healthy eating

“Food Cop” Fun at the Table

“FOOD COP”: A GAME TO MAKE HEALTHY EATING FUN FOR KIDS

Kids are like the rest of us: we all like to think we’re in charge. If not all the time, at least once in a while.

One day a week, have your kids take turns acting as “food cop” at the dinner table. Let the chosen one have fun with it. Find a cap with a badge at a costume shop and let him wear it at the table. Pin a star to her shirt. Give him a whistle. (Or not. Personally, I’d rather not have a whistle interrupt my dining experience!)

Remind your kids that good policemen are polite and respectful, that they are examples for the community, and that their job is to serve and protect.

KIDS IN THE KITCHEN: 2 EASY, BREEZY SUMMER SALADS + 1 COOL DIP

When kids sink their teeth into healthy foods like vegetables, fruit, lean meats and whole grains, they develop a taste for those foods that will stay with them for a lifetime. To get kids invested in healthy eating, the next best thing to having them grow their own healthy foods is to have them cook it. One of my favorite resources is The Mayo Clinic Kids’ Cookbook (Good Books 2012), which introduces kids ages 8-12 to the kitchen–not only with fun and healthy recipes but with nutritional information, cooking abbreviations, conversion charts, kitchen equipment and safety tips. Most kids love kitchen projects. Let them at it!

FUN WITH VEGGIES: ART, BOOKS, ACTIVITIES, SONGS

Does your child turn up his nose at vegetables? Would she rather miss out on dessert than finish her greens?

Children often do not like trying new foods. Sometimes we have to talk them into taking just one bite of something new–and do it every day for a couple of weeks, months, maybe even longer–before they decide that maybe it isn’t so bad after all. And might actually be delicious! (It doesn’t hurt to dream….)

U-Pick, Farmers’ Markets & CSAs: Fresh from the Farm

Farm-to-Table. It’s all the rage–and with good reason.

For starters, local food tastes better! It’s fresh-picked at its peak and delivered to your table in minimal time.

Food that comes from somewhere else has been transported on trucks, trains or planes and stored in warehouses before it finally gets to you–not so fresh any more.

Eating local benefits communities, farmers and the environment as well as our tastebuds. Grow NYC, a nonprofit that supports greenmarkets in New York City, tells how here.

HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW?

Do your kids know where healthy food comes from? (Hopefully they realize it’s not from a convenience store or the drive-up window of a fast food restaurant!)

One of the best ways for children to learn about where the good food on your family table originates–and one of the best ways for them to learn to love it–is to grow it themselves.

Think about it: How much more likely is your daughter to eat a salad she makes herself–from ingredients she grew herself–than a salad plopped down in front of her at the table with the words, “Eat it. It’s good for you”? (“I don’t eat anything green,” I once heard a child pronounce.)