sweetened drinks
• Fizzy drinks

Sweets, cakes and biscuits are fine as treats or in small portions but they should not be part of your child's daily diet.

Convenience foods are marketed as being so quick to prepare but they can also have a lot of colourings, additives and chemicals added to them to make them look more appealing, to be sweeter to eat and to have a longer shelf life. If you rely on convenience foods then cooking can be seen as being a major, time consuming chore that isn't necessary.

If you're new to healthy eating then make things easy on yourself. Start simply by offering your child wedges of fresh fruit as a snack, adding a simple salad to mealtimes (just wash and chop some tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce up for the easiest salad! And then add other salads and if you like, a tasty dressing too).

Here are some simple ways to start a healthy diet for your kids and for you - and none them will take extra time:

Breakfast Ideas:

• Cereal with some blueberries sprinkled over and milk
• Yoghurt with some chopped fruit
• A sugar-free cereal with milk
• Brown toast soldiers with scrambled egg

Snack Ideas:

• A piece of fruit e.g. an apple, banana or a pear
• A fruit smoothie
• Oatcakes with hummous or a slice of cold meat
• A flapjack

Lunch Ideas:

• If you're having sandwiches, then choose wholemeal thin-sliced bread with a meat and salad filling, or tuna and salad.
• Or have a salad with mackeral, and wedges of cucumber, carrot, beetroot, and a couple of oatcakes on the side.
• Or some chicken with salad or hot potatoes and vegetables.

Supper Ideas:

• Wholewheat pasta (much tastier) and a simple pasta sauce.
e.g chopped onion, a little chopped garlic, tomatoes and a little basil. Sprinkle some cheese on top. Have a salad with it.
• A tasty fish pie
• Or try some brown rice with some salmon or chicken with peas steamed over the rice.
• Or a wholesome soup with a crunchy wholemeal roll.
• A fruit yoghurt for pudding or a fruit salad.

For drinks, full-cream milk or water (too much juice is harmful to teeth)

We want to show you that a healthy diet for kids AND for yourself is simple to start and you don't have to be a great cook. Do yourself and your kids are huge favour by offering fresh fruit and snacks. Go to the library, to the bookstore and have a browse through the cooking book section - there is such choice and if you feel overwhelmed just select any quick and easy recipe books which don't list too many ingredients. Also there's a great website at Healthy Eating Made Easy with lots of recipes and tips.

As well as having a healthy diet for kids, go out with your children, go out for a walk, go cycling, walk instead of using the car, take them swimming - make exercise a normal part of their life. Bring a piece of fruit and a bottle of water with you for when your child and/or you are peckish.

And when you have puddings or sweet cakes, then watch your portion sizes. When you buy sweets for your child, then buy just a couple instead of a packet.

A healthy diet for kids is essential and so try to arrange the food in your household so that it's helping your family rather than hindering it. Enjoy!