Dr. Suresh Bali

It’s not always easy to encourage your children to eat a balanced diet.

Eating breakfast, even if it’s just a banana and a glass of milk, kick-starts the body and makes it easier to maintain lasting energy throughout the day.

It’s easy to reach for chips or biscuits when you and your children feel like nibbling on something, but these snacks tend to be low in nutrients and high in calories.

Make water the drink of choice at meal times, and keep juice and sweet drinks as occasional treats.

You decide which foods to buy and when to serve them. Though kids will pester their parents for less nutritious foods, adults should be in charge when deciding which foods are regularly stocked in the house. Kids won’t go hungry.

While juice has valuable nutrients and gives a concentrated energy boost for active, growing bodies, kids should go for water first when they are thirsty, not sugar-sweetened drinks.

Kids should start eating Better not everything they get.

• Start the day with a healthy breakfast.

• Let kids help plan one meal each week and eat together as often as possible.

• Eat slowly.

• Eat more vegetables and fresh fruits.

• Eat more whole grains (e.g., oats, brown rice, rye, crackers, whole-wheat pasta).

• Drink plenty of fluids.

• Serve a variety of foods.

Be a role model and eat healthy yourself.

When trying to teach good eating habits, try to set the best example possible.