Healthy eating has a profound effect on your brain. Your nutrition impacts your susceptibility to depression/anxiety, it puts you at risk for heart disease, diabetes, iron deficiency, high blood pressure, even determines your tooth formation and your lack/abundance of cavities. As important as it is for us as parents to eat nutritional meals, we must implant the notion of “healthy eating” in our children from a very young age, so that they know how and why to choose unprocessed foods on their own.

Everything we eat provides us with a feeling which can run the gauntlet from high-powered energy, to lazy lethargy, or anything in between. And if our immune system is down, or we suffer from digestive issues, then we are going to react more harshly to the foods we consume. What may start as a sensitivity, has the potential to grow to a full-blown intolerance or allergy if we overconsume certain foods.

If you start paying attention to how you feel after you eat (on an unscientific level: for example, keeping a food diary) an hour or up to a day later, and record your emotions, then you will find what sort of foods have a positive or negative impact. Once you cut out processed foods and sugar, your body will start a lengthy healing process. And in an elimination diet you may choose to go grain-free or dairy-free… When you add those foods back into your diet, you will feel them for better or worse. If they do you any harm, then it is time to heal your gut first. You may want to include probiotics in your grocery budget, or add fermented foods like prosciutto, sauerkraut, kombucha or kimchi to aid in the healing process.

Your intestinal lining is full of bacteria and their job is to protect your body from toxins. When all is healthy, they limit inflammation and allow you to absorb as many nutrients as possible from the food you eat. And that is a good thing, to strive for a well-balanced gut.

You can start your kids off on the right plate by teaching them good habits from the very beginning, so they do not have to suffer fatigue and nutritional deficiencies. Get them involved in the purchasing and cooking of food, and take them to where food is actually grown, so they can be inspired by gardening, farming, the subliminal idea of self-reliance. Let your children see you eating healthy food, opting for the baked chicken rather than the frozen chicken nuggets, ordering a salad rather than a deep-fried dish.

Kids will eat what you provide, you will eat what you buy at the grocery store. In the end, it is up to you.

What tips do you have for eating healthy nutritious foods and getting your kids to eat it too?