EASY WAYS TO IMPROVE THE EATING HABITS OF YOUR FAMILY

Encouraging a good diet among the whole family can be tricky especially when it comes to children. Children do not listen to what we say, but instead, they look at the examples parents set. Meaning they can become quite fussy without intentionally wanting to. However, as mothers, we only want the best for our family and a lot of the time that comes with the food they eat and the diet they have. So how can you improve your families eating habits? Here are some of the ways that you can do it.  

Image source – Pixabay – CC0 License 

To Improve Your Family’s Eating Habits – Look at Their Current Eating Patterns

The first thing you need to do is assess the family’s current eating habits. Ask yourself the following questions:

Do you eat together as a family?

Do you eat similar things?

Is the diet varied and includes vegetables and fruit?

Do your children see you eating junk food or skipping meals?

Do you drink a lot of empty calories – sugar-sweetened drinks and/or alcohol? 

If you are serious about changing the way your family eats then some of these issues need to be raised and addressed. It’s much easier to tackle things when you know what the current situation is. You may highlight some bad habits that have developed over the years. Perhaps you have given into a fussy child over time. Or made different meals for family members to accommodate a picky eater. All of which cause more problems for you going forward if you don’t tackle them now. 

Incorporate a Diet and Lifestyle the Whole Family can Embrace

It can be hard when some members of the family have different diets than others. It can not only cause problems when cooking family meals but also when buying specific ingredients. Different diets and lifestyles might be things like vegetarianism or veganism, gluten-free, Keto, and other specialty diets. Additionally, some family members may have food intolerances or allergies. When it comes to specific lifestyle choices like being a vegan, it may seem like an impossible task to involve the whole family. But if you make the lifestyle available for everyone, you make things much easier. By exposing the entire family to new tastes and foods you will help yourself and all the family members. 

Try New Recipes to Improve Your Family’s Eating Habits

Sometimes the problem isn’t about the food we serve, but more to do with the variety and trying new things. We can all get stuck in a rut, cooking the same things over and over. Begin looking online for new recipes. Perhaps you could try an easy oven baked salmon recipe to incorporate more fish into your diet. Or maybe even trying to hide vegetables in tomato-based sauces for extra nutrition. There are plenty of websites and blogs that offer ideas and suggestions for incorporating healthy foods into your diet.

Have Realistic Eating Goals

It is so easy to get carried away by incorporating a new diet for the whole family. It is understandable to become disheartened if not everyone follows the same diet with gusto! So it’s vital to have realistic goals. Trying to change something completely overnight means you are asking for issues and defiance. If your family, for example, are big meat eaters, and you are hoping to incorporate a more plant-based diet, you may have to take baby steps to get your family to go along with the change.

If you begin to remove meat completely from everyone’s diet, expect negativity to your changes. Begin to gradually make any dietary changes. This will help your family get accustomed to the changes.

Make a Game Out of Trying New Foods

We like to have tasting competitions. Trying a new vegetable with various dips to go with it can be fun. For example: purchase 3-4 dips, and cut up a variety of vegetables. Everyone gets to vote on their favorite dip or dip and vegetable combo. Buy new fruits that you have never tried. My children all love pomegranates because we tried new fruits. We have also tried ugly fruit, kiwi, mangoes, passion fruit, and more.

Dine Out

By dining out, you open your children (and yourself) up to a whole new world of foods. Your children will see you try new things and be tempted to try them also. While snail may not be on everyone’s list of foods to try, it enables your child to see that other cultures eat foods that we may not readily eat. Trying new foods and finding out that even if you don’t like them, life goes on, is a healthy experiment for all. We have been exposed to kangaroo, turtle, rattlesnake, ostrich, shark, snails, and more by dining out.

Use these tips help you to improve the eating habits of your family. And let me know if you have any unique food tips you use to improve your family’s eating habits.