New Food Trends for Kids

The food industry is always changing. It is an industry that is subject to tendencies, one that has to adjust to the wants and needs of its consumers, who on their part often dictate the direction in which the industry will go. Among the major consumers that are quite influential are children. New food trends for kids are things that can make or break companies. In the last decade, two major new food trends have emerged. These were direct effects of scientific studies and the economy.

Recent scientific studies and medical findings have encouraged a wave of healthy eating all over the world. This is the first major change of the past decade. Parents have started to buy healthy food for their homes as well as educate their children about the choices they make while at school or whenever they find themselves outside of the home.

To meet the need, companies and restaurants have began revamping their products and changing their menus. Formerly unhealthy products are turning over a healthy leaf, adding vitamins, minerals and other good things for kids in the mix. Cheerios are a good example. Similarly, many restaurants have started to feature healthy kids meals along with gluten-free and allergy conscious meals, geared towards showing their customers that they too care about their health.

Another popular movement restaurants have adopted is that of creating their meals from locally sourced ingredients or even hyper-local ingredients, which means ingredients that are produced by the restaurant. This allows the establishments to guarantee freshness, which is something customers love. However, it is also directly related to the other of the major new food trends, that which was an effect of the economy.

By sourcing local ingredients, restaurants can support local businesses. This really helps the economy during these trying times. Local ingredients also often means cheaper prices, which encourages families that have chosen to eat in to eat out more often. This also helps address the other trend of feeding children instant foods, like pancake mix, frozen pizzas, and mac and cheese, all of which aren't entirely healthy options. Due to hard economic times, some parents have taken to feeding their kids these quick easy meals that the kids themselves can prepare while parents focus on other things. Locally sourced ingredients, however, can change all that.

Healthy Kids Meals

If adults have a hard time staying healthy, so do kids. Coming up with healthy kids meals so that they stay in tiptop shape is a common challenge for parents. Here are some tips which can help you come up with delicious and healthy recipes.

The first on the list is to always have a plan for the week. If your kid is just starting with his diet, make exceptions for certain days of the week. You can give your kid the regular favorites once a week, in moderate portions. For example, start the week with a healthy soup and salad for the first three days and then reward him with pizza at the end of the week. This way, he doesn't feel deprived and can still eat the foods that he constantly craves for.

Ask your kids to prepare the meal with you. Make cooking an enjoyable activity and so they differentiate the healthy and not-so-healthy foods. By letting them help prepare the meals, they appreciate food better because they cooked the food themselves.

Among the healthy kids meals, the safest is usually pasta. Kids love to eat spaghetti. The alternative you can do is to cook pasta the healthy way. Use olive oil instead of the regular oil, and use whole-grain so it's more nutritious. Replace meat with chicken or shrimp so that the pasta still tastes good. If your kid can eat pasta with purely veggies and tomato sauce, this is so much better.

For dessert, the easiest recipe you is the fruit bowl. You can never go wrong with this because it's easier to feed kids fruits rather than veggies. This is because fruits are sweeter so kids like them better. Fruit cocktail can be used minus the syrup, or use fresh fruits. Healthy combination's of apples, bananas and pineapple for example make a nutritious fruit bowl.

Kids love to eat cookies too. Replace fatty chocolate chip cookies with oatmeal cookies. Oatmeal is fiber and this aids in your child's digestion and metabolism. Instead of munching on chips and junk food that contain no vitamins and minerals, they could use a piece of cookie or two.

Breakfast is considered as the most important meal so it's always best to make sure that your kid eats a healthy breakfast before sending him off to school. Instead of the usual bacon and eggs, why not replace it with wheat bread and peanut butter and jelly? Kids love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and they compliment wheat bread too. For the cereals, choose non-fat milk instead of full cream milk. Use freshly-squeezed orange juice instead of packed juices in groceries. These juices contain sugar and other preservatives so they are slightly unhealthy.

Preparing healthy kids meals need not be a tedious task for parents. In fact, this can even motivate adults to eat better and set examples for the kids. Studies have even shown that kids who are aware of their health at such a young age can help prevent smoking, drinking and using drugs.

Healthy Kids and Sweet Treats

We've all heard the warnings: sugar is bad for kids, limit the sweets, buy healthy snacks......

But let's face it - kids love sweets.

And although I generally buy healthy snacks, I also tend to indulge their sweet tooth from time to time.

So now I ask - are all sweets created equal? The answer is NO.

