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Why Kids Love to Spin

Kids just love to spin around and around ‘til they all fall down. I remember whirling around in play and delighting in the dizzy sensation afterwards. Was I nuts? To my adult sensibilities now, yes, I was. How I could have enjoyed seeing the world tilt around sickeningly is beyond my matured comprehension. Now, I just don’t see what the spinning fun was all about.

What happens to spinning delights between childhood and adulthood? Scientists are not exactly sure but their theories involve the maturity of the balance sensors and the necessity for balance training until a child reaches the age of 15.

The Vestibular System

At 36 weeks, a fetus’ balance sensors in the inner ear are fully developed. These sensors form part of the vestibular system, a network of organs that regulates your sense of balance and spatial orientation when you move about.

Within the vestibular system are semicircular ducts that hold fluids of the inner ear. Movement agitates these fluids which in turn bends tiny cilia or hair. The small hair movements relay messages to the brain which decodes the position of the body. These work in tandem with systems concerning our sight and joint and muscle receptors in order to give us our balance.

Babies are born with highly developed vestibular systems which help them make sense of themselves in relation to the physical world. The vestibular system helps an infant learn to orient himself, given his surroundings. It sends the necessary signals to the areas in the brain concerned with our vision and muscle functions, learning to work with them to keep the child upright. The brainstem and the cerebellum process all the information coming from these systems so that macro and micro movements---head rolling, jumping, crawling, and walking-- are all recorded by the wiring and rewiring of the neurons.

Getting around needs to be learned; so, babies and young kids have to establish their skills of balance and movement coordination. Spinning around is one invaluable movement that stimulates the brain to help children build a sense of body control.

Why Spinning Fun Stops in Adulthood

Spinning around is just another fun to-do for kids until they grow into adults, a stage in which spinning suddenly loses its entertainment value. Adults stop liking the sensation of spinning which simply causes unpleasant feelings of dizziness and nausea. The older we get, the worse spinning gets for us. Spinning around can cost seniors their balance and may precipitate serious injuries.

Where the fun ends and the unpleasantness begins is not very clear. What scientists suspect is an aging vestibular system. As the balance system in our inner ear ages, the degradation often returns more information about linear movements rather than rotational movements. Balance after rotational movements is therefore compromised in adults who are then more prone to nauseous feelings. Adults, however, can be retrained to tolerate spinning. This is why astronauts and fighter pilots can be trained to handle all those flipping, rolling, and spinning requirements that go along with their jobs.

Why Kids Should Spin

Spinning, hanging upside down, rolling, and rocking are whole body movements essential to learning balance. These motions stimulate the young vestibular system and this is why infants and young children love these movements.

In a study of infants aged 3-15 months, researchers spun in a swivel chair with babies seated on their laps about ten times before coming to an abrupt stop. The babies exhibited great pleasure in the exercises which covered a total of 16 sessions. A control group of infants were also seated on the researchers’ laps but were not spun around. The experiment was quite revealing. The babies who were spun around exhibited more advances in their reflex and motor skill development in that they could sit, hold their heads up, stand, crawl, etc. earlier than those in the unstimulated control group.

Aside from balance and better motor development, spinning challenges kids to learn how to focus. Toddlers usually get a kick out of watching the world going around them after some spins. These kids make a game of focusing and “bringing the spinning world to heel.” The more they practice this game, the faster they gain control of their bodies and their focus.

Another intangible benefit of spinning is of course, the good ol’ clean fun it brings. Unless they are infants, kids don’t need a toy or help from an adult to indulge in the motion. All they need is themselves, the space, and their natural joie de vivre.

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Time and Health

"Time and health are two precious assets that we don't recognize and appreciate until they have been depleted."

--Denis Waitley

Kid-friendly whole grain recipe

Kids Need to Eat Whole Grain Food

The push towards healthy diets seems to be thankfully gaining some ground. Whole grains are slowly getting the positive attention these deserve. As more information about whole grains have become available, many people have begun to realize the huge health benefits they and their families can derive from oats, barley, rye, and quinoa. Because of increasing awareness, whole grain foods are increasingly replacing children’s breakfast staples of refined, sugary cereals and white bread.

Although parents know that their kids will benefit from changing up from refined foods to whole grain ones, theirs is not an easy task of convincing their little ones to like the switch. In general, children prefer the soft, fluffy texture of white bread sandwiches to the chewier whole wheat ones. To untrained palates, some whole grain foods may taste a bit “woodsy” or even “cardboard-like”; hence, the resistance. Still, it is important that kids (and adults) get the right amount of whole grain servings a day.

