We hear a lot from parents complaining about their children's eating habits whether it is overeating, undereating, or eating the wrong food. Mealtime is one the most frustrating times of the day for some parents to the degree that after a while, they give up. Parents let their children decide what they want to eat, they sometimes choose to eat separate from their kids in order to have a more relaxed mealtime, or they try to entertain kids with TV, iPhone, iPad, etc in order for them to bite on some nutritious food. Eating or not eating the right food, children grow up to be young adults and they gradually take charge of the kind of food that enters their body. We see healthy young adults, as well as those with all kinds of eating disorders from Anorexia and Bolimia to obesity and being overweight. Then weight struggle begins and in most cases never ends: Rarely satisfied with their body image, they do a lot of yo-yo dieting, starvations, or emotional eating, putting too much stress on their digestive system.
You see, our eating habits as adults has so much to do with the environment that we grew up in. If we were only fed junk or nutrient-free food as kids or if our childhood mealtime memories remind us of nothing but stress of being forced to eat something we didn't like or witnessing our parents argue and fight or even each family member eating separate, do you think we naturally and voluntarily make the best food choices? No! Even if one day we decide to get healthy, that will take an incredible amount of effort to change our old habits.
Do you think there is a better way to raise children that are mindful of the food they eat? In what ways do you think we can raise such mindful children? I will gradually share my thoughts and findings on this subject and I would love to hear your thoughts as well! My dream is for us to create a happy AND healthy environment at home that teaches and encourages our children to care about what and how they feed their body. Stay tuned for my upcoming posts....