Want your child to make healthy food choice 90% of the time? Know the Secrets!
“Only 90% of the time?” let me start by telling you that 90% is a highly optimistic figure, being parents/caretakers, you would know that. The bigger question is, how to make your kids choose healthy most of the time? Or more importantly, what would make them want to make healthier eating choices?
Before we go any further, how much aware are the adults about food and nutrition? How often are there conversations happening around what one eats, and how it affects us? If these are something new, fret not.
Starting from Calorie
The calorie is a way to measure energy — 1 calorie is the amount of energy it takes to raise the temperature of one gram of water one degree. In other terms, how much energy is our body deriving from the food we eat, be it a vegetable or pastry. Let’s attempt to compare the amount of food that is consumed for 200 calories
If energy from eating the foods is the same, where does the difference come in?
It is in what goes into making that food — the macronutrients and the micronutrients, and the way our body utilizes these that makes the difference. Macronutrients are the proteins, carbohydrates and fat.
- Proteins give 4 calories per gram that goes build and repair muscles amongst other things;
- carbohydrates help the body undertake heavy physical activity by providing 4 calories with every gram;
- fat gives 9 calories per gram of consumption, and provides energy for daily activities and helps us absorb vitamins and minerals.
Micronutrients make up inconspicuous portions in terms of energy provided. It plays a crucial role in maintaining your health and body. The mix of micro and macronutrients is what makes all the difference in what we consume. This is in-short the basis of a well-balanced meal. Apart from catering to the palate, it will provide the optimum nutrients for the given level of calorie intake. Junk foods have a higher fat and carbs in food than the healthier counterparts which makes it unhealthy for everyday consumption.
Then why Junk Food?
A lot of research goes behind making us eat junk food, unfortunately, this proportion is higher on par with making people eat healthily. This makes awareness vital and essential.
- The sensation of eating food– thisincludes not just the taste, but also the smell and how it feels inside our mouth
- Macronutrient makeup of food — theperfect flavouring, the salt, the sugar and fat blend.
These were the results of Steven Witherly, a food scientist who spent the last 20 years researching on what makes food addictive. A more detailed finding of his report Why Humans Like Junk Food
More on food addiction
Eating is a process, it involves the five senses, despite taste being predominant. A food scientist typically looks to target each of these senses to capture the brain.
Go to our blog to know more about food addiciton
Going around the Junk Food
The amount of research that has gone into making junk food a craze is immense, but this has also provided with a wealth of information, years of evidence on what works on the human brain. In a study conducted by Cornell University research shows that its just not the consumption of junk food that is making us fat, but also the lack of eating healthier food is a root cause. The body misses out on essential micronutrients that are essential for the body.
Go to our blog to know more on tips that need zero motivation to make your child eat healthily
After home comes the school environment, yet another important environment which plays a major role in a child’s life. Despite having a very healthy environment, children can be exposed to unhealthy eating choice at schools — their peers, the canteen in the school, and food-joints around the school.
This needs to be looked into more deeply, as the statistics are worrying. A survey was conducted by the Centre for Science and Environment, known as Know Your Diet (knowyourdiet.org). Over 13,200 children between 9–17 years from 300 schools across the urban cites in India participated in the survey.
Almost 59 % of those between 14–17 years consumed junk food on a daily basis and this share dropped with the younger age group. Almost 27% of surveyed children consumed fast-foods like burgers and pizzas at least once a week. Survey also looked into the high dependence of school children on packages food and beverages. The breakfast cereals contained harmful food additives that were innate to food processing. According to CSE survey, more than 40% of the kids consumed junk food from the street food more than once a week, this includes, samosas, sherbets, and sweets.
While the above statistics. However, the difference was that the schools had no canteens and the junk food (mostly chips) was purchased from shops outside.
What can be done at schools
Environment plays a major role, easy accessibility matters, frequent viewing of these healthy foods matter. With the government enforcingstricter regulationsin schools, the schools themselves can make these healthier choices.
Healthy Vending Machines
This is a growing concept from the west that is gaining popularity. It has all the elements of encouraging people to eat healthy without having to up their will-power or motivation. Vending machines are kept in places which are easily accessible, colourful display that attracts and most of all it keeps the fun of choosing and a fancy way to get the food.
Success Story — H.U.M.A.N. Healthy Vending
This idea hit Sean Kelly more than a decade back when he noticed a lady having soda after a workout just because nothing else was available. Access to healthy food options was the primary cause of this unhealthy eating choices. This had to be changed and soon after a lot of research, he started to put out vending machines in three states. This model was however not scalable. He had to change his idea by serving single-serve healthy items. This idea took off extremely well with large-scale distributors filling the gap. He wanted to change his line of business. And when Andrew Mackson, who was working on an hot-dog vending machines were connected with Kelly, HUMAN Healthy Vending was born. This company sources healthy food from the local supplier, thereby reworking on their scalability. Their machines are now smaller so that it can fit into most spaces, this company has been recognised as the company fighting the fat with hi-tech vending machines. This model can be replicated in India, thereby tackling a wealth of issues that surround student snacking in schools.
Snackexpert Way
With a healthy snack made available in offices in plenty, we can reach out to schools as well and provide them with our fabulous variety of foods that the kids will love. Not just schools but spaces where students come after school hours, any food-joints, spaces where classes are held, etc. This will not only make your space attractive but also make you part of the global movement that combats obesity.
We also delivery packets for homes, making it convenient for you. You can check out combos here and reach out to us for bulk orders.
