The benefits of a new approach to food for children and parents.
Consuming meals in a conscious way, starting with parents, helps to reduce whims at mealtime, increases the consumption of fruit and vegetables by children, ensures good regulation of body weight by decreasing the risk of eating disorders.
Mindful eating is a new and innovative approach to food that helps people to eat in a conscious way, remaining anchored to the present moment and to their own bodily perceptions. This allows us to have greater awareness of our tastes, of what we need, of hunger and satiety signals.
Sometimes the hectic life and attempts to avoid conflicts at the table lead families to not pay attention to themselves while they eat, to invite children to speed up the speed with which they consume meals, to keep the TV on or to use electronic devices that can keep children busy while they eat.
Most of us are aware of how much a healthy diet is essential for the growth of our children, but sometimes we fail to keep these good habits in practice, it seems impossible. Maybe because we can't even give it to ourselves.
Learning to approach food in a conscious way helps the whole family to undertake a healthy lifestyle, without drastic changes, diets and a constant tug-of-war with their children.
Here are 3 benefits of mindful eating in the family
1) Eat meals with your family. A Harvard study has shown that families who eat together are twice as likely to consume five recommended servings of fruit and vegetables. Children gain self-esteem, a sense of belonging and improve their language skills.
2) Don't be in a hurry. If conversation is encouraged during meals, nutrition is mindful, that is, conscious: the portions do not get out of control, you do not binge, you are more in contact with the signals of your body and satiety.
3) Don't create bans. Promoting exploration, varying proposals, explaining to children that excess sugars are bad for you without avoiding or demonizing them, helps children to maintain contact with their body and their sensations, without external conditioning. Children are naturally mindfully compared to adults!
Let's not forget that parents concretely show, at every meal, models of relationship with food! So start with yourself, learn to eat consciously, deepen your knowledge of mindful eating programs for adults and children.
