Author: kgoudet

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Getting Your Kiddos to Eat Healthy

Posted on by kgoudet

Teaching your kiddos to eat a nutritious meal is important! They need nutritious foods to help them grow and develop. It might seem tricky when it comes to trying to feed your kids greens. They might also make a disgusted face when you put your famous healthy dishes on the table and prefer macaroni and cheese with nuggets. Don’t worry, I have several tips for you to make sure your kids are eating a well balanced meal. 

 

Try not to force your kids to eat something. Forcing them to eat when they aren’t hungry might trick them into building habits like overeating when they are full. They will get confused with their inner voice and build bad habits. Instead of pushing them to eat their vegetables, try to encourage them and expose them to new foods. 

Offering choices at meal time like celery with chicken with vegetables or apples with peanut butter can give them a sense of authority over their meals. You can also tell your kids that every meal needs to include vegetables, carbohydrates, and one serving of protein and giving them options for the week can greatly benefit their eating habits. Introducing several options to your kids can help them learn what they like or don’t like. Check this website out for a week of healthy options. 

Snacks are essential to a kid’s diet to keep their bellies full and energy high during the day. Try to keep healthy snacks around the house instead of junk food. Giving kids a snack is great to add more nutritious food into their diet. Avoid snacks that are prepackaged and make them their snacks. Here is a list of what you can give your kids during snack time ( snack ideas ). 

 

Lastly, always lead by example. Kids are always looking up to their parents and picking up skills from the environment they are in. Your attitude and habits around food heavily influences your little ones. The habits and attitudes around food must be positive because if they are negative then your kids will pick them up as well. Try to eat a healthy and balanced meal with nutritious foods so your kids pick up the same habits. Be a model for them so they can create life long healthy eating habits. 

 

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Going From Junk Food To Healthy Food Habits

Posted on by kgoudet

If you’re looking for help on how to change your diet from junk food to healthy foods then read along! Pizza, french fries, donuts, cheeseburgers, and chicken nuggets are only a few examples of junk food. It is clear that junk food is the most unbalanced diet. Not only is it an unbalanced diet, it is very harmful to our bodies. These kinds of foods contain refined carbs, salt, saturated fat, and have absolutely no nutritional value. Junk food can increase your risk of high blood pressure, heart attack, obesity and other health issues. It is very easy to eat junk food and get addicted to it because of the easy access to fast food restaurants and prepackaged foods. There is always hope if you want to change your eating habits. I have a few tips to combat this!

How to stop eating junk food?

  1. Start by tossing out all the junk food you have in your pantry. If you don’t want to waste it, don’t eat it, instead give it to a charitable organization. Try to keep it out of sight around your house. Talk to your friends and family about how you are trying to cut junk food out of your diet.
  2. Learn what a healthy plate or meal looks like. Check out our previous blog on how to create a balanced and healthy plate. Look up easy healthy recipes online to help you begin. Trying to find recipes with a lot of vegetables, fruits, lean meats would be ideal. You might even look into buying a book about healthy eating to help you navigate your journey. 
  3. Once you have found several recipes you would like to make, make a grocery list and plan out your meals for the week. Focus on what is on your list at the grocery store and not wander off to the snacks aisle. Don’t forget to save the recipes you enjoy so it makes it easier for you to find them again. 
  4. Try to avoid eating out as much as possible to avoid eating junk food and also help you save money! 
  5. Instead of drinking sodas, drink water. Go buy yourself a large water bottle with time labels to keep you on track of your drinking schedule.
  6. A great addition to going from junk food to healthy food habits is to stay active is to get 10,000 steps a day! 

 

Don’t stress about getting everything perfect when beginning your journey! Remember small changes are the best way to create lifelong habits! Once you get the hang of it, it will become a habit and you will see a difference in your eating habits! 

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Create a Healthy and Balanced Plate

Posted on by kgoudet

Learning how to eat a balanced and healthy diet can seem overwhelming. You might not have any idea where to even begin. Don’t worry, I will simplify this for you to build your own nutritious, balanced, and tasty meal. There are many benefits to eating a healthy diet. According to the CDC, eating a healthy diet may help you live longer and lowers your risk of several health issues.