Australian Recommended Servings for Children

The Australian Dietary Guidelines recommend the consumption of a wide variety of whole grain and high fibre foods and the exclusion of refined food products which is often manufactured with large amounts of added sugar.

	2-8 years	9-11 years	12-13 years	14-18 years
Boys	4 servings	5 servings	6 servings	7 servings
Girls	4 servings	4 servings	5 servings	7 servings

 

A serve of grains (breads and cereals) is equivalent to:

• 1 slice of bread or 1/2 a medium roll or flat bread (40g) – at least half the bread kids eat should be whole grain or high fibre bread.
• 1/2 cup cooked rice, pasta, noodles, barley, buckwheat, semolina, polenta, couscous, bulgur, or quinoa (75–120g)
• 1/2 cup cooked porridge (120g)
• 2/3 cup cereal flakes (30g) or 1/4 cup muesli (30g)
• 3 crispbreads (35g)
• 1 crumpet (60g) or 1 small English muffin or scone (35g)
• 1/4 cup flour (30g)

*Chart and serving recommendations reference: http://healthy-kids.com.au/food-nutrition/5-food-groups/breads-cereals/

Why Kids Need Their Whole Grains

A whole grain means just that...a grain with all of its parts --- bran, germ, and endosperm --- intact. When a whole grain gets refined, its bran and germ (the most nutritious parts) are removed leaving only the endosperm or middle layer behind. This is why whole grains pack a punch more B & E vitamins, zinc, fibre, iron, and antioxidants than refined grains which have been substantially stripped of these. Because whole grains are more nutrient dense, kids can derive much more energy from whole grain foods than from refined ones.

Fibre is another important component of whole grains and a very good reason why children need to eat them. Fibre is indispensable to good digestion and bowel movement. It prevents constipation, diarrhoea, and inflammation in the colon wall. Fibre keeps the digestive system healthy and regulates appetite. It can dissuade overeating and consequent unhealthy weight gain in kids.

Whole grains also contain lactic acid which promotes the proliferation of good gut flora. Good bacteria make for a healthy gut which rewards with good digestion, optimal nutritional absorption, and a stronger immune system.

Kids introduced to whole grains such as oats early on seem to be less prone to asthma or allergic rhinitis. A Dutch study reported that kids aged 8 to 13 years whose diets leaned more towards whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and less meat and processed foods were less likely to exhibit asthmatic wheezing.

With all these whole grain goodness, parents know kids need to get their proper daily servings. There are a quite a variety of whole grain foods you can incorporate (or even hide) in your children’s diets. The challenge here is how to train your kids to like whole grain foods enough to ingrain in them the inclusion of this food group into their diets for life.

Getting Your Kids’ Thumbs Up for Whole Grains

The best way to develop a whole grain eater is to start ‘em young. You can start serving your little one oats as early as two years old. “I Like It, But I Don’t Eat It, ”an abstract written by Lindsey M. Newman of Purdue University in Indiana, reveals that very young kids generally do not have unyielding preferences for refined food over whole grain ones. The study exposed kids between 2-5 years to three types of grain-based foods: pasta, bread, and crackers. These three types were offered in both whole grain and refined varieties. The kids were asked to taste all on offer and to rate their liking for the foods they sampled. When both refined and whole wheat foods were available, the kids often chose the refined food item; however, when given only whole grain choices, the kids would eat them as well. This goes to show that if young kids were presented with whole grain food only, they would likely develop less palate resistance to the texture and taste of whole grain foods.

Therefore, make sure whole grain foods are the only choices available at home. In this case, you have got to eat the same way as well. Don’t delineate foods by stocking white bread only for yourself and whole wheat for the kids. In time, they will see your refined carbohydrate foods as “choice food” and whole grains as the “bleh” one they have to eat because you say so. And let’s face it, in terms of taste, refined food does trounce whole grains by a mile.

But what if your kids are at that age where they more or less have developed their taste buds for refined grains? Well, you face more of a challenge and you need to get a little more creative here.

