Guidelines for promoting healthy eating at home

Healthy eating doesn't have to be a list of forbidden foods, but rather an opportunity to connect, nurture, and educate . Every meal can be a moment of bonding, learning, and enjoyment. Families play a fundamental role in creating safe and nurturing environments where children can grow up healthy, happy, and independent.

Food involves much more than nourishing the body for growth and development. It's about connection, learning, culture, pleasure, and social and emotional well-being. From our first encounters with food through adolescence and young adulthood, each stage offers an opportunity to cultivate habits we should nurture throughout our lives.

Breastfeeding and early childhood: first tastes, first bonds

The first two years of life are when the first bonds with food are established, the first flavors are identified, and capabilities are explored through discovery and testing.

Exclusive breastfeeding is recommended until six months of age, according to the World Health Organization. From six months onwards, the gradual introduction of solid foods (complementary feeding) is recommended, which will gradually become more prevalent. Breastfeeding is recommended until two years of age, whenever possible, taking into account the well-being of both the baby and the breastfeeding mother. There is no age limit that dictates the complete cessation of breastfeeding. That moment is unique and personal and depends on many factors, such as the well-being of the breastfeeding mother, the baby's overall nutrition, social adjustment, work schedule, leisure activities, and so on.

Family changes, in the long run, make the most sense and provide healthy lifestyles. Instead of establishing a healthy habit, they generate healthy behaviors and a healthy way of living.

Gradually introducing new foods is a unique opportunity to begin developing healthy and sustainable habits. That's why it's recommended to cook without salt and avoid processed products, salty foods, added sugar, and sweetened foods (with sugar, honey, sweeteners, etc.).

Furthermore, whether you choose to introduce foods with varied textures or purees, it's advisable to offer a variety of preparations that allow you to identify different flavors and textures . For example, if offering pureed fruit, make sure the main fruit is easily identifiable; for instance, a puree of pear with juice and watermelon, or simply pureed watermelon. If you make a vegetable puree, try to include a predominant vegetable that provides color and flavor, so that when transitioning to solid food, the main change is only the texture.

Ideally, the family or the environment surrounding the unborn baby should already be on the path toward changing habits. In the long run, family changes are the most meaningful and contribute to healthy lifestyles. This way, instead of simply establishing a healthy habit, a healthy way of thinking and living will be fostered .

Guidelines that help us introduce healthy eating habits

• Being a role model. To have a healthy lifestyle, it's essential that we, as family members, set a good example. Even so, there's no guarantee that all habits will be healthy throughout childhood.
• Minimize access to unhealthy or non-recommended foods. To set a positive example, it is recommended to minimize exposure to unhealthy or non-recommended foods. This strategy promotes a sense of emotional well-being and fosters a relaxed and non-restrictive environment.
• Planning your shopping and menus. Creating a healthy home environment requires planning meals and your shopping list. If you don't know where to start, you can look for information and resources that will help you plan healthy menus or meals more automatically and with less effort.
• Build a positive emotional environment around food. There are behaviors and habits that reinforce a healthy environment, such as eating meals as a family, leaving mobile devices off the table, understanding and respecting hunger and satiety signals, not forcing food, and not using food as a reward or punishment.

In case of any nutritional imbalance or specific nutritional need, it is advisable to consult with professionals in the field of dietetics or nutrition to adapt these recommendations to individual needs.

Accompany children's meals

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Hunger and satiety

In this first stage of life, we see that our son or daughter is hungry through observation:

To avoid snacking, it is helpful to establish specific mealtime windows, not offer food as a distraction or comfort, and not use food as a reward or punishment.

Families often describe problems at main meals (lunch and dinner) due to a lack of appetite or excessive fullness. When this happens, it can be helpful to reduce snacking between meals so that periods of hunger and satiety can be clearly observed. This allows for offering higher-quality foods such as vegetables, legumes, etc. Constantly providing snacks or food between meals is associated with poorer overall diet quality, although this isn't always the case. Furthermore, establishing periods of hunger and satiety at this age with structured mealtimes allows children to begin associating sensations with behaviors. To avoid snacking between meals, it's helpful to establish specific mealtime windows, avoid offering food as a distraction or comfort, and refrain from using food as a reward or punishment.

Preschool stage: consolidation of habits and exploration of flavors

During this stage, between the ages of 3 and 6 , when children typically begin school, they transition from a purely family environment to a combination of different social settings, though the family remains the most influential and important. This change in environment will determine the evolution of children's eating habits and their relationship with food. During this period, growth remains steady but slows down compared to the first few years of life. This means that appetites fluctuate frequently, and children begin to show their food preferences at these times.

Strategies we can follow:

• Use play as a method of learning and experimenting with food.
• Offer a variety of foods and culinary preparations .
• Repeat the introduction of new foods, but without pressure. In this process, lowering the family's expectations is very beneficial and promotes well-being and family relationships, both for the children and for the parents or caregivers.
• It remains crucial to maintain a family example , as well as to include healthy leisure and movement activities, minimizing sedentary situations or time.
• Promote hobbies . A general interest in topics and activities partially prevents the search for food in moments of boredom or frustration.
• Plan breakfasts or snacks with healthy options to avoid snacking.

We observe satiety when there is excessive slowness in eating, distractions, or food refusal. If development and growth are proceeding normally, we will choose not to insist and respect the feeling of fullness.

Hunger and satiety

At this stage, children often verbalize their hunger and actively seek food or express irritability if they feel hungry. Conversely, we observe satiety when they eat excessively slowly, are easily distracted, or refuse food. As with younger children, if their development and growth are progressing normally, we will choose not to insist and respect their feeling of fullness.

