Eating healthy can yield profound effects on your kiddo’s health—including helping them avoid heart disease, often caused by high blood pressure and/or high cholesterol. It can also help them avoid childhood obesity that may also lead to significant health problems including type 2 diabetes, asthma, sleep apnea and psychological stress.

Maybe you’ve already committed, and have been successful at implementing healthier choices for your kids. Amazing! But how do we help them make healthy decisions themselves? Here are a few ideas:

Shed the Labels
We should be focused on overall healthy choices rather than specific foods. Kids should be eating more whole, minimally processed food—food that is as close to its natural form as possible—and less packaged and processed food.

Key play: Encourage your kids to read labels and understand key nutritional information like calories, sodium and added sugar content.

Be the Example
A child’s impulse to imitate is strong—so try to eat healthy snacks with your kiddo.

Key play: Lead by example. Have your kiddos eat what you eat, and practice learning which foods are better choices. If you have picky eaters, explore with them and encourage them to try new foods that aren’t a part of your regular fare during the week. Try ways to make it fun, or incorporate a game. Reward them and praise them for simply trying new things. Healthy eating is an acquired taste and your little ones will begin to gravitate toward more nutritious food as a habit developed over time. Be patient, and be ready to eat a limited repertoire for a while.

Make Them Chef
Restaurant and takeout food can have more sodium, added sugar and unhealthy fats —cooking at home can positively impact your kids’ health in a huge way!

Key play: Make them the chef! It will take some practice at first, but with help, they’ll begin to cook alongside you—and will likely begin to understand why you’re using certain ingredients and what their health benefits are.

Enlist Their Help
Like we talked about earlier, giving your kid(s) an active role in preparing meals gives you a great opportunity to teach them about different foods and how to read labels. The best place to read those labels is the grocery store.

Key play: Take your kids grocery shopping, and have them start picking out the ingredients for your dinner(s). Chat with them and ask them about their choices, and why they picked certain foods over others.

Watch those Portions
Connections with food on an emotional level can embed themselves for a lifetime and lead to positive learned patterns and subconscious behavior. 

Key play: Have your kids be in charge of their own portion sizes so they can begin to estimate how much food will satisfy them.

At GoNoodle, we know that our relationship with food is an important, lifelong part of our health. The sooner our kids learn how healthier choices can affect their health for the better, the sooner they can start enjoying the benefits of that healthy relationship. For more fun, free videos, tips, activities, and more that will get your kids excited about fitness, visit the NFL and American Heart Association’s channel. And don’t forget to catch Coaches Terry and Sherry and Flash Bolton in their newest video that helps kids warm up like a Champ!