Skiing in the USA

How To Teach Kids Healthy Eating Habits

Be a good role model, set family meal times and involve your kids in meal planning
Family eating at dinner table.

You’ve probably heard the old adage, “You are what you eat.” While your child isn’t going to literally morph into a fruit salad or a loaf of garlic bread, the food choices they make (and that you make for them) have a very literal impact on their bodies. Read more about Cortexi.

Cleveland Clinic is a non-profit academic medical center. Advertising on our site helps support our mission. We do not endorse non-Cleveland Clinic products or services. Policy

Poor eating habits in childhood can follow your kids well into adulthood, causing health issues and difficult relationships with food. By teaching kids about food that’s good for their health when they’re little, you can set them up for a lifetime of wellness.

“It’s never too soon to start teaching kids good eating habits,” says pediatric dietitian Diana Schnee, MS, RD, CSP, LD. Check these sightcare reviews.

Healthy eating habits and tips

Food serves a lot of purposes. It can be tasty, fun and culturally important, and eating with loved ones provides opportunities for bonding and togetherness. But food is also science. And kids need healthy foods — full of the right vitamins and minerals — in the right amounts, to help them grow. –

“Food is the first type of medicine,” adds pediatric cardiologist Christina Fink, MD. “Kids need good nutrition to live, grow and be healthy. But inadequate or improper types of nutrition can lead to childhood obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, prediabetes and further issues once in adulthood.”

These tips can help you teach your kids eating habits that will equip them for a healthy future and a positive relationship with food. Try these legal steroids.

1. Set family meal times

Kids thrive on routines, so try to eat together as a family and serve meals and snacks around the same time every day if possible. This way, kids are less likely to graze and overeat. It’s also a good time to teach them healthy eating habits and table manners.

“Eating as a family is good for social, emotional and developmental purposes, and having meals together is an opportunity to teach kids about portions,” Dr. Fink says. “For example, you can show them that half our plates should be non-starchy vegetables and some fruit.”

Limit meals to a reasonable length of time, no longer than 30 minutes. You can even set a timer to reinforce this expectation and help kids stay focused during meals. These are the latest cortex reviews.

2. Embrace breakfast

Is breakfast really the most important part of the day? Well, they’re all pretty important — but eating a healthy breakfast gives your child the fuel they need to make it through the day and help them grow and develop properly.

“It doesn’t have to be a large or elaborate meal,” Dr. Fink says, “just something that’s nutritious to get their bodies going and fuel their metabolism for the day.”

Definitely don’t stress about the idea of making an elegant breakfast from scratch every morning. Instead, turn to easy, kid-friendly, dietitian-approved breakfast ideas, like whole-wheat toast with natural peanut butter or plain Greek yogurt sprinkled with a fiber-rich, low-sugar cereal and a handful of fruit.

3. Address picky eating early

It can feel nearly impossible to deal with kids’ picky eating preferences, but with intentionality and patience, you can nip it in the bud early.

Continue to offer a variety of foods during meals to encourage exploration and allow for exposure. Schnee says it’s good to let kids (even picky toddlers) choose from what’s on their plate, and it’s OK if they choose just one or two things. But don’t make separate meals for picky eaters.

“You’re not a short-order cook,” she says. “Make a decision about what you will serve, and stick to it. If your child asks for something else, you can explain that it is not on the menu for the day but offer to prepare it another night.”

For kids who are in kindergarten and older, Dr. Fink suggests instituting a three-bite rule. “Your child should try at least three bites of a food, just to give it a chance. Even then, they will need to try the food 15 or more times before they can say they truly don’t like it,” she says. “Sometimes, it’s just trial and error to figure out their palate.”

Share Button

Fatalities in Swiss Alps

Pointes de Tsavolire: Traversée Eison - Saint MartinAgence France-Presse report that two employees of CERN, the lab famous for its particle accelerator and for Berners-Lee’s invention of the worldwide web, died in an avalanche over the weekend.