Kids and adolescents usually don’t care a fig about nutrition but they do care about taste, texture, and appearance. One thing you can do is discover what healthy swaps and taste enhancements you can make that won’t really compromise your kids’ already developed preferences. For instance, you can:

• Substitute white pasta with couscous, miniature Moroccan pasta that has a light and fluffy texture most kids like
• Offer their favourite peanut butter and jelly on whole wheat crackers or toast.
• Liven up oats with apricots or raisins.
• Beef up your stir-fries with brown rice instead of white.
• Instead of a bag of chips, have them eat a bowl of home-popped corn. Popcorn is simply a whole grain (corn) that has burst over heat.
• Quinoa, a South American seed, has a light, creamy taste and texture that appeal to most kids. Its cute, curly shape makes it a fun eat as well.
• Make raisin-honey-nut granola and muesli bars, a power snack with loads of fibre and nutrients.

There are a multitude of ideas on the net. Play around with whole grains and get your kids to have fun with you in your culinary endeavours using whole grains. You get to open their taste buds to these healthy grain foods as well as use kitchen time to bond with them.

If your kids prove to be a bit more intractable than most, you can be a sneak in (after all, it’s for a good cause) and hide those whole grain foods in baked goodies or soup. Pie shells can be made with whole spelt flour. Whole wheat breadcrumbs can substitute as soup thickeners. You can smuggle these, too, into meatloaves. Cooked quinoa can be incorporated into waffle or pancake mixes. All you need is a little culinary imagination to get your family their recommended whole grain servings.

Grocery shelves stock more whole grain options today than ever before. Although whole grain foods may cost a tad more than its refined counterparts, don’t hesitate to exchange your old choices for these. A slight rise in your grocery budget may well be worth eventually seeing your kids in the pink of health.

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The New 2015 Australian Healthy Eating Pyramid

Heads up, Aussies! Australia’s got a new food pyramid. Our food chart has just gotten the overhaul it needed. And about time!

Image reference: http://nutritionaustralia.org/

After 30 years of evolution, the 2015 Australian food pyramid finally nails the bullseye. It now presents what many of us, nutrition buffs, fitness experts, and hey, even centenarians have believed and known all along about diet and nutrition... the fact that vegetables and fruits should take centre stage in any healthy diet.

Out With the Old, In With the New

Awwww...sorry bread and grain food lovers but the new national diet is here to burst your bubble. Your favourite carbohydrates no longer occupy the pyramid base, the first level food group on which 70% of our diet should be based. Vegetables, legumes, and fruits are now virtually ensconced in that tier. Contrary to the old 2007 chart where bread, rice, oats, bran, and pasta shared the pyramid base with veggies, these types of carbohydrates have now been downgraded to the smaller secondary tier. Now, play close attention to the visuals. Notice that breads, crackers, and even the noodles in the bowl are brown, representing whole grain foods rather than the white, processed derivatives that have been staple drawings in the old food pyramids. Quinoa, whole grain cereal, couscous, and soba noodles are new highlights in this particular food group.

Let’s talk about the base. A large percentage of this level is covered in vegetables, a miniscule portion of which gives way to legumes. Fruits are partitioned into their own space, occupying a small percentage of the base. According to Nutrition Australia, the architect of the new food pyramid, one has to aim for 5 servings of vegetables (with the occasional legumes) and 2 servings of fruit a day.

Outside the base, new visual guidelines are added, encouraging the choice of water over other beverages and the incorporation of herbs and spices over other condiments such as MSG, salt, and sugar.

An even more compact third tier is equally divided between the dairy food group and the protein-rich group of fish, lean meat, nuts, and tofu. Interestingly, legumes such as lentils and beans doubly figure in this group as well. The cheese, yoghurt, and milk group provide alternative primary sources of calcium while the fish, nuts, lean meats, and beans group supplies the protein as well other vital vitamins and minerals.

The new chart visually nixes added sugar and salt. The old food pyramids, circa 1982 down to 2007 include sugar at the tippy-top. The new pyramid’s tip is now solely occupied by healthy fats which is essential to optimum neurological and cardiovascular functions. Healthy fats means unrefined unsaturated fats derived from plant-based food such as olive oil, raw and unprocessed peanut butter, raw nuts, and avocado.

There is absolutely no room for treats like pastries, chips, or ice-cream. A bummer of a food chart <Tee hee!> but the most nutritiously accurate and the best that we have ever come up with.

What the New Food Pyramid Implies

From the looks of it, the new food pyramid trashes fad diets and reiterates the importance of plant-based food in any nutrition plan. A large portion of nutritional emphasis should be given to vegetables and some on fruits and legumes to form the basis of anyone’s diet. Although the bulk of the nutrition nod is on vegetables, the chart in no way champions the vegan diet as the answer to balanced nutrition. Other food groups are included because these provide nutrients which a solely plant-based intake cannot provide. That is why...