 

Vegetables and Fruits 

So, where do we begin to build our healthy plate? We begin by adding vegetables to half of our plate. Most vegetables are low in fat and calories. They also protect you against heart disease and certain cancers. Veggies are high in dietary fiber, vitamin A, and vitamin C, and potassium. Vegetables are known to fight inflammation, improve blood pressure, keep your brain young, and so much more. Examples of vegetables to add to your plate include: asparagus, broccoli, green beans, or spinach. Alongside vegetables, you can add whole fruits because they provide great nutrients like vegetables. Try adding apples, blueberries, oranges, strawberries, bananas, and more to make it a healthy and nutritious meal. 

 

Grains

Next, let’s focus on adding ¼ of whole grains to our plate.  Grains are shown to reduce the risk of chronic diseases. They give you dietary fiber, B vitamins, and minerals. Fiber is key for a proper bowel function and B vitamins are known to help have a healthy nervous system. Eating whole grains can also help you with weight management. We have several options for grains to add to our plate. Adding brown rice, whole-grain tortillas, oatmeal, or quinoa is another step in creating a healthy and nutritious meal. 

 

Protein

Now let’s add our protein. Proteins help our body stay healthy and work the way it should. It gives you energy and helps carry oxygen throughout your whole body. Protein helps your body repair cells and make new ones. Protein should fill up ¼ of our plate. It includes meat, poultry, eggs, seafood, nuts, and seeds. Protein helps the body by repairing muscles and cartilage. Try choosing your proteins lean or low-fat for better health benefits. 

 

Diary

Adding low-fat or fat-free diary like milk, yogurt, and cheese helps you build strong bones. They give you calcium, potassium, and vitamin D, and protein.

 

 

If you want more information, visit MyPlate to teach you the many benefits eating healthy has on us. MyPlate is created by the government to teach everyone what foods our body needs. Check out their website to get a personalized food plane based on your age, sex, heigh, weight, and physical activity.  

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Impact of Food Deserts

Posted on by kgoudet

What Is A Food Desert? 

There are several ways to define ‘food desert’. According to The United States Department of Agriculture, food deserts are “urban neighborhoods and rural towns without ready access to fresh, healthy and affordable food”. The USDA can also define food deserts as “low-income census tracts with a substantial number or share of residents with low levels of access to retail outlets selling healthy and affordable foods”. Food deserts hit the hardest in Black and Latino communities. These urban neighborhoods have very high levels of poverty which make it very difficult for communities, families, and kids to afford healthy food options.

The Cause of Food Deserts

Food deserts have more than one cause. There are several factors that contribute to this situation. Those factors include income inequality, transportation, racial segregation, and COVID-19. How do each of these cause food deserts? Well, since low income people might not be able to afford a car, they usually walk or use public transportation to their closest restaurant or grocery store. Sadly, the restaurants located in low income neighborhoods are always fast food, corner stores, and convenient markets with very low healthy food options. Healthy foods that are rich in vegetables, fruits, fish, and nuts are also not an option for low-income people because they are more expensive than processed foods. It is hard to imagine that food and race would be a problem together but it is. Food deserts arise in low income communities which are typically Black and Latino. Lasty, the Coronavirus Pandemic has affected this because of restaurants, corner stores, and food markets closing down and reducing operating hours. Several families were not able to afford groceries. The food that is being sold in low income areas are high in levels of sugar, oil, salt, and artificial ingredients. This can lead to major health risks like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and even Alzheimer’s.

The Solutions For Food Deserts 

If one is eating poorly with no nutritious ingredients and getting sick because of it, it’s very hard to get ahead in life. We all must be made aware of this terrible crisis going on. Though it might not seem that there is hope for these communities, there is! Funding city-wide programs to encourage healthy eating for everyone would be great for parents to teach their kids to eat healthy. It is important to support the corner stores and convenience markets to provide healthier options. Another big solution is providing good grocery stores and supermarkets that actually provide healthy options in low income areas.