Food Habits for a Lifetime

Our children are a precious gift. We all want to give them the best possible start in life.

Establishing healthy food habits at an early age will provide children with a healthy head start that can protect them in their teen years and well into their adult life.

Attitudes to food are shaped quite early in life and examples from parents and guardians can strongly influence a child’s attitude for a lifetime.

Feeding children can be a big challenge! They can be fussy eaters, with particular likes and dislikes. Sometimes they will appear uninterested in eating, other times they will eat you out of house and home. And just to increase the challenge, this is the time children need to learn the importance of good food and healthy lifestyle habits.

Of course, children don’t usually have heart disease or high blood pressure, but what they eat now can set the stage for these diet-related diseases later in life.

If you want your children to be healthy adults, now is the time to teach them about good food!

Over the last 20 years, rates of obesity in children have risen greatly in many countries around the world, including Australia. Some researchers are speaking of an ‘International epidemic of childhood obesity’.

Overweight and obesity in children and adolescents is generally caused by a lack of physical activity and unhealthy eating patterns.

Encourage children to make healthy food choices, allowing them to be involved when planning meals, shopping and cooking.