Getting Your Family into a Healthy Eating Habit with these tips!
Getting the whole family into a healthy eating habit is, in fact, not easy. Especially if eating sweet and salty food has become a habit, it can lead to serious impacts on family health, namely diabetes, high blood pressure, and cholesterol.
Certainly, we want our family to always be healthy, but at the same time we want to satisfy their appetite. Fret not, we have got realistic tips for you to change the family’s eating habits to be healthier.
1. No need to rush
Changing bad habits to become healthier is indeed a good step. However, you don't need to be in too much of a hurry. Pay attention to the psychology of your children so that they are not surprised by sudden changes in their eating patterns. For a healthy eating to become a habit, you can start by replacing your child's snacks with colorful fruits and vegetables that are attractive to them.
2. Choose delicious healthy food
Who says healthy food must always be unappetizing? Protein-rich foods such as eggs, chicken meat, tempeh, and soybeans can turn out to be delicious dishes if they are processed in such a way. You can be creative with a variety of Indonesian herbs and spices so that a healthy eating menu can still be enjoyable for the family.
3. Pay attention to how to process food
After finding your family's favorite ingredients, now you need to pay attention to how the ingredients will be processed so that their nutrition is maintained. Avoid processing food with the deep-fried method or frying in large amounts of oil because it has the potential to increase cholesterol levels in the blood. Eating lots of fried foods can also increase body fat and result in weight gain.
4. Small portion but meaningful
In addition, meal portions are also important to think about. In Indonesia, it is common to believe that eating a lot of carbohydrates can provide energy to support our daily activities. In fact, the balance between healthy ingredients and the correct portion sizes are the best combination to start a healthy diet.
One of the most effective ways to limit family meal portions is by using smaller plates. This can give the illusion that the amount of food consumed is quite large, even though the amount is less than usual.
5. Less dine out, more home-food!
Eating home-processed food can be a powerful way to develop healthy eating habits for the family. Food purchased at fast food restaurants is infamously known for using preservatives and is processed instantly. For that, it's good to eat quality home-cooked food.
6. Serve food that looks attractive
Teaching your children to eat healthy food is certainly not easy. You can try to make a healthy food menu with a cute appearance so that your little children are interested in eating. You can use your creativity like serving food in the form of their favorite cartoon characters or using natural food coloring to make the dishes look astonishing.