Variety, the spice of life, is a key element that does away with palate boredom in the current food chart. A healthy eating plan, according to the present food design, includes many different types of food within a food group as well as the incorporation of servings from all food groups. It isn’t a healthy choice to bump out one or more food groups from one’s diet (unless instructed by your physician) as each has its own set of nutrients integral to human nutrition.

Another important detail: water should be your beverage of choice, always. Fresh fruit juices then should be counted into your fruit serving allotment for the day. Tea (unless tea can be classified under herbs?) and coffee don’t even figure in the food chart and definitely no sodas or shakes which simply bring in added sugar. Our sugar allotment should come from fruits, and notice that even these are limited, despite their inclusion in the prominent base group.

Aside from sugar, added salt is also given a thumbs-down. Our sodium requirements can be met by those in the food groups. The chart encourages us to train our taste buds to be happy with food flavoured with herbs and spices instead of salt.

There is absolutely no room for junk food. Well, that’s why they’re junk! And junk now encompasses anything with added salt or sugar, even if it’s got healthy milk or cheese in its ingredients list.

Although, the chart enjoins us to be active everyday, I personally wish they kept the visuals of those moving feet at the pyramid base as in the 2007 chart. Exercise is just as important to optimum health as good nutrition. You can’t have one without the other. Perhaps a snooze visual will be a great inclusion as well to indicate rest. Proper diet, exercise, and rest: my triumvirate for a healthy, happy you.

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What Junkfood can do to your child's health

Junking Your Kids’ Junk Food

Marketing has a huge impact on the appeal of junk food to kids. The whole milieu of print and video advertising, packaging, sponsorships, and the like are highly culpable for rising obesity rates, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and a host of other illnesses related to the chronic consumption of junk food.

Kids are especially drawn to visuals and are easily led to love junk food for the emotional appeal the ads generate. It doesn’t help that it is also pretty difficult not to love the super duper taste of cheese flavoured potato chips and the sweet, bubbly spirit of soda.

As parents though, we have a responsibility to raise our kids with good health habits. One of these has to do with junking our kids’ junk food or training their palates to favour real food. With hectic schedules and a fast paced modern life, this is a gargantuan task for many; but, if you care for your kids’ healthy development, it is worth all the effort.

For your own and your kids’ health, your home must be a junk food-free zone most of the time. The best ways to ensure this is to:

Lead by example

As a role model, you have got to walk your talk. How can your kids believe that eating Oreos all the time is not good for them if you have been scarfing some down when you think they are not looking? Children do not turn a blind eye; they wise up. From now on, limit the amount of high sugar, low nutrient foods from your pantry. And no secret stashes.*smirk*

Get into the habit of planning out your menus and grocery list every week so you can serve home-cooked meals daily. This way you will have control over your kids’ nutrition and portion sizes. Snacks should also be made at home so they do not have to be sourced from packaged junk treats or fast foods that serve empty calories. Fruit and trail mixes can be great substitutes for fast food snacks if you are pressed for time. Having real food available all the time will ensure that your kids will develop their taste for these foods and ingrain them with good eating habits.

Do not use junk food as a bargaining chip

You will be shining a delectable light on bad food by offering it up as an enormous treat or reward. Junk food should be viewed as unhealthy not a delicious must-have. By rewarding a child with junk food for good behaviour, you are conditioning him to look forward to junk treats much like a dog would in a Pavlov experiment. Rewards should be non–food in nature if possible.

Get Them to Like Moving

Limiting their screen time will also limit their exposure to appealing ads and get them to do something more active. Enroll them in sports programs, dance classes, or other physical activities of their interest. You may have to step up to the plate as well and get moving. Remember, children love to imitate and would have more fun if their role model is also involved. Besides, exercise will do wonders for your health just as well.

Make Homemade “Junk Food”

Whose mouth doesn’t water at the sight of a nice juicy burger and crispy fries on the side? Well these do not have to be junked at all; just don’t buy them from fast food chains or restaurants which mix in a lot of preservatives, additives, sugar and fats. The trick here is to make your own. There are tons of recipes out there that offer better ingredients and the know-how of how to replicate store-bought food at home.

You can beat the allure of fast food at its own game by providing delicious substitutes. Instead of ordering up a fast food chain pizza, you can make some tortilla pizzas with corn tortillas, shredded cheese, and homemade salsa. It is the cheese in pizza that kids love so instead of low nutrition dough, you’ll be serving more nutritious corn chips. You can bake a batch of oatmeal cookies instead of buying a package. In lieu of chips and dip, you can serve up fruit and homemade dip.

