Ten Healthy Eating Tips for Your Child
By Abigail Natenshon

1. Encourage your child to drink water. Lots of it. Drinking water is essential to losing weight as it keeps the metabolism healthy and functional. Plus, lots of kids feel the urge to eat when, in fact, they are not experiencing hunger, but thirst. Are you aware that drinking soda pop leeches the calcium from your child’s bones? Water is undoubtedly the better way to go!
   
   
2. Is your child not crazy about drinking water? Why not stir in small spoonfuls of his or her favorite jam? Or squeeze in a bit of lemon with honey and you have made lemonade. You can make it festive with a mint leaf tucked on the side of the glass.
   
   
3. Have lots of fruits and veggies around to eat for meals and snacks. I like to leave a large and sumptuous bowl full of fresh fruits, adding a splash of smashing color in the kitchen at all times. There are apples and pears, bananas and mangoes, avocados and lemons, red and green peppers, cherry tomatoes and pomegranates, pomelos and grapefruits. The berries are always sitting in a prominent spot on the refrigerator shelf. In the summer, this bowl is always full to bursting of succulent and beautiful summer fruits. I have never minded if my kids helped themselves to five or six pieces of these colorful beauties throughout the day. You could make their lives easier if you wash everything before putting it out.
   
   
4. Be creative. Does your child love salty foods? Forget the chips! Why not cook a minute long stir-fry concoction of spinach or Swiss chard with a touch of olive oil and soy sauce, seasoned with a little pepper, a few roasted sesame seeds and a bit of feta cheese on the top? You can’t find a tastier or more nutritious way to add zing to your child’s after school snack.
   
   
5. My daughter friends’ most favorite after school snack at the Natenshon’s was a plate full of cut up cherry tomatoes, along with small cut up Buffalo Mozzarella cheese balls mixed with fresh cut basil leaves from the planter by the kitchen window. I made a dressing of olive oil and red wine vinegar, sprinkled on a bit of pepper and they ate to their hearts delight, feeling very continental. It is impossible to overeat such healthful foods. Remember that herbs, be they fresh or dried, are a wonderful way to make things taste better without using sugar or preservatives.
   
   
6. Is your child a picky eater? Why not make dinners an interesting and fun color fest? I enjoy serving a table full of aesthetics…colors that bowl you over with their beauty. What fun to have green broccoli next to yellow spaghetti squash, side by side with cantaloupe melon and a plate of red peppers! Some nights I have fun playing with uni-color meals. Cantaloupe appetizer, a carrot and tomato fresh salad, salmon croquettes and sweet potatoes for the main course. The most fun part is bringing your child to the produce section of the super market to help pick out these “rainbow” meals. What a great opportunity to discuss the need for all the food groups to be represented at every meal, and for your child to learn the value and beauty of so many fresh and healthy foods.
   
   
7. While you are wandering the super market aisles with your child, see how many items you can find that are brown versions of otherwise white (processed) ones. Can your child pick out the whole grain bread, pastas, cereals, rice, frahitas?
   
   
8. Make breakfast a time that is social, interactive and that sets the tone for the day. Looking for an interesting protein for your child who is not crazy about eggs? How about offering him or her the left over chicken leg from the night before? A piece of last night’s fish with lemon and dill, or maybe a little cheese sprinkled on top? Remember that protein will keep your child’s brain alert for learning. When combined with carbohydrates, it will also “stick to your child’s ribs,” keeping him or her stomach satisfied till lunch time.
   
   
9. Need a quick, healthy and easy-to-eat snack for recess time? How about sending nuts and raisins to school in a little baggie? These are energy foods with good fatty acids that will satisfy and satiate. Plus, they are yummy and diverse! (Stay away from the nuts that are roasted in oils and salted preferably.)
   
   
10. Does your child take a multi-vitamin every day? It is important. These are a great supplement to whatever foods your child is eating.