[post_ads]When I grab my stethoscope in the morning for a day of seeing typical
kids, I know without looking at the appointment list that I'll be
viewing the consequences of big portion sizes, overprocessed snacks and sweets and
a lack of veggies. It's not one meal or snack that's the problem. It's
the pattern. Slowly, the BMI creep up. Blood sugar and blood pressure
begin their silent rise. Most of the other rapidly increasing conditions
in kids, such as asthma, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
(ADHD), and diabetes, also have links to how children eat. It would be
great if schools taught Good Food 101 along with language, math and
science, but you can't count on that. The flip side of the coin is that
you can teach your kids about real food and smart portions through fun
games and visual examples.
Try app-y meals
Fooducate (free; itunes.com)
is a mobile pap that lets you scan any food with a bar code to get a
quick letter grade for how real and healthy it is. It turns the search
for healthy eats into a kid-friendly point-and-shoot video game.
Practice pace
Slowing
the pace to at least 30 seconds from start-of-bite to start-of-bite
gives the body a chance to send and receive fullness signals after
eating just the right amount.
Play "punch buggy" for processed foods
There's
a reason manufacturers use kid-friendly characters to sell their stuff:
It works! In one study, kids were as likely to choose broccoli as a
chocolate bar if there was an Elmo sticker on the broccoli. But you can
teach kids to recognize marketing tricks. In my family, we play a new
version of the "punch buggy" game. In the original, you tapped a
compatriot if you were the first to spot a particular type of car or
license plate. In our version, you snap your fingers if you're the first
to notice a food ad trying to appeal to kids. Common strategies include
the use of cartoon characters and bright colors on the packaging.
[post_ads_2]
Ask "Who's your mama?"
Your
fridge and pantry are full of props for playing "Who's your mama?" Take
turns choosing food items and asking where they come from. Apples come
from trees. Milk comes from cows. Carrots grow in the ground. If it's
got a simple family tree, it's real food. But if you choose something
that uses ingredients like dextrose, gelatin, calcium carbonate, Blue
1 and Red 40, then the answer is "factory."
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