Healthy Foods Make Healthy Kids

As a child grows up, it is critical to continue protecting their early teeth with a diet of healthy fruits and vegetables. Help your kids avoid sugary foods as much as possible. Teaching them to make healthy food choices is easy when those are the choices they are offered, and the healthy options are made tasty and fun.

One tip is to prepare healthy foods the night before a busy day. Then you can grab a meal from the fridge and reheat it rather than grabbing fast food on the way to baseball or soccer practice. And don’t let kids fill up on soft drinks and juice before meals; give them fresh fruit and vegetables with fat-free or low-fat cheese instead. Many kids get about one-third of their daily calories from after-school snacks, making these nibbles an important part of a balanced diet.

Another bonus outcome of feeding your kids healthy foods and getting them up off the couch is an increased ability to tackle tough subjects in school. Research has shown that from the toddler years through age 8, kids who eat healthy diets develop higher IQs than kids who eat a lot of processed foods high in refined sugar, starch and fats. Studies also show that kids’ IQs and math scores improve with increased aerobic activity.