A 49 year old Frenchman and his 33 year old Swiss colleague were swept away at the 3000m Pointes de Tsavolire in Valais. They were amnongst five members of CERN’s ski club who set off from Eison in Val d’Herens. The area they were skiing is shown in the picture above, which I took when I was skiing in the valley a couple of weeks ago.

The two men were members of CERN’s ski club and were among five skiers who set off cross country Sunday from the village of Eison for the Pointes de Tsavolire.

This is a popular and relatively easy itinerary, just the other side of the Bec de Boisson from Grimentz. It is possible to make the ascent on skins and make the run back in a day, and there is a hut at the top for those who want to make a longer trip of it, but it sounds like this party set off Sunday morning for just a day’s outing.

It just goes to show how dangerous the late snow from a couple of weeks ago has made late season touring. The dry avalanche risk is very low, but by lunchtime the risk of wet, full-depth avalanches across Valais has been rated considerable for some days. Wet avalanches occur where snow has frozen overnight but starts to get heavy and wet as the temperatures rise and the sun starts to hit it.

Apparently two members of the party were dug out by a fifth, but the other two remained buried until rescue workers arrived and dug them out of three metres of snow.

They were taken by helicopter to hospitals in Sion and Lausanne, where they later died.

Share Button

FIS World Championship Vail / Beaver Creek

The FIS World Championship in Vail and Beaver Creek is about halfway through, and it has been a fascinating competition, with wonderful conditions.
beaver Creek Podium
In the Ladies SuperG, Austrian Anna Fenninger held off Tina Maze and local favourite, Lindsay Vonn. Maze, however, came off top in the Downhill, edging out Fenninger and Switzerland’s Lara Gut, fresh from her win in St Moritz.

Meanwhile the Mens competition has looked kindly on the Swiss, with a Gold for Patrick Keung and a Bronze for Beat Feuz, with America’s Travis Ganong sandwiched between them. The Super G saw Hannes Reichelt of Austria on the podium with Gold, followed by Canada’s Dustin Cook and France’s Adrien Theaux. Marcel Hersher rounded out a good few days for the Austrians, taking the Combined Gold, whilst the sensational winner at Kitzbühel, Kjetil Lansrud, came in second with Ted Ligerty third.

The fractions of a second difference in medal positions are recorded by Longines, the Swiss watch maker based in St Imier since 1832. The company has a long association with skiing, stretching back to ski trials in Chamonix in 1933, and it has been official partner and timekeeper for the FIS since 2006. The relationship was re-inforced when Longines took on the same role for the 2015 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in Vail and Beaver Creek, as they had for previous World Championships. To commemorate the occasion they have launched a new chronograph, the alluring Conquest 1-100th Alpine Skiing. One for my wish list for sure, and one I will be looking forward to checking out at Baselworld, the watch fair in Switzerland that takes place next month. In addition, the equally alluring and talented Mikaela Shiffrin has been announced as Longines Ambassador of Elegance.

Mikaela Shiffrin wins in Zagreb 2015
Mikaela Shiffrin wins in Zagreb (c) Longines 2015

Share Button

Let it snow!

Visitors to French ski resorts faced chaotic conditions last week when the snow finally arrived, and are probably concerned as they face the return trip. The good news is that the weather outlook is that the authorities seem better prepared and the weather is milder. Apparently on transfer day last week around 29,000 cars and coaches were left stranded for the night in 80 emergency centres in France and thousands were left stranded at airports.
Chur Railway Station
I was in Switzerland at the same time, and broadly the same weather conditions hit the areas I visited, but there were no delays and no problems that I was aware of. As the Daily Telegraph succinctly put it:

Swiss resorts reached from Geneva airport caught at least the same amount of snow last weekend, but the Swiss managed to keep roads clear. The trains too – from Geneva to Martigny for Verbier and other resorts – ran to their usual clockwork schedule.

Snow conditions now look promising as the season gets fully underway. However warmer temperatures in the next few days mean that the freezing level may rise as high as 2000m. Although well prepared pistes below that level should be OK, lower slopes may see rain rather than fresh snow.

Share Button