Eating Healthy Food for Kids

You can choose:

Grills – meat or fish and chips – ask for grilled fish, fewer chips, and have a salad.
Steamed Asian food rather than fried.
Pasta – ask for a mixture of vegies and meat.
Vegetarian pizza, or a mixture of vegies and meat.
Salads
Wholemeal bread, rather than white.
A child’s portion from the adult menu.

Many restaurants and cafes have special children’s menus for child-sized meals, but these are often fatty, salty foods. Some places have ‘help yourself’ bars so you can choose to eat healthily.

For snacks on the run, choose rolls, yoghurt, fruit, sandwiches or baked potatoes.

Of course, if you don’t eat out very often you may want to really ‘pig out’ on all sorts of stuff! Just be careful or…KERBOOM! you might just pop! (Just kidding!!!)

‘Junk’ food

Food that has too much of some things we don’t need or not much of things we do need are sometimes called ‘junk’ foods.

No food is totally junk because your body will use what it needs and either store or get rid of what it doesn’t want.

Fast foods, fatty foods, fizzy drinks, lollies and chocolate are fun to have sometimes, but it’s not good to have them all the time.

Many fast foods have a lot of sugar or salt or fat in them – all the things that your body only needs a little bit of.

If you drink too many soft drinks and eat mostly fast foods, then you will be missing out on getting enough vitamins and other good things that will help you to grow strong and healthy.

Have you noticed that some kids’ favourite restaurants now have salad bars and lots more healthy choices for you to make?

Anyway, adults get a bit cross when you fill up on other stuff and then don’t eat your tea, don’t they?

If you have a lot of take-away food for tea at your house, ask Mum or Dad if you can help by making a salad sometimes, or look for a recipe in our topic Cooking up a storm and offer to make it for tea.

A note to ‘nearly’ teenagers
It isn’t true that junk food is a direct cause of acne, but if you find that something in the ‘goodies’ range of foods upsets your skin then – give it a miss!

Caffeine
Some drinks have caffeine in them which could make you feel anxious [a bit uptight and ‘hyper’].  Give them a miss too, especially just before bedtime, or you could be awake for ages.  You need your sleep when you’re in your growing years.

Snacks at home

Are you  STARVING when you get home from school?

Well, instead of heading for the pantry (usually known as my son’s ‘office’ in our house) and searching for those chips and biscuits – “You’ll not eat your tea and …nag …nag …nag”

Why don’t you try some of these?

A small sandwich, roll or crackers with peanut butter or cheese
Rice cakes or oatcakes
Fresh or dried fruit
Yoghurt
Sticks of carrot or raw vegies with dips
Make a celery boat. Cut celery longways and fill with peanut paste or cheese. Make a sail out of a wholemeal biscuit and sail it into your mouth!
Plain popcorn
Breakfast cereal
Baked beans on toast
‘Leftovers’ like pasta, noodles or potato salad
Water, milk or fruit juice
A piece of cheese and an apple

Just a small serve of these remember, or “You’ll not eat your tea and… nag, nag.” Sorry, I got carried away there for a moment.

Always remember to drink lots of water. Water is really important for you.