Notes For Kids: Healthy Eating During Lockdown

While the whole country has come together to fight against the massive coronavirus outbreak, the nationwide lockdown has come out as the need of the hour. Meanwhile, this situation of lockdown has arrived with its own set of challenges. One of them is dealing with kids and their food choices.

Kids in today’s times do not treat food as a necessity. Rather they see it as a choice. And naturally, for choices, they need variety. Now that they cannot go to eat out, the kids would definitely demand some junk food to be prepared at home. Therefore, it is very important for us to make our kids realize the importance of healthy eating, especially during this lockdown. This statement stands with 2 logical reasons behind it.

We are moving 10x lesser as compared to our routine lives. Hence, it is essential to regulate our food habits and incorporate some form of movement in our routine. Some easy ideas would be:

• A 10-minute walk after every 2 hours to keep yourself active
• 30 minutes of exercise or stretching with kids
• Indulging your kids in household chores such as mopping, cleaning, helping with laundry, etc. 

The virus doesn’t hit us, it hits our immunity. Hence it is very important to include immunity-boosting foods in our child’s diet. Vitamins like C, D, E, A and B6, and minerals like Folic acid, Iron and Zinc must be an integral part of your kids’ nutrition.

• Have a handful of mixed nuts and seeds as a snack between the meals. This ensures that you get all the proteins, essential fats, vitamins and minerals. It also prevents mindless snacking.
• Make your plate colorful. Include different vegetables that are locally and seasonally available. Foods that are high in colorful compounds called carotenoids- carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, capsicum and spinach are all great options.
• Incorporate fruits as fillers in between your meals. Fruits have a heavy nutrient bag and they are even more beneficial as they are being consumed in raw form. Have them as a snack or bite into one when you crave something sweet. Apples, bananas, oranges, mangoes…The list goes on! Who needs chocolate when you have such a large variety of fruits around you?
• As we are not going out, our exposure to direct sunlight has reduced drastically and so has our exposure to Vitamin D. Try to ensure that you get your share by sitting at a sunlit corner in your house for an hour or two.
• Green Leafy Vegetables...Sirf Naam Hi Kaafi Hai! Because they have extremely high iron content in a usable form for our body. So, don’t forget that these green soldiers will help you fight all the diseases that come your way.

While an occasional plate of chips or a piece of cake may not do you much harm, we must not forget that we are living under unusual circumstances. The world is fighting its battle against the spread of coronavirus and with no definitive cure in sight, strengthening our immune system and staying indoors seems to be the best choice. Remember- Prevention is better than cure.

Stay Tuned, Stay Relevant!