Announcement
August 27, 2024
Feeding your family healthfully can feel like a full-time job, especially when picky kids or teens are involved. Between busy school schedules, changing nutritional requirements over the lifespan, and dietary preferences, it’s easy to forget about good nutritional practices. Poor nutrition is detrimental to developing bodies, so let’s talk kids, teens, and healthy eating during National Nutrition Month!
Across the lifespan, all people are encouraged to eat nutrient-dense food, limit saturated fat & sugar, and drink more water. Unlike adults, kids and teens require extra nutrition to fuel the changes constantly occurring in their developing bodies. Typically, calorie requirements are higher for growing bodies than adult bodies. Despite this, it is still important to teach children and teens to eat in moderation, as obese children are five times more likely to be obese as adults than children who are a healthy weight. Be especially mindful of consuming the recommended amounts of these nutrients:
- Iron. Iron is responsible for helping muscles grow and increasing blood volume in children.
- Omega-3 fatty acids: These assist in youth brain development and learning.
- Calcium & Vitamin D: Calcium helps grow strong bones and Vitamin D keeps them healthy.
Fruits, vegetables, lean protein, and whole grains should be staples in the diet of all bodies, growing or not. It is recommended to consult a doctor before making significant changes to your child’s diet.
Making informed food choices
Teach your child how to make good snack selections. The average child in the United States consumes 27% of their daily caloric intake from snacks. Snacking can be good for maintaining energy requirements in active children, but it is important that children learn to recognize satiety, the feeling of fullness after eating, to avoid snacking out of boredom and overconsumption. Encourage your child or teen to make good snack choices by having healthy options available at eye-level such as fruit, yogurt, or veggie sticks.
“Food pushing” is the act of pressuring an individual to eat more, which can be well-intentioned, but may have negative long-term effects on children. Children subject to frequent food pushing may have difficulty learning how to regulate their eating habits independently. Childhood eating behaviors follow to adulthood, so force feeding may turn into overconsumption later in life. With over 39% of West Virginians considered clinically obese, it is more important than ever to instill good eating habits in our youth.
Nutrition at school
Studies have shown that students who eat a healthy breakfast have increased cognitive function and improved moods when compared to students who do not eat a healthy breakfast. Unfortunately, many kids miss breakfast in the rush to get to school or are limited to poor nutritional choices such as sugary cereal. It can be hard to get kids out of bed, but a healthy breakfast is worth the extra five minutes. Try oatmeal, low-fat yogurt with fruit and granola, or a whole-wheat bagel with peanut butter.
Children and teens consume approximately half of their daily calories at school each day, making it difficult for parents to always monitor their child’s consumption. This goes back to the importance of teaching children to recognize satiety and keeping healthy snacks available at home.
School breakfast and lunch programs are available to students struggling with food insecurity who meet certain guidelines.
Want to get involved in National Nutrition Month? Try one of these fun challenges with your child:
- Eat the rainbow: consume foods of every color each day (naturally, not artificially dyed)
- Make cooking a family affair
- Start a family cookbook of healthy family favorites
