Tips to Prevent Childhood Obesity

Promoting a healthy lifestyle within your family can help to ward off a whole host of health problems. Here are 12 tips from raisingchildren.net.au to keep your family fit and healthy:

1. Start by making nutritional meals and snacks the norm and limit the amount of unhealthy snacks.
2. Base your shopping list around the basic foods: fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy, lean meat, fish and wholegrain cereals.
3. Prepare the right portion sizes for your family, which will help to limit opportunities to overeat or pile food onto plates.
4. Teach children the difference between healthy ‘everyday’ food and high-sugar, high-fat ‘sometimes’ food. Explain that it’s okay to have the ‘sometimes’ food, but that it’s not a regular part of your diet.
5. Stick to a routine for both mealtimes and snacks.
6. Encourage healthy eating through praise when your children make a healthy snack choice.
7. Incorporate physical activity into everyday life and lead by example whenever possible.
8. Have fun together outdoors without labelling it as exercise – just choose an activity to do as a family.
9. Finding a sport that your child loves is a great way to support regular physical activity without it seeming like a chore.
10. When possible, be mindful of how much time children spend in front of a computer or TV screen.
11. Nurture a healthy body image and take the focus away from appearance. Celebrate the bodies’ abilities instead.
12. Be a role model for your children – what you do will have more influence on them than what you say.

What has been most effective for you in promoting a healthy lifestyle for your family?

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