Show Kids the Way to a Healthy Heart

It's never too soon to start teaching cholesterol-friendly habits.

A shocking number of children are overweight and obese, and doctors are seeing increasingly high levels of cholesterol in children, even those with no family history of high cholesterol. To help your kids maintain a healthy diet and healthy cholesterol levels:

Pack their lunches. That way you can at least try to ensure they get something healthy instead of the fried and starchy foods that dominate most school cafeterias. (The three most common foods ordered in elementary school cafeterias are ground beef, chicken nuggets or patties, and cheese.)

Limit fast food. Set a cap of no more than one or two fast-food meals a month, and when you do make a fast-food visit, push the salads, plain baked potatoes, and broiled chicken. If the kids must have hamburgers, order them without cheese.

Forget white. White bread, white rice, white pasta, that is. Serve their peanut butter and jelly on whole wheat bread and their meatballs on whole wheat pasta.

Make it easy. Cut up a bowl of fruit and put it before your TV-gazing kids. They'll eat it as if it were popcorn. Better yet, turn the TV off and serve the fruit to them after they've finished a bike ride around the block.

Set an example. The best way to make sure your kids live a heart-healthy lifestyle is to live one yourself. What could be more rewarding than to see benefits not only to your cholesterol, but to your children's as well.

From Cut Your Cholesterol

 

• Cholesterol
• Healthy Habits
• Family Life
• Exercise
• • Children's Health
• • Parenting Kids

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• Fast Fruit and Veggie Ideas
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• Chocolate's Secret Health Benefits
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• Alternative Ways to Burn Calories and Build Strength
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• The Essential Multivitamin
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“ Three days before a trip, start boosting your immune system with doses of echinacea and vitamin C. ”

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