There is a barrelful of homemade snack varieties that is sure to delight your kids’ palates while keeping them nutritiously healthy. After all, this is the whole point of going the extra mile for your kids’ growth and development. Here are other alternatives that keep the junk out of food:

Image from: http://www.bumpsnbaby.com/

Making your own “junk food” for your children turns these gustatory delights into real food with food savings to boot. It’s a win-win!

Should the Gym Be On Hold When You’ve Got the Cold?

Your mojo’s going strong; you’re training great for that marathon…and then it hits! A sniffle here, a tiny cough there, and before long, you’ve got one of life’s little annoyances …a full blown cold. An average of two million Australians gets hit by varying degrees of the bug, especially in winter. Interestingly, women have been reported getting the sniffles more than men.

For people who exercise, the unfortunate incident of getting sick can throw many fitness goals off kilter. Among athletes, the common bug can derail well-laid training plans. You’ve worked so hard; only to have to those little buggers get you down. As cardiovascular exercises go, two days off training is a day too many as stamina does flag within a few days of reduced movement. The question now is…should a cold put your exercise on hold?

When the Bug Hits: To Move Thy Butt or Not to

The answer: it depends. Sometimes it wouldn’t hurt too much to exercise with a cold; but, it can be uncomfortable. Other times, it would be a mistake. When in doubt or you feel bad about your hard-earned physical conditioning going to waste, follow this rule of thumb: listen to your body first. It would not do you good to go into your usual workout routine and stress an already stressed body. Besides, when you are sick, you may not be able to perform at 100% capacity; so, the best is to take it easy.

If listening to your body isn’t enough or you feel you are getting mixed signals, then apply the neck test. Determine where the symptoms mostly lie. Are they above the neck or below it?

Above-the-neck symptoms usually signify a head cold. As long as these symptoms are not severe (i.e. mild headache, runny nose, sore throat), exercise of moderate intensity is alright. In fact, it could even boost the immune system a bit. The keywords here, however, for giving this nod to your workout are between light to moderate and your usual duration should be significantly reduced. For instance, instead of going into your usual running routine, just walk. Take your resistance training several notches down with light weights and reduced reps. Otherwise, your enthusiastic loyalty to your burgeoning stamina may get a huge dash on the rocks when that cold turns into something worse, lengthening your recovery time and therefore your time to get back on the fitness track. As you know, the longer it takes to get back to your training, the longer it also takes to get back the endurance you once had.

If your symptoms lie below the neck, then it’s to bed with you and absolutely no gym time. Below-the-neck symptoms can signal more than just the garden-variety cold. If you have a fever, muscle aches, a bad cough, or a rattly chest, chances are you have the flu. The flu means you have a stronger virus partying in there; so, you shouldn’t take your condition lightly. The influenza virus can be dangerous if you don’t take care. Deal with your early symptoms first before thinking about workouts. You need all the rest and fluids you can get. Remember, with a little bit of patience and perseverance, you can always get back your stamina after recovery.

An Ounce of Prevention…

It is always wise to prevent being sick than relying on a cure, of course. Besides, it does take a little more effort to get back to your former fitness level after being down for the count. For every week you miss from training, you need about one to two weeks to recover your previous stamina. Getting back should also be a gradual process. You need to ease your way back slowly or it will be Round 2 in the bed for you. Unfortunately, the second time around so soon after will be worse.

The best way to increase the odds of making it to that marathon in tip-top shape is to build a fortress of an immune system. Although nothing is a guarantee from the bug, you can at least improve your chances of not ending up down for the count.

Exercise does help build your immune system significantly; but, exercise is not the only thing that keeps you fit. Be mindful of these tips which can improve your guard against colds or bolster your immune system:

• Practice hygiene at the gym – The gym is actually a hotbed of the cold virus. Some people work out with a cold and so leave their germs on the equipment. Always wash your hands and dry them thoroughly.
• Be wary of your sneaks – You shoes are especially dirty as these are in constant contact with the ground. Who knows what lurks on what you’re stepping on. Sanitize your hands after lacing your sneakers up and after taking them off.
• Sleep well – “Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy…” Whether a man becomes wealthy and wise for sleeping early leaves much up to debate; but, with healthy, early to bed rings true. Keeping a good circadian rhythm going makes for a strong immune system.
• Eat a healthy, balanced diet – Your body is in constant need of sufficient vitamins and minerals. It cannot defend itself if it does not have the materials for doing so. Exercising does not give license to constantly indulge in anything your capricious tummy feels like having. Chips and soda are crappy immunity boosters.

