Young children are largely influenced by their surroundings. Hence, it is crucial that parents take advantage of their formative years and try to teach them healthy habits. In the opinion of Martin Sanders children typically start to develop habits by the age of nine. Once a habit is formed, whether it is good or bad, it can be incredibly hard to break. Therefore, parents must try their best to teach their children healthy habits at a young age itself, so that it becomes easy for them to continue with those habits throughout their lives.
In many cases, parents delay teaching young children healthy habits until they have grown enough to understand them and their importance. But so should not be the case. Martin Sanders says that young children ideally process and pick up on things more than their parents realize. As children grow up, they often become disinterested to learn healthy habits, or might have developed unhealthy ones already. It is much easier to stick to healthy habits when they have been introduced in the formative years of one’s life. Moreover, maintaining a healthy lifestyle from a young age also aids in the development of the body and brain.
Read more: What Things Do You Need To Know About a Mini Lift
In the following points, Martin Sanders mentions the importance of teaching children healthy habits:
- By encouraging children to eat healthy from a young age, one can ensure that they adapt their palate to nutritious food. As per reports, most college-age students tend to revert to eating junk food available from their childhood when they are stressed, even if they have healthy food available. However, people are unlikely to follow this pattern in case they have been eating healthy throughout their life, and especially their childhood.
- According to certain reports, adopting healthy habits early on in life can be effective in decreasing the risk of developing severe health problems as one gets older. A number of medical conditions, such as heart disease and diabetes, are linked to poor dietary habits and lack of exercise. Conditions like high blood pressure, high triglyceride levels and high blood sugar are also influenced by unhealthy eating habits. The prevention of these conditions includes maintaining a healthy lifestyle, by eating nutritious food and engaging in regular exercise.
- A recent WHO report stated that more than 42 million children across the world are categorized as obese. Childhood obesity additionally increases the risks of developing diverse cardiovascular diseases and diabetics. To make sure that their child does not have to face such problems in the later years, parents must encourage them to eat a healthy balance of vegetables, fruits, and lean proteins.
Healthy habits can go a long way in enabling children to grow up to be happy and successful adults. As habits involve behaviors and actions that one performs in a subconscious manner, they can be incredibly difficult to break later on. Hence, it is crucial to instill these habits in children as early as possible.
