As parents, we should take it upon ourselves to ensure our children grow up in a healthy home. One way to ensure this is the case is by cooking them healthy meals every day. By controlling what they put in their bodies, they’ll ultimately be much healthier – and so will you!
There are countless healthy recipe ideas out there that you’ve probably tried. But, I have a sneaky suspicion that your healthy meals aren’t actually as healthy as you initially thought. To help me explain, here are three common reasons most people eat unhealthily without realizing:
Gigantic Portions
Every food we eat will contain calories, which our bodies need to use as energy. We burn calories throughout the day, which means we need to take some back in so we’re balanced and not overly tired. The problem is, some of us can eat more calories than we burn, which leads to weight gain. This is where your healthy meals come into play, as you may think they’re nice and good for your kids. You could have some grilled chicken, rice, and veggies on a plate – how healthy, right? Well, this suddenly becomes unhealthy if the portion size is way too big. Piling too much food onto your plate – regardless of how good it is – will leading the meal being high in calories and potentially unhealthy! So, watch the portion sizes and ensure you’re not feeding them too much.
Too Much Oil
Things like olive oil, sunflower oil, and coconut oil can be good for us in moderation. The problem is, a lot of ‘healthy’ recipes involve using a fair bit of oil in some way or another. You could fry meat in some oil, use it as part of a salad dressing, and so on. The main issue is that oil contains a lot of calories and fat, which can end up turning a meal from light and balanced to extremely calorific and heavy. So, how do you solve this? One idea is to get something like a hot air cooker, which lets you cook things without needing oil – or just explore other means of cooking something without needing to use oil. Another simple idea is to measure out how much oil you use so you can keep track and ensure you’re not going overboard. Cut down on the oil content in your meals, and they’ll be healthier.
Sugary Drinks
It’s all well and good making a nutritious meal for your kids, but you can’t let their drinks bring the whole thing crashing down! If they’re drinking a can of soda with every meal, then they’re doing two things; consuming too much sugar, and drinking empty calories. Sugary drinks usually contain loads of calories which don’t really do anything for you because you aren’t getting any other nutrients from the drink. Instead, give your children water or fruit juice to drink with every meal. Maybe give them a soda can every now and then as a treat!
So, those are the three reasons your ‘healthy’ family meals aren’t that healthy at all. If you want a healthy and happy home, then do all you can to feed your kids the right stuff.