If you or your spouse have ever struggled with weight, then you know that healthy eating and an active lifestyle make a big difference. Kids typically get eating habits from their parents, so it’s critical that parents not only model making good nutritional choices, but also teach kids some basic nutritional facts. Here are four facts about food that kids should know about foods they typically eat:
1. The amount of sugar in one 12 ounce can of soda has is as much sugar as a slice of pecan pie, a cup of chocolate ice cream, or three servings of Frosted Flakes cereal. Drinking sugar is empty calories that don’t even satisfy hunger.
2. A study of 36 pizza restaurants and 15 varieties of pizzas from four famous chains showed that a single serving of almost all varieties of pizza can deliver more unhealthy saturated fat than one cheeseburger. Most kids don’t eat just one piece of pizza!
3. Even with the healthy options, a McDonald’s Happy Meal is equivalent to approximately 600 calories, which experts claim is too much for one meal for small children. Those 600 calories are not nutrient-rich calories, either.
4. Ingredients in potato chips include acrylamide, a chemical that causes cancer. The chemical is formed when foods that are rich in carbohydrates are cooked at high temperatures, regardless of whether baked, fried, or roasted.
Teaching kids a few important facts like those listed above can help your child learn to make better meal choices that will serve them well throughout life. Carlson Chiropractic promotes healthy living, starting with good choices from the inside out. Empower your child now with the knowledge of nutrition!
Carlson Chiropractic Center is a state-of-the-art health and wellness chiropractic center in Joplin, Missouri. Our team of doctors maintain a strong focus on prevention and are dedicated to helping people achieve wellness objectives by treating neuromuscular complaints such as back, neck, joint, arm and leg pain. As one of the few centers in the area offering certified decompression treatments, we provide a surgery-free option for herniated and bulging discs.