Healthy Eating ideas

God’s Protection Plan

Fruits, Vegetables, Artichoke, Banana

“And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth,
and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed;
to you it shall be for meat [food].”
Genesis 1:29

This is the basic nutrition plan that God laid out for us in the very beginning.  The sooner we realize that God who made the body has a plan for taking care of the body, the healthier we will be.  And the sooner we start feeding our children according to God’s plan, the healthier they will be and the easier it will be to train them for a lifetime of eating healthy.

Food and lifestyle should be our first step in staying well. If you have been taking care of yourself, you should have a better immunity to help fight any virus you come in contact with. Just like proper fuel in your car keeps it from breaking down, fueling your body with proper nutrients will keep you from getting sick.   If you have been procrastinating eating better and exercising, now is the time to take this seriously for your health and the health of your family.

The first book I read on this subject was What the Bible Has to Say About Healthy Living.  I highly recommend it.

Here are some other good ones on nutrition:

The Maker’s Diet 

Miracle Food Cures from the Bible

10 Keys That Cure

Here’s an excellent link that has a list of foods for kids and adults that support the immune system.  Follow Dr. Axe for more information.

Here are two great children’s books to get kids interested in healthy eating:

Eat Healthy Feel Great

Junk Food Dude

Other posts on this site about nutrition:

Teach Children to Eat Healthy

Ideas for Healthy Eating

Have Trouble Getting Your Children to Eat Their Veggies?

New Children’s Book About Healthy Eating

Healthy Eating

 

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” —Benjamin Franklin

“Let food be thy medicine” —Hippocrates, father of modern medicine

 

 

 

Share

Teach Children to Eat Healthy

I ran the Disney Princess Half Marathon last week – at age 60 this was my first!!!!  It was so much fun and so rewarding to know that I had disciplined my body to run 13.1 miles by exercising and eating healthy.   Emphasize these disciplines in your children while their beliefs and habits are being formed. Teach them that our bodies belong to God who made us and we are to honor God in the way we take care of them.  (1 Cor. 6:19-20)

During training I could definitely tell a difference in running on the day following a day I had not made wise food choices. What you eat does make a difference!  Green Smoothie Revolution and Green for Life by Victoria Boutenko have greatly influenced my diet.

Victoria has now written books for children to help reinforce good eating habits.  Below are two of them and another, Green Smoothie Magic, will be available soon.

A Gift From Little Bear is such a cute little story that teaches a couple of lessons. The bear takes unhealthy food from the children and gets a tummy ache. He learns from his mommy that bear’s ‘berry’ food is good for everyone and he decides to share his good food with the children. This is a wonderful, subtle way of teaching better eating habits – and sharing!!

Buy some berries and pretend to be the little bear sharing with the children.  As yall eat the delicious berries share  ‘God satisfies your mouth with good things,” (Psalm 103:5)

 

Fruits I Love is a great way to introduce children to a variety of fruits. The book’s colorful pictures are visually inviting to children, and what child doesn’t enjoy a rhyming book! I appreciate the fact that in reading this book to a child, you are doing more than just reading words or looking at pictures, but you are actually making fruit very appealing to them.

After reading this book with your children, purchase each of the fruits depicted in the book and have your children actually examine, smell, taste, find the seeds, and rate the fruits according to which they like best. This is a delicious way to begin a love for fruits! Again emphasize Psalm 103:5.

Share

Ideas for Healthy Eating

I recently had the privilege of meeting Lisa Giordano.  She is the leader of a MOPS group in Burbank California and is a very proactive mom in caring for her family spiritually and nutritionally.  I am happy to have her  share some of what she does to help her family eat healthy:

One easy way to share with my child about healthy eating is the traffic light concept. This is taken from the pediatrician Dr. William Sears. If a food is a “green light” food, it is healthy to eat or a “go for it” food. Examples of this are breads made with sprouted grains, fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, fish, and lean meats such as white meat chicken and turkey. The more we can make fresh fruits and veggies desirable the better. To do this, moms may need to use a low fat dip for little ones or sneak them into a shake with some fruit like your daughter-in-law Becca does (green smoothies).

“Yellow light” foods are “think about it” foods. They are okay in moderation, but should be reserved for treats and only eaten occasionally. Examples of this would be butter, cakes, candy, cookies, and white bread.

“Red light” foods are “stop, say no, bad for you” foods. Examples of these foods would be nitrate-containing meats, packaged foods with “hydrogenated oils, drinks made with food coloring, and doughnuts. One of the downfalls of “yellow and red light” foods is sugar.

Foods with complex carbohydrates found in vegetables, grains, and fruits are good for you. The simple sugars found in soda, candies, frostings, and packaged treats can do harm.Dr. Sears states these five reasons why they are harmful:
(It is helpful for me to remember these facts before I reach for a candy bar!)

– sugar depresses immunity
– it sours behavior, attention, and learning
– it promotes sugar highs
– it promotes sugar cravings
– it promotes heart disease

 

It is helpful for me to have weekly lists made for meals and snacks so that our family will be healthy. Fast food is something that is purchased if I don’t plan well. If I grocery shop and start meal prep early in the day, it is less likely for us to make bad food choices.

Blessings to you and your readers,
Lisa Giordano

Thanks to Lisa for this very helpful information.  Click to order the book she mentioned, The Family Nutrition Book: Everything You Need to Know About Feeding Your Children – From Birth through Adolescence

We are building temples for God to live in.  We must train our children spiritually to create a desire in them to be a temple; we must train them nutritionally and physically to keep that temple healthy.

Share