You are already doing something right…exercising. For this alone, kudos to you. All you need is to take the extra steps for ramping up your immunity to colds and influenza and ensuring a training not wasted.

Play

Healthy Snacking Habits Start at Home

Kids need to grow to their full potential; so, it is paramount that they incorporate healthy habits early on. One of these habits should be healthy snacking, an invaluable behaviour they need to carry into a healthy adulthood.

To form a habit, there must be some consistent gratification or positive experiences for the child to develop the habitual behaviour. Make healthy eating second nature to your kid by trying these suggestions:

Let your kids have fun with their food. If they help you prepare their own snacks, they would be more likely to love it. Let them do their own cutting, spreading, or food presentations. This could get to be an after-school habit to which they can look forward when they arrive home from school.

Snacks do not have to be elaborate. Fruit kebabs, vegetable sticks with dip, and mixed nuts are great, healthy in-betweeners. Snack time can also be educational if you can teach older kids the rudiments of baking with some home-baked fruit muffins and the like. Whatever you and your kids do, make snack time moments pleasant, light, and fun.

Arrange food creatively to make it look extra palatable. Fruits and vegetables are exceptionally colourful. Use their colours and textures to create interesting or funny portion-sized snacks your kids will visually love. Once they take to it visually, they may just take to the taste as well.

Make edible faces. You can use raisins or grapes for eyes and shredded cheese for hair. Turn on your creativity and have fun yourself. Broccoli can look like trees and you can cut carrots into various shapes using your cookie cutter. The net holds a plethora of ideas. The point here is, presentation sells; so, if you want your kids to prefer healthy snacks, dress these up. Remember, these healthy snacks will have to compete with those attractively packaged and professionally marketed junk food.

Healthy snacks should be on hand at all times. There shouldn’t be a choice between junk food and healthy eats. The fridge and pantry should always be stocked with nutritious edibles, not processed food. If your family is on the go, prepare your health treats in advance and take them with you. When hunger strikes, neither the vending machine nor the fast food takeouts will be the go-to remedies. Kids should only have a choice between healthy, healthy, and healthy. This brings us to the next important point…

To enforce healthy snacking, you’ve got to be a healthy snacker yourself. Kids usually have a taste for saltier or sweeter snacks. How can apple slices topped with cottage cheese compete with a nice, crisp bag of potato chips beckoning from the pantry? To a lot of kids, there’s just no contest---it’s potato chips, puhleeeeez??!!

You need to set a good example. If you want your kids to have healthy habits, they must consistently see you living the healthy lifestyle as well. Your grocery choices should always veer toward the healthy. Ban sodas, chips, and other processed food and beverages from your grocery cart next shopping time. Your body will also thank you for it.

Why Healthy Snack Habits Are Important

Some nutritionists believe that the problem with health may not squarely lie with unhealthy main meals. Unwholesome in-betweeners may be the disturbing culprits behind many health issues.

What kids learn to incorporate in their manners and behaviour often lasts well into adulthood. Unhealthy food choices consistently served over time allow children to develop a preference for them, a preference they may well carry into adulthood. Unhealthy eating will leave them open to a host of diseases from obesity to cancer.

Should your kids gravitate toward a healthy diet even well into their adulthood, congratulate yourself for giving them a valuable habit. They will have the blessings of:

• Good cholesterol level
  A great many adults are plagued by soaring cholesterol levels and in consequence, cardiovascular issues. The issue of high cholesterol levels, however, is not a solely adult problem anymore. Kids have not been spared their share of rising statistics of cardiovascular problems from consumption of highly processed food.

• Manageable Weight
  Kids who are overweight have the tendency to grow up as overweight or obese adults. If they have their good snacking habits down pat, they will have an easier time maintaining a healthy weight throughout their lives.

• Strong Immune Systems
  Good diets lead to a strong body, highly impervious to health issues.

• Good Cognitive and Psychological Functions
  Healthy eating helps build individuals with more stable dispositions. Unhealthy children may be more prone to anxiety or depression, long-term emotional states which can affect future relationships.

If you feel your children’s diets need to have some improvements, assess your snack menus. Take the opportunity to bond with your kids over snack preps and create a fun, loving, light-hearted atmosphere where healthy snacks may connote comfort food when they grow up.

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