Making Wiser Food Choices from Combat Fat for Kids
Cutting down on fat and excess calories doesn’t always have to involve drastic changes. It’s about making smarter choices and practicing moderation, not deprivation. Making small, deliberate adjustments to old eating habits can yield positive results for your family. Here are some tips from Combat Fat for Kids‘ authors Jo Brielyn and James Villepigue to help you make those wiser choices:
— Enjoy food, but eat less of it. Oversized portions and too many second helpings of favorite foods add up quickly.
— Use a cooking spray instead of using oils when you saute foods.
— Pay attention to food labels when deciding which products to buy.
— Skip the heavy dressings and cheeses in your salads and pile on the beans and peas instead.
— Bake or grill foods instead of frying them.
— Cut down on soda and other sugar-sweetened drinks. Replace them with water, 100% juice, or seltzer (choose a sodium-free and aspartame-free option).
— Choose lean cuts of meat and trim visible fat from your meats or remove the skin from poultry before cooking them.
— Only allow kids to eat snacks in certain places, like in the kitchen, where distractions are minimal. Keeping snack time away from the television or computer will save you and your child countless calories from mindless munching.
— Start kids with a small portion. They should eat smaller portions than adults. They can always ask for seconds if they are still hungry.
— Reduce the number of snacks your child eats each day. Kids who snack often tend to fill up and then not eat their meals as well. Scheduled snack times will help monitor how much and what she or he eats and will help kids learn structure for eating.
— Save treats and sweets for special occasions and resist the urge to use them as rewards. Instead, keep food completely out of the punishment and reward system and use affection and nonfood items as incentives.
Reprinted with permission from Combat Fat for Kids. ISBN: 978-1-57826-458-2, $9.99 (ebook). ISBN: 978-1-57826-396-7, $15.00 (paperback). New from Hatherleigh Press. Distributed by Random House.
