Empowering Kids for Health - Joy

In this week’s DKWIO do-it-yourself series, we are celebrating the everyday Joy in our lives. Teaching children to experience joy involves making the connection between body and mind.

In the DKWIO program, we work hard to introduce new ways of thinking about food. When we ask children about how they eat joyfully, they are quick to answer with cake, candy, ice cream and other sugary foods. For the most part, this is how American’s eat joyfully. Think about the last celebration you attended. What kind of food was served? It is sometimes difficult to teach the connection food has with our body. Although eating cake and ice cream is sometimes okay, it’s not the kind of food you should eat everyday. We teach children about the kinds of foods that make their bodies happy.  Here are a few ideas to introduce the concept of joy to your child’s food:

·       Introduce new foods frequently. They will never know what they are missing until they try it.

·       Take your child to the grocery store and explore the produce department together.

·       Research new recipes and explore opportunities to swap-out regular recipes with healthy alternatives.

Here are some great foods that will make your body happy.