It can’t have escaped your notice that there’s a growing child nutrition problem in Australia and the wider world - obesity. This has led to an increasing prevalence of type 2 onset diabetes in the younger generation - a group that was largely immune to the problem just a few short years ago.
Currently, around 25% of Australian kids are either overweight or obese, meaning that parents and educators are responsible for teaching the principles of healthy eating. We aim to help with that cause by offering some advice on promoting a balanced diet.
We’ll finish up by showing you how child nutrition training can be enjoyed on your terms for a better understanding of the subject, but let’s first look at some of the ways in which health and nutrition can be encouraged with a few simple lifestyle changes.
Stock Your Cabinets With Water- Not Sugary Drinks
In line with child nutrition guidelines, refined sugar is something that should be avoided wherever you can, as it’s one of the leading causes of non-hereditary diabetes. Sugary drinks are packed with stuff, so if you can stock your cabinets with water or non-sugar-based beverages, it will help a lot.
Nutrition: Teach Your Kids To Eat Slowly
Obesity is also caused by over-eating, which often happens through eating too quickly and not giving the body time to feel full. The full response takes up to 20 minutes to reach the brain, so the slower your kids eat, the less they’ll consume. Eat too fast, and the whole meal is gone before this can happen.
Make Sure You Have Meals At The Dinner Table, As A Family
As cheap, affordable online courses on healthy eating show, having meals together as a family at the dinner table rather than in front of the PC or TV makes people eat more slowly. Family conversations about how each person’s day has been providing the perfect punctuation between mouthfuls of food, meaning the aforementioned full response is given time to take hold.
Don’t Force Children To Clean Their Plates
Modern child nutrition courses perfectly demonstrate how much attitudes on the subject have changed in recent decades, with those born in the 60s and 70s having been made to clean their plate at every mealtime. It’s perfectly ok to leave a little on your plate, and teaching kids moderation will go a long way to helping them control their intake throughout their lives.
Stick To The ‘Fist’ Rule For Food Portion Sizes
Parents want to make their kids happy, which often results in healthy portion sizes being exceeded. This obviously leads to weight gain and steps towards diabetes. Try and keep each part of the meals you provide - meat & two portions of vegetables - the size of your fist, and you’ll avoid it.
Ask any parent, and they’ll tell you that raising kids can be challenging, with healthy eating being one of the most tricky aspects to master. However, with flexible, CPD-approved, video-based child nutrition courses like our Healthy Eating For Kids Course, learning how to feed your kids healthily is easier than ever.
So, if you’re a parent or childcare professional wanting to develop your child's nutrition knowledge, you can find out more about this or any of the training we offer covering 20+ industries by visiting us today at www.onlinecourseaustralia.edu.au. While you’re there, you’ll see that our training is super-affordable thanks to our flexible payment options.
However, if you’d like to speak to us directly about your learning needs, call us on 1300 611 404, and we’ll be delighted to help you find the ideal course.
