How To Develop Healthy Eating Habits
Why Journeys Future Foodies are almost as good as hiring your own dietitian for your child.
A lot has changed in how we think about healthy eating habits since we were children. And “If you don’t eat your vegetables, you can’t go out to play” is nowadays not only questionable from a pedagogical point of view, the entertainment on offer inside is today too good to seriously scare our children anyway.
If you want to keep up, as a good parent, with the latest trends in this field, you would either have to work diligently through studies and recommendations or hire your own dietitian to develop the menu for you. Journey’s Program Future Foodies offers just that – a dietitian who develops menus for your child. And on top, it’s a program that gently but constantly introduces our future chefs to new smells, tastes, textures, and even cultures. Furthermore, Future Foodies integrates aspects such as grocery shopping, cooking, gardening, and sustainability.
An all-around happy package gives you the feeling that you have already done many things right in establishing healthy eating habits by letting your child benefit from this program which happens perfectly naturally every day at Journey.
Future Foodies is like hiring your own dietitian for the child.
The ease with which these new culinary discoveries seem to be accepted here at Journey, rather than at one’s own dining table at home, is a side effect from which everyone benefits. As a parent, you might be astonished when the educator reports that your child has eaten everything (and maybe even asked for seconds). And this with dishes that you are sure they would not even give a glance to at home. Why is that?
Future Foodies Chief dietitian, Teri Lichtenstein, explains this with the group dynamic among the children and their joy in discovering new things together. And, of course, the children also get to see how the food is prepared for them. When you come to a Journey centre, you are usually greeted by such an amazingly delicious smell that you immediately want to sit at the table and eat with them. Not only does our expert Teri’s knowledge of healthy eating go into those recipes, but also all the love of our kitchen teams. Everything is prepared on-site, seasonal and varied. (Link to the menu of the week). And it’s not uncommon for our Future Foodies to be involved in preparing their food.
11 Future Foodies Tips to establish healthy eating habits at home
Tip 1. Hidden vitamins:
Fruits and vegetables don’t always have to be visible on the plate. So, whether it’s our delicious banana pancakes or our pasta sauces – vitamins can come along undercover.
Tip 2. Hands-on:
Whether in the garden or the kitchen. It’s fun to get involved. And for those who don’t like to bake a cake every day: it can also be a short cooking show you watch together, or they actively help you with the shopping.
Tip 3. Start small:
Maybe you test your way through a plate of familiar and unfamiliar fruit and vegetables and talk about how the food looks (colour, texture etc.), smells or feels on the tongue. But it’s about the experience, not getting full. Therefore, only a tiny bite. That’s enough for a shared adventure on the tongues. (more information)
Tip 4. If you don’t …: (Not) eating should neither be sanctioned nor rewarded.
You can still have a healthy dessert if you don’t eat the peas. Most people know from experience that you can’t force yourself to love some foods. And it is also very relaxing for you as a parent when everything can, but nothing must. This brings us to the next point:
Tip 5. Food should be fun:
Get creative with fun plates or talk about what superpowers food can give you; after all, it helps you grow big and strong.
Tip 6. Creativity scores:
Sure, we all have recipes that come easily to us. But reaching for a different vegetable on the supermarket shelf is worth a try. By the way, not only for our future gourmet, but we may also experience some (positive) surprises. In addition to that, you can also try variety in what you prepare. For example, a carrot can be cooked, grated, puréed, glazed with a little drip of honey, dipped in grated parmesan or nibbled as a stick with dip. There is so much more in every vegetable … it’s a matter of getting it all out.
Tip 7. Who has the choice … has fun eating.
Anyone dealing with a toddler knows that even deciding how to cut a slice of bread requires detailed consultation. However, the choice between different options can be helpful. Prefer peas to cucumber slices? No problem, and according to the motto: The ‘parent provides, the child decides’.
Tip 8. Show perseverance.
The road to healthy eating habits can be a rocky one. Research has shown that it can take up to 20 attempts before a child accepts a new food.
Tip 9. Eat together.
Good eating habits also depend on proper setting – literally. Sitting around the table and eating together may sound a bit old-fashioned to some, but this still has many potentials. Children learn from watching eating patterns. This is an opportunity not to be underestimated – for an update on one’s diet.
Tip 10. Food is not a soap opera: there should be no such thing as good food or bad food.
Everything is allowed, some in moderation. Or as our dietitian, Teri, likes to say: If there is something to celebrate, it is better with a cake than with broccoli. We agree with her.
Tip 11. Finally: A healthy diet includes proper dental hygiene.
And while water should be the drink of choice from infancy onwards, it is also helpful after a sugary snack. Because once your mouth is rinsed with water, you’re also doing your teeth some good.
And another significant advantage of Future Foodies?
This program takes a bit of pressure off the parent’s shoulders.
Of course, we always want the best for our children. But if you can be sure that every meal, from morning tea to the late afternoon snack, is so professional and well thought out, tailored to the needs of your child, then it is okay if the often-packed daily routine means that dinner is ‘just’ some pasta with tomato sauce as a very quick go-to.
But after all those good tips from our Future Foodies Chief Dietitian on how to support developing Healthy Eating Habits, you might still find a carrot or a zucchini in the fridge, which you can quickly shred into.
You want to know more about Journey’s Future Foodies?
Have a look here. Future Foodies | Journey Early Learning
