Every time you try feeding your child something healthy, are they asking for anything else?

Every time you get a bowl of fruits or some protein and a home-cooked healthy meal for them, tantrums come rumbling out to reach for that glossy, puffed, and very attractive packet of chips that have been packaged in every way to lure the kids.

The problem does not lie in the potato that is the basic ingredient in the chips but the substandard oil, condiments, artificial flavoring agents, and GMOs added in the manufacturing process that makes them addictive and leads to binge eating. This becomes the main culprit that gives rise to cases of obesity, childhood diabetes, poor metabolism, digestive disorders, etc.

A tiny bowl of carrots a day is said to give 250% times the nutrients compared to food that you would otherwise consume in an entire day. But the biggest question is how do we look beyond the regular fare and make goodness available in the form of “anything else”.

Smart parents are exploring ways and means to sort this out by finding healthy variants made indigenously keeping the nutrition, taste, and original goodness of the food intact.

You should always remember that your kids aren’t born with a craving for French fries, pizzas, or a bag of chips and an aversion to broccoli and carrots. This conditioning is something that happens over time as they’re exposed to more and more unhealthy yet tasty attractive food choices. There is still a strong possibility to reprogram your children’s food preferences so that their cravings shift towards healthy foods instead.

Good habits start early. The sooner you introduce healthy, nutritious options into your child's diet, the easier it will be for them to develop a healthy relationship with food lasting a lifetime.

Children irrespective of their age group develop a natural preference for the foods they enjoy the most. The challenge is to make nutritious choices appealing to develop healthy eating habits. Even food companies have slowly started shifting their perspectives from merely providing taste to aiming at delivering the taste that comes packed with goodness, nutrition, satiety, and flavors that are close to the original.

Focus on overall diet rather than specific foods. What we must feed the kids should be whole, food that is closer to its indigenous forms—and less packaged and processed. Parents need to be true role models to show kids how to eat healthily. Discouraging eating out and replacing it with healthy food combined with appetizing and interesting side dishes can be tried by the parents to develop a healthy eating pattern.

Making mealtimes interesting is one of the primary duties of the parent. A mealtime together and giving importance to what is laid on the table helps kids understand the importance of healthy eating and helps them gain confidence in following what parents tell them.

Limiting sugar and refined carbs in your child’s diet is also of prime importance. Refined carbohydrates are sugars and refined grains that have been stripped of all nutrients—like white bread, pizza, pasta, pastries, white rice, and many kinds of breakfast cereals. They create volatility in blood sugar and fluctuations in mood and energy of adults and young ones alike. Complex carbohydrates are usually high in nutrients and fiber and are digested slowly, providing longer-lasting energy. Whole- wheat or multigrain bread, high-fiber cereals, brown rice, beans, nuts, fruit, and non- starchy vegetables are a few of the very many healthy alternatives.

Find healthier junk food alternatives is a new way of giving kids something that their hearts’ desire and their body accepts readily.

Like for instance baked fries instead of deep-fried ones, sorbets and smoothies instead of ice cream, baked goodies instead of fried chicken or oily snacks, etc can be a welcome change. Also making interesting healthy dips to relish some carrot and cucumber sticks is an amazing way to snack healthy too.

Be wise about bringing healthy eating into their routine rather than fighting and creating a hullabaloo about it. Slow and steady changes will bring about the necessary shift in set patterns and slowly the change will be an organic shift in the way they eat.

Challenging trips to the supermarket

The biggest challenge at such times is your trip to the supermarket, where aisles are filled with glossy, attractive packages of processed, sugary, and preservative-laden, yet extremely popular snacks that are bound to be eye candy for your child. In such a situation, you need to scout for and find healthy alternatives. You can find amazing healthy alternatives like air-fried or baked chips made of 100% natural vegetables, jams and preserves free of sugar, millet cookies, whole-grain cereal, etc which are healthier alternatives and fully safe to consume.

But where do you find it all? You need a one-stop-shop for those healthier “anything else” that your child asks.

We need a platform or a specialty store where such indigenous items are curated from all over the country and presented to us on a platter. A store that has come to life to give us healthier alternatives to all our food cravings, yet fitting perfectly into our taste palette. Imagine if this comes with the convenience of shopping from the comfort of your home on the internet and being delivered to you through a seamless delivery system that ensures 100% customer satisfaction. A perfectly smooth shopping experience right at your fingertips wherever in India you may be. And it doesn’t stop amazing us there as this is only the tip of the iceberg of the magnificent world of shopping that is brought to you by https://craveandcart.com/

Crave and Cart is a steady shopping companion for all that you need, carefully curated to bring the best in quality, variety and ensuring customer satisfaction. Crave and Cart believes in bringing to you Anything, Anywhere, Anytime, and is your go-to online shopping platform.