Healthy foods and beverages, regular exercise, and limits on screen time are good for adults and children alike. For some of us this healthy living comes easily and for others of us it’s a daily struggle. It can be difficult to juggle work and parenting while also maintaining a healthy diet and lifestyle for ourselves much less our children.
Here are some quick resources that may help. If you know of others, please share them with us so that we can update our databases.
What To Eat?
Often when we think of children we think of donuts, ice cream, Wonder Bread and pizza. All of this is good from time to time but children’s risk of developing obesity, chronic illness, behavior issues and other problems that impact well-being are reduced if they
- gobble up whole grains, fruits and vegetables, lean meats, and low-fat or fat-free dairy,
- consume breast milk (or formula if breast milk isn’t an option) for the first months or years of life,
- scarf down minimal amounts of fats, sugars, and sodium,
- drink only small amounts of 100% fruit juice if any is drunk at all,
- avoid soda pop completely.
Exercise and Screen Time
Do you remember playing outside for hours at a time and loving every minute of it as a child? Well if you do you are probably much better off for it. Young children should get at least 60 minutes of exercise every day for optimal health and well-being. Remember to limit their screen time to two hours per day for children over two years old and avoid screen time all together for children younger than two years of age
Recipes
Here are some recipes resources that might help!
There are lots of other apps and websites out there with similar recipes as well. The above list can give some good ideas for places to start and then you can build on those recipe ideas in Pinterest, online search engines, and so on.