How to Teach Kids About Nutrition

Yes, I know, most kids are picky eaters! Sometimes they will ONLY eat mac and cheese or they will ONLY eat hot dogs and if that’s what works for you right now, then that’s great, because parenthood ain’t easy.

If you want to try though, check out a few of these tips. Just keep in mind – this doesn’t need to be stressful. If your kid is not receptive, that’s okay! At least you had the conversation, and maybe at a later time, they will be more receptive.

How to Teach Kids About Nutrition:

• Use the ‘your body is like a car’ analogy. Tell them that a car needs gas for fuel, and your body needs certain foods for fuel. Give them examples of some healthy foods your body needs to keep running.
• Variety, Variety, Variety. Let them try new things! (if they will) Tell them they can pick out fruits and veggies to try when you are in the grocery store. If you get them to help pick out foods, they are more likely to eat it!
• Let them help cook, and they are more likely to eat it. Get creative with building your own pizzas, creating your own sauces, adding veggies to soups, etc.
• Introduce Smoothies in place of milkshakes. You can easily create a strawberry smoothie that rivals a strawberry milkshake. It’s MUCH healthier.
• Make the healthy option the easy option. If healthy snacks are available and offered, they don’t have the option to pick the junk. Pre-cut and wash veggies and half some kid-friendly sauces for them.

The easiest thing, of course, is to just never give your kids junk in the first place. Realistically speaking that’s probably not gonna happen for most people. If you are persistent with healthy choices, eventually your child will come around.