f.eh: Encourage children to eat healthily and exercise in the summer and thus impart knowledge and skills that promote independent lifestyles.
Vienna (OTS) – Summer is here and with it the school holidays. “What have you eaten today?” is the first question many working parents ask their children when they get home. While food provision during school times is usually covered by school, daycare and childcare plans, it often becomes a challenge during the holidays. In addition, the journey to school and school sports mean that many children miss out on regular exercise. But encouraging children to eat healthily and exercise in the summer and imparting knowledge and skills that promote an independent lifestyle does not have to be a challenge: The forum. nutrition today (f.eh) is giving tips for parents, children and young people at the start of the holidays so that healthy eating and sufficient exercise are not sent on holiday.
“The holidays offer an opportunity to impart important nutritional knowledge and skills to children by planning meals, shopping and cooking together with them and encouraging them to try new things,” emphasises Marlies Gruber, managing director of f.eh. The holidays are also a good opportunity to try out new sports and get children excited about exercise. “Knowledge and skills in nutrition and exercise are the key to a long-term healthy lifestyle.”
Holidays are a challenge for working parents
Cooking and eating together as a family are becoming increasingly less important. Nutrition experts are therefore urgently calling for eating and cooking to be promoted again as cultural techniques worth preserving. “Passing on knowledge about food and learning different ways of preparing it helps children to make better nutritional decisions,” says Marlies Gruber. Working parents in particular are often faced with the challenge of combining work and looking after their children in the summer. The meals of the week, including their preparation, should then be planned together in advance – at the weekend. This way, the children learn important skills and can sometimes prepare small meals themselves and look after themselves. Balanced meals should generally be prepared for the day.
“It is also helpful to offer children drinks regularly or encourage them to take regular drinking breaks. Often they don’t think about it when they are playing or doing sports, or they ignore the feeling of thirst. Adequate fluid intake is essential, however, as the body only signals thirst when it is already running out of water,” says Marlies Gruber. The consequences can range from dizziness, tiredness and headaches to circulatory collapse and heart and kidney dysfunction. Increased fluid intake is often necessary, especially in summer. Children should drink at least one litre of water or unsweetened drinks, and up to two litres in hot weather or when doing intense physical activity. Different flavours – for example with lemon/orange slices, mint, basil or other herbs and berries – encourage more drinking.
Create movement incentives in a playful way
Exercise is also essential to staying healthy and fit. Parents should therefore ensure that their children have enough physical activity every day. In concrete terms, this means for children: romping around, playing and moving for at least an hour a day to promote endurance. On three days a week, muscle-strengthening activities are also ideal as the mood takes them. To motivate children to do enough exercise, f.eh recommends making a list of different activities that children can complete and tick off as a challenge during the day. “Any type of exercise promotes health and well-being. It also makes children more balanced. Tasks, games and challenges that encourage exercise can be integrated into the daily routine,” says Gruber.
There are plenty of opportunities for exercise: whether cycling, skateboarding, trampolining, running or swimming, football, handball, volleyball or fistball, inline skating, (table) tennis, badminton, climbing, gymnastics, karate, dancing or biking. “It is advantageous to get to know different sports at a young age and ideally to learn to love a few of them. By enjoying exercise, you can lay the foundation for a physically active lifestyle,” says Marlies Gruber. The Austrian exercise recommendations make it clear that the minimum for a health effect is not that difficult to achieve. Summarized in a simple model, the f.eh exercise pyramid also shows how both children and adults can achieve the target.
Inquiries & Contact:
forum. nutrition today
Dr. Marlies Gruber
Schwarzenbergplatz 6, 1037 Wien
Tel.: +43 (1) 712 33 44 or +43 664 394 56 36
presse@forum-ernaehrung.at
www.forum-ernaehrung.at
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