As you know, childhood obesity rates have skyrocketed in recent years, tripling the rates from when you and I were growing up.
You also know why – a slew of processed, sugar-filled foods marketed to kids and parents, sold in schools, and even endorsed for decades by health authorities as low fat or otherwise “healthy.”
What you may not know is how easy it can be to get your children to eat well. There is NOTHING more important than our children, and where everything can go wrong in regard so their health is almost 100% related to their diets – which for most, is ACIDIC!
Today, we’re going to talk about the top 9 easy ways to get your kids involved in going alkaline.
It’s so much better if you can make your healthy journey a family affair. No making more than one dinner for you and the rest of the family, no buying junk foods for your kids, and best of all, no worries about your kids becoming part of the childhood obesity epidemic.
So let’s get started!
- Make it a game or competition.
Who doesn’t love a game! You use sticker charts and reward systems for good behavior and chores, right? So why not use a similar system for healthy, alkaline eating? Make sure you make it about rewarding positive choices, not policing negative ones, so choose a fun reward for picking 10 good snacks, or let them pick out a sticker every time they go nuts for the veggies on their plates.
- It’s all about presentation.
Have you seen the creative ways some parents arrange their kids’ lunchbox foods?
It doesn’t take much effort, but it can have a big impact when a little one looks at a plate and sees food in the shape of a happy face, stars, hearts, their favorite animal, or anything else you can imagine.
Kids also love eating veggies off skewers and trying their hand at using chopsticks to eat Asian meals like an Alkaline Stir Fry. Just make sure they are old enough to do so safely.
Encourage younger ones to play with their food!
Put veggie purées on their tray or table and show them how they can “finger paint” with their food – and eat along the way of course (my wife is going to love this one :).
Instead of store-bought puffs, make your own finger foods that they can practice picking up and putting in their mouths like cubes of butternut squash, lightly steamed spinach leaves packed into a small tight ball, and “tiny trees” of broccoli and cauliflower.
Make stop signs with apples. Add some raw nut butter, and cacao nibs as the lights.
My point – get creative and you will be amazed at how your kids will play along!
- Get them in the kitchen.
Involve your kids in nutritious eating by having them help in the kitchen. A great way to do this is when you’re making smoothies. They can choose their favorite ingredients, place them in the juicer or blender, turn the blender on (once the lid is firmly in place of course), and taste test then choose a name for the smoothie.
Kids also enjoy helping toss a salad together by using the salad spinner, “chopping” with a butter knife (supervised), and mixing the ingredients.
- Let them choose.
When you go to the grocery store or farmer’s market, let the kids pick out a few veggies or choose between options. One of our tricks for getting our son to get excited about eating alkaline is choosing surprising ingredients like purple cauliflower, white asparagus, or tropical fruits he’s never tried before.
- Talk about how foods make them feel.
Especially as kids get older, they’ll start to see the same effects from the foods they eat that you do, if you help them see it.
If they have highly-acidic cake and ice cream at a birthday party, talk about how they feel afterward when the sugar crash sets in. Likewise, when they eat delicious, alkaline foods like avocados and sweet potatoes, have a conversation about how good they feel and what those foods do for their bodies.
- Play the color game.
How many colors can you combine on your plate?
The more colorful your meal, the more alkaline it probably is too. So get kids involved in loading up on as many different colors as you can.
- Sneak in the healthy stuff!
While I highly recommend you involve your kids in eating more alkaline so they can learn why it’s so important, I’m also a fan of sneaking in more greens whenever you can. Here are 3 ideas that kids won’t even notice!
- Throw 2 cups of spinach into almost any sauce or soup you’re preparing. (Keep an eye out for a recipe for Dr. Daryl's Raw Marinara later this week.)
- Take broccoli and shave the stem like cheese into pasta, sauces, curries, and soups using a micro-plane grater.
- Puree cauliflower or zucchini into soups.
- When all else fails…
The truth is, your kids are going to eat what you give them, and whatever YOU keep in your fridge and pantry. So first and foremost, remember that what your children eat is a direct correlation to what you buy!
They aren’t going to starve when there’s a plate full of delicious, nutritious food in front of them. A great rule of thumb that helps to stop the dinnertime debate comes from Ellyn Satter, the author of How to Get Your Kids to Eat (But Not Too Much). She says: You decide what goes on their plates. They decide how much they want to eat.
- Sneak in the good stuff.
In addition to all of those easy ways to get your kids involved in going alkaline, I recommend you also supplement with a few things to up the alkaline ante.
- Add Alkamind Daily Greens, to their smoothies to boost the amount of chlorophyll-rich foods they’re eating daily. They won’t even know the greens are in there.
- Add the Daily Greens or Daily Minerals to their favorite juice.
- Make sure they supplement daily with Omega 3 fatty acids (fish oil), probiotics, and Vitamin D3.
- Give them a scoop of Alkamind Daily Minerals before bed so they get a restful sleep, which is what every parent wants!
