If you’re kid asks this question you should be so proud that you pin like 12 of those little gold star stickers on their shirt. After you are done beaming and patting yourself on the back for having produced such an inquisitive little bugger, you need to make sure you drive your point home in their little, snot-encrusted heads. So how do you answer the question: “Why is nutrition important?” Read on, oh ye good parents….
If an adult asks you this question, you can slap them for having lived in a hole for their whole lives. Tell them to google it. But with kids, obviously they are asking a question where the answer could either leave a life-lasting impression on them or that could go in one ear and out the other. Here’s some answers for your little tykes:
1. The Role Model Reference: Here is where you want to name drop some character, athlete, or other pop-culture icon that your kid looks up to. I know when I was a kid, when I saw Jordan eating his Wheaties I wanted my mom to buy a box the next time we were at the store. I diligently chewed down those card-board flavored flakes JUST so that I could “Be Like Mike”.
You know Lebron James? He eats 4 servings of vegetables per day! He wouldn’t be able to run and shoot like that if he didn’t, too!2. The Strike Fear into their Little Heart Approach: Here is where you use mankind’s oldest and most influencing factor: fear. You very seriously show your kid pictures of morbidly obese people and tell them that these people didn’t value nutrition. You then explain the basic math behind calories and exercise. But make sure they understand the basics of healthy eating, such as not skipping meals. You don’t want to scare your kid into having unrealistic fears, causing them to skip meals and worse case scenario: develop an eating disorder. I’ll leave the exact wording up to you….
3. The “Use Grandpa/Grandma As An Example” Method: Here is where you mention some elderly person in your family that has exceeded the average life expectancy. I honestly hope you have someone you can reference (sorry, if you can’t). But the point here is to let your kid know and make them aware of the long term effect eating healthy has on your life span.
4. The “It Makes You Feel Good” Approach: Have your kid associate eating healthy with feeling good. Tell them that they’ll get sick less if they eat healthier. You can even do seemingly silly things such as overly expressing how you feel when you eat your greens at dinner “Mmmmm…..I feel so good after eating all that spinach. Don’t you, Jimmy? I feel like Popeye!” Then flex your muscles and sweep your wife off her feet while shaking your fist at Bruno (the dog). If you seriously do this, let me know about your family’s reaction.
Or you can go with straight-up humor: “Because you don’t want to look like Daddy when you grow up, do you?” (Make sure your husband’s not in the room!)
About Patrick Sanders