Is there a holiday to eat healthy?

By Gonzalo Rojo (*)
Special for ANDigital

At the beginning of the winter holidays, a time of dispersion, entertainment and recreation begins for the children. More time at home and more meals outdoors can lead to changes in children's eating habits. Parents, grandparents and other adults in the family are usually responsible for meals at this time. But what can they do to maintain a healthy diet during these days of vacation?

Habits during the holidays

Whatever the responsibility, the holidays involve changes in many habits and the food is not the exception Children want to enjoy, play, experiment and break the Routine days of school attendance and meals are often affected by this behavior.

Leisure can turn into habit a bad eating habit, acquired in the context of boredom. In addition, the cold leads to consuming more calories and, being more hours in the home, this invites you to consume poor quality food and in greater quantities.

The holidays are a great opportunity to encourage healthy eating habits because there are no time constraints or extracurricular activities.

Why maintain a balanced diet?

The body of children does not take the holidays and nutrients necessary for growth – calcium; vitamin D, to enrich the bone; iron, micronutrient essential for proper development; zinc, to strengthen the defenses – continue to be major players in health.

Regardless of the season of the year, a healthy diet should be a constant habit: it must be varied, balanced and distributed in four meals, adding a healthy snack as a snack.

What to do?

The challenge that adults have these days is great: on the one hand, entertain and fill these hours of leisure and, on the other hand, continue to take care of the growth and development of children.

Maintaining a diet Health must be simple and enjoyable because we have all kinds of nutrient-rich foods: fortified milk, vegetables, fruits and legumes. The fundamental thing when it comes to taking care of children's food is to make sure that what they eat is healthy.

We can take advantage of this longer time that we must have with children to carry out activities that allow them to acquire healthy eating habits for their own body care.

These activities can be performed as part of the game: textures, aromas and flavors; share meal planning: choose together the fruits and vegetables of this season, know the foods we buy and learn which foods contain the right nutrients for growth and development; participate in cooking food so that children have a sense of belonging to what they eat and, moreover, be more open to testing new varieties of food.

Respect the good practices

relax, do not forget to respect the meal times and spend more time: eating in a relaxed way allows better digestion and less stress. This is the perfect time to reinforce the habit of communicating by leaving out toys, cell phones, tablets or television and to be interested in what makes, thinks and feels each member of the family

( * ]) Pediatrician
National License 109517 .-