Gummy Candies vs Ice Cream

Given a choice between gummy candies (or fruit snacks) and ice cream -the ice cream is the clear winner. Granted, it has bad stuff like fat and sugar but it also has protein from milk and possibly nuts.

The gummy candy usually translates to all sugar and sticks to teeth (read: empty calories and cavities).

Cakes, Cookies, and Donuts

Cakes, cookies, and donuts vary depending on the recipe. These can contain trans fats and tons of calories. But certain brands are fine - you just need to read the ingredient label or make them yourself. You know, in your spare time. ;) Sometimes, you can even sneak some oatmeal or bran into the recipe.

The bottom line: once you decide to offer up a sweet treat, choose the lesser evil (the more nutritious option).

Why not just let them enjoy, without worrying about nutrition?

Sometimes I do that, but usually if they are having a treat after a meal. This way, they have some good food in their bellies already.

If they come home from school starving, and in a moment of weakness, I give in to their pleas - then I prefer that they eat something with a little nutritional value like ice cream, or a (previously approved by me) muffin or cookie.

I know all of you healthy moms out there are screaming right now but my kids are very persistent. I find that this middle of the road approach works for me so I wanted to share it with you, since my children are probably not the only kids that love sugar!

Kids' Healthy Habits

Every parent wants healthy kids, what parent doesn't right? From the moment of conception, most mothers just pray for a healthy and normal baby. It's easy enough to keep babies healthy. We choose what they eat, and we can keep them active. The challenge begins when they become old enough to walk on their own, talk, and make some decisions. Developing kids healthy habits is a challenge many parents face everyday, here are some great tips to keeping your kids healthy in all aspects!

Start Young

Habits are formed when you're young. Look at what you do everyday, chances are you'll be able to pinpoint something that you've been doing for years! These habits probably started when you were a child. This will be the same for you children. Whatever becomes comfortable to them while young becomes habit. The important thing as a parent is to mold healthy habits. Start as soon as they begin showing signs of independence, and try to mold habits in them till they're around thirteen or fourteen. If you can have habits that have stuck from the time they're toddlers to the time they're pre-teens, chances are they will carry these habits on to adulthood.

Stay Clean!

One way to make sure your kids stay healthy and illness free is to make sure they stay clean. Make sure they have the habit of taking a bath at least once a day, brushing their teeth twice a day, washing their hands before and after every meal, and after handling money. Keeping your kids clean is a good way to fight of germs. Don't put your kids in a bubble, though. It is okay to play in the mud from time to time, so long as they take good baths afterwards.

Keep Active!

Encourage your children to join sports and take time to play with them. Children have a lot of energy, and they need to exercise those muscles so that they grow strong. As an adult, you need about half an hour of exercise everyday. If you can spend this half hour playing and running around with your kids, then it's hitting two birds with one stone. It's also a great way to bond with your kids. Most children whose parents played with them and spent time with them regularly are less likely to become problem teens. So take up a sport with your kids to ensure that their bodies stay fit, and ensuring a great relationship between the two of you.

Develop Their Brain Power

Get your children to read books, do puzzles, play chess, and other brain boosting activities. These can be after dinner activities for your kids. Exercising their brains is just as important as exercising their bodies and the development of the brain promotes health. So make these activities frequent.

Eat Within Limits

Last but not least, monitor what you're kids are eating. The quality and quantity of food that your child takes in is very important. Follow the recommended serving sizes for foods, and make sure that the five food groups are well represented in your child's diet. Making sure they eat healthy is one of the best ways to make sure your child is healthy. Plus, if you can encourage a healthy eating habit, and get them to carry this on till they're teens and young adults, then you have significantly decreased your child's risk of getting a multitude of diseases!

Kid healthy habits can be tricky to develop, but any dedicated parent can find it easy once they set the steps in motion. Get your kids on healthy habits today, you'll never regret it!

Healthy Eating Equals Healthy Kids

Healthy eating for your child
Children between 2 and 3 years old want to get to know everything and progress rapidly. Their eating habits also change drastically during this age: they learn to eat by themselves, they develop animosities towards and fondness for certain kinds of food. Often children inherit their parents' good or bad habits and keep them throughout their lives.

Physical activity is another rather substantial part of a child's development. Children want to rampage, run, jump, climb up trees, hop, overcome obstacles, swing and crawl through pipes, among other things. Lack of physical activity can impinge on children's development, even during the early years. It may adversely affect quality of living in adult life.

Tips for healthy eating

A balanced diet covers your child's energy needs sufficiently. You can easily do without special children's' foods. These often contain too much sugar, fat and additives.