At this stage, emotional management is crucial for the future relationship with food, so it is recommended to take into account a series of considerations to build a positive emotional environment:

• Including children in some meal preparations, shopping, and planning, in a guided way, is useful to reduce frustration, to anticipate, to become familiar with food, etc.
• At all ages we should avoid comments about the body , since the goal is to promote healthy lifestyle habits beyond physical results.
• Create pleasant routines and avoid common arguments or disagreements during meals. For example, play pleasant music while cooking, or have background music while eating.
• Validate their tastes , explain to them that they are taken into account, even though sometimes there may be foods that they don't like as much.

How to organize the weekly family menu

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School stage: nutritional education and guided autonomy

During this stage, from ages 6 to 12, reading and writing begin and develop. Acquiring these skills allows for the introduction of food and nutrition education, although this should not be confused with giving children lengthy lectures or nutritional content about food.

Some ideas:

• Explain to them small tricks or interesting facts related to food or preparation processes.
• Include leisure activities , such as exhibitions or excursions, that provide an opportunity to learn about food.
• Experiential learning remains the most effective. For example, having a small vegetable garden, an urban garden if you don't have a garden, or even just some pots to grow small vegetables, or visiting a factory, a rice paddy, a mill, a salt mine, etc.

Schools play a supporting role for families , both through classroom education on healthy eating and through school cafeterias. The school cafeteria offers an opportunity to discover new foods, different ways of preparing them, and to observe other children interacting with different meals. Currently, school menus are monitored to ensure that there is at least one vegetable a day (salad or other vegetable) and fruit at least four days a week, and that the presence of processed meats and fried foods is minimized.

Although children spend a large part of the day at school, the family environment remains especially important, where quality foods in balanced proportions should be offered at main meals. Beyond their choices or what they ultimately eat, seeing a menu and food on the table or on their plate is also a very powerful message and a perfect seed for cultivating healthy habits for adolescence.

Hunger and satiety

At this stage, children can be taught the difference between hunger and satiety , emphasizing the distinction between physical and emotional hunger , which we commonly refer to as hunger or cravings. They can identify physical signs of stomach discomfort, rumbling, and other bodily noises as indicators of hunger. Similarly, they can be taught to recognize common situations where they feel hungry even when it's not mealtime.

Some recommendations:

• Encourage short pauses during meals to regulate appetite and give yourself time to assess satiety and decide when to stop eating. For example, instead of serving all the food on the table at once, divide it between two plates (they don't need to be filled). Eat the first course, then clear the plate or get up to serve the second course or the next food item. This strategy helps regulate the pace of eating and forces you to take short breaks, allowing you to evaluate hunger or satiety before continuing to eat.
• Avoiding distractions or screens during meals promotes awareness of bodily signals. If children are engrossed in a screen, playing games, or doing homework while eating, they are not conscious of what they are eating, the quantity, or their feelings of hunger or fullness.
• For children who are very picky eaters, it can be tempting to use distraction techniques , but this approach isn't educational, as they aren't aware of what or how much they're eating. A relaxed conversation can help parents be more present and establish positive relationships with food. Using humor in conversations, without ridiculing, is a very useful way to create a pleasant atmosphere at this age.
• Acknowledge the effort , even if the proposed amount of food has not been met, and avoid comparisons with other children.

The school cafeteria is an opportunity to learn about other foods and other ways of preparing them, and to observe other children interacting with different meals.

Adolescence: responsible autonomy and family bond

During adolescence, a second growth spurt occurs, and nutritional needs increase compared to the previous stage. It is also a stage of greater autonomy in general, including regarding food, making it essential to reinforce nutritional education and the family environment as a positive role model .

We must be very aware that this stage involves hormonal, temperamental, emotional, and social changes that make conscious decision-making difficult and increase impulsivity and a lack of emotional control. It can be very helpful to increase the availability of healthy foods at home to facilitate choices during challenging times.

It is key during this stage to reinforce healthy habits and maintain the consumption of fruits, vegetables, fish, and legumes at home, as these are not usually foods of choice outside the home.

Reinforcing these healthy habits will help them make better food choices when they're out and about, whether with friends or during leisure activities, and any less healthy food choices they do make will be occasional. In this regard, it's crucial to maintain a consistent intake of fruits, vegetables, fish, and legumes at home, as these are not usually the preferred foods when eating out.

We also don't recommend confronting or judging them when they buy or eat unhealthy foods at home, or criticizing the efforts being made within the family. Instead, it can be helpful to show interest and concern if the situation is very out of control.

Hunger and satiety

In this stage where emotional management is complex and changing, the challenge is that emotional hunger is often related to foods high in sugar, fat, or salt.

Some suggestions that may help:

• Encouraging reflection on which healthy foods provide pleasure , asking what can help regulate emotional hunger or intake, are strategies for shared decision-making that can promote healthy habits.
• Make a brief log of the emotions or situations that trigger snacking between meals—boredom, stress, anxiety, frustration—and think of and suggest activities to do instead of eating or using screens. Promoting regular physical activity, especially outdoors and with others, can help develop healthy eating habits.
• At this stage, when they are becoming increasingly independent, we can delegate some tasks, such as preparing salads or buying groceries from a pre-made list , so they can participate in decision-making and thus improve their acceptance of healthy foods. Often, teenagers don't choose certain foods because they don't know they are available at home or in the refrigerator. Participating in the planning and shopping will help them learn what foods are available to them.
• Do not force them to eat a food they categorically reject , and give them the option to prepare alternatives, preferably for the rest of the family, in such a way that we respond to their demands and involve them in the care of the family.