The choices you make for your children as they are growing up will have a positive or negative influence on how they function as adults. We know as parents we pave the road for our children in many different ways, but many of don’t realize that the eating patterns we set for our children will also follow them along life’s path. Poor eating habits that you instill into your children are not going to disappear once they reach adulthood nor are they suddenly going to realize the importance of eating healthy meals and snacks. Sometimes it takes a traumatic event such as a heart attack or stroke before the reality of poor eating habits manifests itself in their minds.

Certainly childhood obesity is a growing problem, and though we want to place emphasis on children, we cannot ignore the fact that childhood obesity paves the road to adult obesity. Very few obese adults were normal weight children—the exception being those who are obese because of health conditions such as thyroid problems. In most cases, obese adults began as obese children, and this is the part that we want to address. If we can work to eliminate or reduce obesity in children, we will also be able to reduce or eliminate obesity in the adult population as well.

If we begin teaching children to eat healthy nutritious meals and snacks, they will continue making those healthy choices as they enter adulthood. The foundation is laid in childhood and though they may not always avoid unhealthy foods and snacks, they will understand the importance of minimizing the consumption of unhealthy foods. The problem lies in the fact that many parents let their children have too many unhealthy foods and don’t encourage them to eat healthy snacks. In fact, adults are the worst offenders because even if they have healthy snacks for the children but eat unhealthy snacks themselves, they are still laying the foundation for an obese adult.

Begin teaching your children about healthy snacking when they are children and encourage their schools to purchase healthy vending products. School Healthy Vending and Healthy Student Vending are two companies that YoNaturals supports in their quest to promote healthy snacks for our children. Though the schools cannot control what the children eat at home any more than parents can control what their children eat in school, the combined efforts will teach the children the importance of making good choices in what they eat. With proper conditioning you can raise a child who will choose a piece of fresh fruit instead of a cookie.
Author: Brenda Coxe