New Diet Guidelines
The American Heart Association (AHA) issued new diet guidelines – for kids under the age of 2 years! This proves the point that our nation’s growing toddlers are at risk of being overweight at a very, very young age. Listen up, parents! The problem is that toddlers are developing grown-up eating habits – eating fast food and junk food on a regular, if not daily, schedule.
The guidelines are pretty simple. The AHA says, “Children 2 and older should eat mostly fruits and vegetables, whole grains, low-fat and non-fat dairy products, beans, fish, and lean meat.” And the only way children will adhere to these guidelines is if parents take the lead and provide these foods to their children.
The new recommendations for infants, children and adolescents revise the AHA’s 1982 statement. Since then, more and more children have been falling into the overweight or obese category. The updated guidelines, which are endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, also recommend children 2 and older get an hour of exercise a day.
The AHA also notes by the time kids are 19 to 24 months, French fries are the most commonly eaten vegetable. Jars of baby food packed with fruits and vegetables give way to solid foods, and nutritious food is often bypassed for whatever is easiest.
The AHA’s guidelines urge parents not to give up if their kids at first reject healthy food. Experts say it can take up to 10 tries for a child to accept a new food.
What are you doing to not have your kids develop “grown-up” eating habits?
It makes me nuts to read children so small eat more French fries than any other vegetable! I am extremely busy, work full-time, freelance on the side, have three kids, and I rarely give them fries.
The thing I do to get more fruits and vegetables is to just dice the fruits and veggies that can be eaten fresh, and serve those often. It’s actually faster than making fries (in fact, it’s faster than going through a drive-through, and cheaper). All three of my kids gobble the stuff up, so it’s not a taste issue. Sometimes one kid doesn’t like something, but then I keep trying or give that child something else.
Ugh!