Children and their diets
Messages about the need for a healthy diet are everywhere yet still it’s hard, WHY? I (Clare Hanbury, founder of Children for Health) would argue that the messages and strategies to promote a healthy diet, however great are piecemeal and that if we can work WITH children and figure out a plan to deliver the complete package, we could get onto the starting blocks with this issue.
Here’s the suggestion… what do you think?
OK, so the dream is that children eat nutritious food each day. Our approach would be to divide the things we need or want into four chunks that can help make that happen…
Information
- That information targeted at us uses language we understand and can relate to and that is presented to makes the important points clearly.
- That we can get hold of this information easily.
Abilities and skills
- That we can identify nutritious foods
- That we can shop for nutritious foods
- That we can cook nutritious food for ourselves and others.
Inspiration & motivation
- That our close family members eat and cook a healthy balanced diet.
- That parent and key members of the family allow us to experiment and learn about cooking nutritious foods.
- That people we admire say and show us that they enjoy nutritious food.
Support where we live, study and work
- That schools, our home and other places we like to go and eat encourage us to eat, buy and cook nutritious foods.
- That health clinics support us and tell us if and when we need extra vitamins and minerals.
In addition to all this, everyone heading into a more nutritious diet – needs to create an audacious goal tied to this idea that really gets them excited. Here’s an example:
I want to wake up each day feeling refreshed and excited. My body and brain feel as well fed as they could possible be. I glow and lots of people are asking me – what’s happened?
Once that’s done, this goal needs a visit every day.
