It is really not too difficult to turn your home into a healthy home.

Creating a nutritionally healthy home is one of the most important steps you can take to ensure the health of your kids. To start, make smart food choices, and help your kids develop a positive relationship with healthy food. Your children will learn their food smarts from your example.

Below I have outlined ten tips for making sure that your children take in nutritional food:

1. Never restrict food from your children. Doing so actually increases your children\’s risk of developing eating disorders later in life, such as bulimia and anorexia. Also, food restriction tends to hinder growth and development, as well as leading to bing eating later in the day. Bing eating leads to weight gain.

2. Stock you home with healthy choices. Kids tend to eat what is easy for them to access. Take advantage of this fact by keeping fruit in a bowl on the kitchen table, rather than in the refrigerator. Limit the high calorie, high sugar, high fat foods that you keep around. Keeping healthy food choices will educate your children on making the healthy choices when it comes to food.

3. Don\’t label foods as \”good\” or \”bad.\” Instead, tie foods to the things your child cares about, such as sports, academics and hobbies. Let your child know that lean protein such as turkey and calcium in dairy products give strength to their sports and academic performance, the antioxidants in fruits and vegetables add luster to skin and hair and the carbs in whole grains will give them energy to play.

4. Praise healthy choices. Give your children a proud smile and tell them how smart they are when they choose healthy foods. Kids thrive on positive reinforcement!

5. Try not to get down on your children for unhealthy choices. If it is not a frequent occurrence, let it slide. Conversely, if your children are always choosing to eat unhealthy foods, then you need to steer their choices in the right direction. Replace candy with dried fruit. Instead of fries, try roasting potato sticks with a little bit of olive oil in the oven. Eventually, your children\’s eating habits will change for the good.

6. Never use food as a reward. This could create weight problems in later life. Instead, reward your children with something physical and fun — perhaps a trip to the park or a quick game of catch.

7. Make sure that you sit down and eat dinner as a family. This should become customary in your home if it is not already. The truth is that children who eat their dinner at the table with their parents not only eat more healthy, but are far less likely to get into trouble as teenagers.

8. Ration food portions for your children in the kitchen. This allows you to place healthy food portions on everyone\’s plate. In time, your children will be able to determine what is a healthy portion size.

9. Give the kids some control. Ask your children to take three bites of all the foods on their plate and give it a grade, such as A, B, C, D, or F. When healthy foods – especially certain vegetables — get high grades, serve them more often. Offer the items your children don\’t like less frequently. This lets your children participate in decision making. After all, dining is a family affair!

10. Try to consult your pediatrician. Always try and talk with your child\’s doctor before putting your child on a diet, trying to help your child gain weight, or making any significant changes in the type of foods your child eats. If weight change is recommended, seek the help of proper literature on the subject.

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