Instilling Healthy Eating Habits In Children

If your child ran into the middle of a busy street, what would you do? Because you love your child - without hesitating, you would shout to him to stop and come back. You'd race to the middle of the street, pick him up and run to safety because you foresaw the impending danger.

As a parent, you make many choices throughout the day concerning the health and safety of your children. Adequate sleep, proper dental hygiene, and getting enough fresh air and exercise are just a few of the many good habits you instill in your children. Yet when it comes to dietary choices, are you making the best choices to protect them from childhood illness, future disability and chronic disease?

According to the World Health Organization 80% of all deaths are caused mostly by poor diet and lifestyle habits. Many of these are attributable to poor food choices made early in childhood, which Dr. Joel Fuhrman believes has fueled our adult cancer epidemic. In fact it's predicted that today's generation of children will have a shorter life expectancy than their parents. New research indicates that consuming a plant-based diet (especially during the first 10 years of a child's life) increases a child's resistance to many childhood illnesses and offers powerful protection against developing cancer, cardiovascular disease, and autoimmune disordersin the future. Because of this, it's important to educate your children on the benefits of eating a health-supporting diet.

In the above 6-minute video, Elena from Vegalicious offers several tips on how parents can encourage their children to eat more health-supporting foods. More ideas can be found here and here. As parents, one of our top priorities is to keep our children safe and away from danger. This should include instilling healthy eating habits in our children. By doing so, we can play a major role in helping our children avoid many childhood illnesses, chronic adult diseases, disability and even premature death. Furthermore, research indicates that those children who do not eat junk food and fast food do better in school, have higher IQ scores, and have better memory skills.

For more information, click on the following links:

(1) How Industries Keep You Coming Back for More

(2) Who's Influencing Your Children?

(3) Dairy Promotes Type-1 Diabetes

(4) Share Healthy Habits with Your Children

(5) Heart Disease Starts in Childhood

(6) Atherosclerosis Begins in Childhood

(7) Sick Before Their Time: More Kids Diagnosed With Adult Diseases

(8) Eveyone Has Heart Disease?

(9) Disease Proof Your Child

(10) McDougall Diet for Pregnancy and Children

(11) Which Foods are the Most Popular?

(12) Incidence of Teen Stroke on the Rise

(13) Childhood Diet Linked to Asthma

(14) Today's Children Not Expected to Outlive Their Parents

(15) Dairy Associated With Recurrent Ear Infections

(16) Unscrambling the Truth About Eggs

(17) Plant-Based Nutrition for Kids

(18) Is your Child's Diet Healthy?

(19) Everyone Else is Doing It!

(20) Big Industries Influence USDA Food Guidelines

(21) Dr. Carney's "Food Addiction" Pinterest Board

(22) Dr. Carney's "Children and Teen's Health" Pinterest Board

(23) Dr. Carney's "Children's Food Can Be Fun" Pinterest Board

(24) Dr. Carney's "USDA Food Guidelines" Pinterest Board

(25) Current Protein Recommendations Flawed

(26) Healthy Diets Start in the Womb

(27) Changing our Taste Buds