Enseignez à vos enfants l'importance de leur portion alimentaire

March 8, 2021

Teach your kids the importance of their food portion

Most parents attach great importance to their child's diet.

Yet, it's often overlooked that one of the foundations of healthy eating is awareness of portion size.

And yes, it is also possible to eat too much good stuff! Teach your children from an early age about the importance of balance, proper portion sizes, and listening to their bodies for signs of satiety, because that's just as important as teaching them how to eat vegetables !

So what are these mysterious portion sizes?

Here's a pretty user-friendly chart that makes it easy to understand daily serving sizes by food group. The key thing to remember is that the recommended serving sizes are per meal . You have to eat 3 meals a day, however, some people eat more in the afternoon than in the evening. It is therefore important to develop a sensitivity and awareness of your family's eating habits.

Meal-portion

When you have young children, they seem to get hungry quite often. And it is indeed the case! But their hunger is often satisfied with a very small amount of food and if you serve too much, a lot of the food is wasted every day.

We recommend offering them small portions of different foods in a container, such as a Lunch Box that can easily be stored in the refrigerator for the next snack or meal portion. It gives you a better idea of what they eat on a daily basis, it avoids unnecessary wastage of food and, of course, it teaches your children to appreciate the balance and variety of food. If you don't already have a container or Lunch Box at home, you can order one on our MaLunchBox website

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Vegetable tip

To retain all of the amazing nutrients vegetables provide, try serving lots of them raw or barely steamed. However, baked or roasted vegetables are also a great way to incorporate them into the daily diet.

Fruit Tip

There are many ways to incorporate fruit into your child's daily diet. Fruit can be fresh and whole, or cut into pieces, frozen, pureed, dried or even incorporated into muffins.

Portions of fruit groups are easy to measure. However, be careful with dried fruits . The raisins that your child nibbles are much more caloric and sweet than fresh fruit, so you should give them less.

The advantage of lunch boxes

The Lunch Box trays are specially designed to hold ½ servings of food from each main food group.

The portions of the Children's Lunch Boxes are suitable for young children up to the age of 10. MaLunchBox encourages balance, variety and an attractive presentation.

However, since all children have their own eating habits , it is important to recognize where your child is in relation to their midday hunger. If your ten-year-old comes home hungry and all his lunches and snacks have been eaten, it may be wise to reassess the amount of food you give him. When children are going through growth spurts, it is important to meet their nutritional needs . For an older child, we highly recommend giving them a larger healthy snack. And to think about changing His Lunch Box for an adult Lunch Box.

Some of our young adult MaLunchBox users have also written to tell us that they pack their Lunch Box with wholesome , nutritious foods and have a slice of bread outside the box. Sounds like a great idea !

Portion size is very important for everyone , especially for small eaters. Smaller portions of new or "hated" foods can be made more appealing with good presentation . Their small amount can also be less overwhelming for a picky eater. As tempting as it may be, it's also important not to fill the plate with the only food the picky eater likes (like pasta) to ensure they're eating "good enough." And giving them only "liked" foods will limit their motivation to try new foods.

meal-week

Portion awareness for the whole family

Children look to their parents for information about their eating habits. If you want to encourage your children to adopt healthy eating habits, it is important that the whole family participates in a balanced diet.

Put meals on smaller plates so the portion looks bigger.
Divide snacks into small portions, instead of sending your child to snack on the whole bag.
Separate leftovers into small portions, instead of storing them in larger containers.
Serve food away from the table, which can keep family members from returning for seconds.
Produce food in individual portions to help your children visualize what an appropriate portion is.
Eat meals slowly, and make sure they contain plenty of fruits and vegetables.
Split restaurant orders.
Avoid value-added meals at fast food restaurants.

Now that you know the importance of portions in establishing a healthy diet, do not hesitate to share this knowledge with your children! If they understand why they have to adopt such and such a habit, they will be more motivated and it will be easier to make them adopt a healthy and balanced diet.

To motivate them more, don't hesitate to buy them a nice Lunch Box, a well-presented meal makes you want to eat more! To choose your Lunch Box, don't hesitate to take a look at our MaLunchBox website.

To carry your Lunch Box think of the Insulated Handbag