Ensuring Your Child’s Well-Being: Expert Tips for Healthy Living

Nutritionist Vasundhara Agrawal
Diet & Nutrition
Published in
4 min readSep 8, 2023

Hey people! The specific nutritional choices your children make are crucial, good nutrition is essential to good health as children have unique nutritional needs and ensuring healthy eating habits is an essential opportunity for them to eat wholesome, nutritious foods, isn’t it? They need a healthy balanced diet containing foods from each food group so they get a wide range of nutrients to help them stay healthy. Children’s appetites vary depending on age, growth spurts, and how much activity they have done so it’s important to provide appropriately sized portions.

What do you think happens, if we don’t make the right choice of food?What your child eats and how much they eat are important. Because food is the fuel for our body. Without the right food, our bodies just can’t work well. And too much or too little food are both bad. If your child eats too little food, they run out of energy. If they eat too much food then they are carrying around an extra load which slows the functions of the body down.

A diet that does not include enough healthy food or that includes too much unhealthy food can lead to obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, and other health problems in children. This is nothing but it may make your child too fat or too thin and also have many chances for them to be ill or sick always.

So choosing healthy foods for children along with regular exercise helps the body stay healthy by being active. It will make their muscles strong and maintain overall well-being and it will also build immunity that makes children strong to fight against any disease. It is recommended to perform 60 minutes (1 hour) or more of physical activity each day. But it doesn’t have to be all the same activity and they don’t need to do it all at once. Running, walking fast, bicycle riding, sports, and jumping rope are all good activities.

There are many different activities Children can do to lead a healthy lifestyle. Here are a few ideas:

  • Eat healthy foods from all the food groups.
  • Be physically active for at least 60 minutes a day.
  • Get at least 9 hours of sleep each night routinely.
  • Brush and floss teeth daily.
  • Wash hands often.
  • Limiting screen time to no more than 2 hours a day
  • Participating in family physical activities

Healthy and Unhealthy foods

Healthy Foods Healthy foods are considered to be the food items that are rich in nutrition and have a beneficial effect on our overall health. Healthy food includes many food options like natural foods such as fruits and vegetables.

Unhealthy Foods

Unhealthy foods can be described as foods that have less nutritional value and are high in fat, sugar, and calories. Unhealthy foods include high oils and salt, low fiber content, low vitamins, and unhealthy fats.

Are you still thinking what are these? So these are nothing but all our kid’s favorite snacks and fast foods such as burgers and fries, they are termed unhealthy because they are prepared out of a lot of oil and excess use of cheese which are low in essential nutrients that our body requires for healthy living.

Now, why do children need to eat healthy and avoid unhealthy foods? Healthy eating is essential for good health, growth and development. Healthy eating at this age means the child will have less chance of developing illnesses and will feel better and enjoy life more.

We need to avoid including fried snacks and fast foods too often because excess consumption of anything is harmful to health. These unhealthy foods can lead to a lot of negative effects in children’s overall health including weight gain, low concentration in class, low energy.

Effective Tips for Parents to Ensure Healthy Living in Children There are several things parents can do to help their children develop and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

  • Encourage kids to eat a variety of healthy foods from all the food groups.
  • Make physical activity a part of family life. Go for walks, play games or ride bikes together.
  • Limit screen time to no more than 2 hours a day.
  • Make sure kids get enough sleep.
  • Establish a bedtime routine and stick to it.
  • Encourage kids to be active every day.
  • Leading by example is also important. If parents eat healthy foods and are physically active, kids are more likely to do the same.

Healthy Living is essential for every individual. As parents, you can guide children to develop lifestyle habits that will support their good health for years to come. If you want your children to stay fit, healthy, and strong, ensuring they eat well is crucial, besides being physically active, to maintain a healthy weight. Healthy eating is usually referred to as eating clean meals where you need to include all five food groups that provide nutrients and are important to give your child energy, maintain health, and make them feel good.

References:

https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/002393.htm

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/junk-food-vs-healthy-food

https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/habits.html

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