Kids-health is a site packed with hints and tips to keep you and the family healthy.
Can Drinking Water Help Your Child Make Healthy Food Choices?
“Here’s the deal mum,” says my son, “I can only eat my salad with a gulp of water. It gets stuck in my mouth and I can’t swallow it.” It’s yet another salad-dodging excuse that I’m well used to from the darling child. But it seems he may actually have a point.
Researchers from the university of Oregon have discovered that giving your child a glass of water with their meal may make them more likely to finish up all their vegetables. Children from ages 3 to 5 were studied and it was found that the water-drinkers ate more raw vegetables like carrots and peppers than children who had sweet soft drinks. It appears that from a very early age, children associate sweet drinks like cola with fatty foods like chips. Kids’ meals at fast food restaurants may be partly to blame for establishing the sweet drink and fatty food association. A child’s palette development depends on their eating habits from an early age, and fast-food restaurants and parents can influence good life-long choices by simply serving water to children. The researchers said serving water could also be a simple and effective dietary change to help address the nation’s growing obesity problem.
“So can I have a drink of water with this lettuce mum?” Asks he.
“Be my guest son, have as much as you like!”