Parents’ Influence on Children’s Eating Habits

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Parents’ Influence on Children’s Eating Habits Anna LaPratt DeVry University Parents’ Influence on Children’s Eating Habits The average supermarket offers many food choices for children as they shop with their parents. While many of these foods are healthy, children seem to navigate towards the cookies, cakes, and sugary snacks rather than the produce section. So many choices are going through the minds of both the parents and their children. While the parents want to feed their children healthy food, they also want snacks in the house, so who wins this battle? This scenario is a great example of how much influence parents have on their children when it comes to healthy food choices and healthy eating habits. A parent must encourage children to eat healthy foods, such as fruits and vegetables, provide healthy snack options, and make mealtimes fun while keeping their children healthy. According to the My Plate, children should consume three to five servings of fruits and vegetables daily. There are many key nutrients that are found in fruits and vegetables. Calcium promotes strong teeth and bones and can be found in vegetables such as spinach and collard greens. Fiber can be found in apples, pears, and lima beans, and can help reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. Fruits and vegetables such as bananas, broccoli, and kiwifruit are great sources of potassium. This helps keep blood pressure at a healthy level (Produce, 2012). There are also essential vitamins in fruits and vegetables. According to Nutrition, Health, and Wellness: An Applied Approach, toddlers require certain amounts of a variety of nutrients as their bodies grow. Some of these include 130 grams of carbohydrates per day, as well as 500 mg of calcium and 15 grams of Vitamin C (Aron, R. et al, 2010). To meet these needs, children need a variety of healthy foods to eat. These can include

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