Do not force your child to eat! If they do not like anything, they just might spit it back out. Often children have to taste new foods several times before getting used to it.

Provide your child with several meals distributed throughout the day.

Shared meal time fosters healthy eating behavior.

Try to make healthy foods more attractive. If you know your child does not like broccoli or has never tried it before, try to give it a child friendly name, like green trees or bubblegum sticks.

Tips for healthy motor activity
Offer your child sufficient room and incentives to move. For example a matrace to roll around on, tumble or jump or provide opportunities to climb and hike.

Provide your child with opportunities for positive body experiences.

Children need at least one to two hours daily of physical activity, best outside and disregarding weather conditions.

Healthy Breakfast Tips For Kids

Breakfast is the biggest and most important meal of the day. You need to make sure that your kids take in a proper breakfast to be able to give them the right amount of energy that they need for the entire day. When your kids sleep during the night, the body uses up the energy that is stored in the cells and a correct breakfast will allow the body to recharge and get a jump start for the rest of the day. Aside from this, studies prove that children who eat a good breakfast perform better in school and grow faster as well. Don't think that giving your kids just anything will do, there are certain things that are needed to ensure that your child's body is fueled properly.

There are four things that you will need to make sure to include in your child's breakfast: grains, protein, fruits and vegetables and dairy. Grains can be found in the form of cereals, bread and the like. These are the most needed by the body as you will see if you check out the kid's food pyramid. Next are proteins which you will find in meat, different kinds of beans and eggs. Fruits and vegetables should of several different varieties as much as possible. Finally, dairy can be gotten from different sources like milk, cheese and yogurt.

Getting all these in the breakfast of your kids does not have to be so difficult. A bowl of oatmeal topped with fruits served with a glass of milk can easily meet all of these. Good combination's for fruits on oatmeal will include strawberries or an assortment of berries like blueberries and raspberries. Pancakes which are a well loved breakfast by many kids can be made better by making use of whole wheat flour, include bananas and walnuts in your batter for a serving of fruit and protein. Even a good old grilled cheese sandwich can be a nutritious breakfast.

Add some ham to this for some protein and make use of whole wheat bread for some grains. Serve this with any type of fruit. Smoothies can bring bursts of energy and give your child a good head start for sure. Try an assortment of fruits and yogurt. This can easily be paired with any other breakfast food and can be drunk on the go too.

Teeth Health Tips for Kids

Teeth health begins with proper eating habits and not necessarily with the avoidance of sweets, including chocolate candy, candy cane, candy bar or hard candy, but the clue is getting the balance right. When it comes to choosing the food for your kids, consider sweet candy as part of their diet, teaching them to keep healthy teeth.

Caring for teeth requires your children brush their teeth twice a day, no matter if they eat chocolate candy or just other types of foods during the day. A Candy cane is not a tool to clean their teeth, as many kids believe playing with it in their mouth. Anyone who eats foods high in sugar is required to brush daily.

Sweet candy plays a part in tooth decay. The best way to keep smiling is using fluoride toothpastes. Help children develop a teeth brushing routine, limiting candy bars and hard candy intake during the day, and never after brushing their teeth at bedtime to avoid microorganisms working on their mouth by night.

The American Dental Association has animations and games online aimed to teach children how to brush and other fundamentals of oral health care. They teach kids to be aware of the damage that chocolate candy, candy cane, candy bar, hard candy and other sweet candy may cause in the long run if cleaning regularly is practiced.

The best way to encourage kids' dental hygiene is by providing them with flavored fluoride toothpaste to make brushing a more enjoyable experience. In fact, many dentists recommend changing the taste and appearance of toothpaste on a regular basis for better results.

Research has found children who like to brush twice each day, do it for longer periods of time when the toothpaste is flavored because they associate the taste with sweet candy. Appropriate brushing prevents gum disease, cavities and other dental health issues caused by the consumption of a candy bar or chewable hard candy.

Kid's age 6 or less should brush using no more than a pea-sized dab of toothpaste to remove plaque. This simple action is enough to provide the necessary fluoride protection against chocolate candy, candy cane and regular food that is stuck to teeth during the day.

Healthy eating habits contribute to healthy teeth, because the snacks that kids eat are basically made of sweet candy, the more they eat the more risk of leading to formation of cavities. Limit your children's snacks is not a good idea because they need food for energy, but substituting candies for nutritious foods such as vegetables sticks are best.