Healthy eating is a topic that is constantly with us. Never before have we had access to such a variety of fresh foods as we do today. People in Europe today are living longer than they did 100 years ago because they have everything they need to live healthy lives.

Despite the fact that we live in abundance, many people feed on low-quality food. They don’t eat fresh fruits and vegetables. Many cook convenience foods every day that contain hardly any vitamins. In order for you to live the healthiest, longest life possible, we have collected a large number of helpful nutrition tips and prepared them for you.

Good Morning!

Many kids don’t manage to eat and drink a little something in the morning. Yet breakfast is the most important meal of the day. In order to go through the day full of energy, you should not do without it under any circumstances. Our body needs plenty of carbohydrates and vitamins, especially in the morning, to get going. The brain in particular needs many valuable nutrients to function properly.

So to make sure you’re fit enough for busy school days, you should eat at least some fruit or a little yogurt before you leave the house in the morning. A glass of fruit juice or a cup of tea is good for you and makes you want to do more. Why not start your day by enjoying some muesli with fruit, nuts, and honey! The vitamins that are abundant in fruit will help your body get going. The carbohydrates in breakfast cereals provide enough energy to keep you well-fed until your snack break. Honey and pollen are important for the immune system and strengthen you, especially in the cooler seasons. This helps to prevent infectious diseases, colds, and coughs.

Sweet Temptation

Eating sweets is not forbidden. Children have a particularly strong appetite for sweets. Basically, it’s not a mistake to listen to your body’s needs. If your body wants something sweet, then eat a delicious yogurt with fresh fruit! Especially in the early summer berry season, there are plenty of fruits that are great for snacking on between meals. Blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, gooseberries, and cranberries are wonderfully sweet when harvested ripe. What’s more, they are true vitamin bombs.

If you like, you can bake low-sugar muffins with your parents. They are child’s play to make and can be filled with a wide variety of ingredients. Apples, pears, or berries add natural sweetness and color to the baked goods. If you’re old enough to handle an oven on your own, you can even bake the muffins without help. You can find basic recipes for muffins in any good baking book or online. Grandmothers, mothers, and aunts often have good secret recipes for cakes and the like, which they will certainly be happy to leave to you.

Decide For Yourself How Much You Eat

At Easter and Christmas time, it’s especially bad: you’re visiting your beloved grandma and eating all day. “Oh, please have some more!”, “Look what I baked for you!” and similar things we then get to hear. Basically, it’s great to be taken care of like that by your own family. Of course, you’re allowed to let yourself be pampered in this way from time to time.

Nevertheless, you should keep in mind to eat only as much as you want. Don’t let grandma, aunt, or mom talk you into going overboard. Enough is enough – everyone will understand that. Because people are creatures of habit. Especially if you suffer from obesity, binge eating in a family atmosphere can have unpleasant consequences. So after the holidays, it’s hard to stick to your diet plan.

Are you one of the beanpots among the kids? Even then, you should decide for yourself how much you eat. There’s no shame in not managing to finish something.

The Most Important Nutrient Groups

You’ve probably noticed that there are different types of nutrients. They all do different jobs in your body. You need different amounts of each of these nutrients to stay healthy.

All foods are made up of a combination of the following types of nutrients:

• Protein (to build and maintain body cells).
• Fat (is an energy supplier, stores energy and supplies fatty acids).
• Minerals (participate in various processes in the body).
• Trace elements (only needed in small amounts, act similar to minerals).
• Vitamins (are involved in various metabolic processes).
• Carbohydrates (maintain body temperature and provide energy).
• Dietary fiber (aids digestion and satiates).
• Colors, fragrances, and flavors.

Across The Vegetable Garden: The Best Sources Of Vitamins

As you’ve already read, your body needs a variety of vitamins. Some of them you should take every day because the body cannot store large amounts of them. Nevertheless, it needs vitamins every day to function properly. The most important vitamins and their suppliers are as follows:

Vitamin A

This vitamin is important to stay healthy. Because it prevents bacteria and viruses from entering your body. It is found in large quantities especially in sugar melons and apricots.

Vitamin B6

You need vitamin B6 to strengthen your immune system and to maintain your nerves. You also need it so that your body can properly utilize fats and carbohydrates. Vitamin B6 is mainly found in bananas and walnuts.

Vitamin B12

Many vegans have problems with this vitamin. This is because it is found exclusively in animal sources. It is very important for the nervous system and protects our cardiovascular system. Vitamin B12 is found in many types of meat, fish, and eggs. Vegans need special tablets to be able to cover their daily requirements.

Vitamin C

This vitamin is abundant in many fruits and vegetables. One of the best suppliers is the bell pepper. Incidentally, it contains more vitamin C than a lemon. Blackcurrants, garden cress, citrus fruits, broccoli, and cabbage also contain plenty of vitamin C.

Vitamin E

The nutrient vitamin E is found exclusively in plants. We consume it through vegetable oils such as olive oil. Wheat or soy germs also provide a lot of vitamin E. We need it to support the immune system. It also provides a valuable contribution to the prevention of cancer. Therefore, you should take enough vitamin E every day to stay healthy.

Vitamin Supplements Are Not Candy

Some people need to take supplements because they have a nutrient deficiency. Dietary supplements are tablets, juices, and capsules that contain man-made nutrients. Even if you can get them over-the-counter at the drugstore, you should be extremely careful with them.

Because with some nutrients, exceeding the daily dose can have serious consequences. If you take too much of it, you may even suffer from outright poisoning.

Therefore, you should only take supplements if you really have a nutrient deficiency and the doctor recommends such pills.

At Least Once A Week: Fresh Fish

Fish is not everyone’s cup of tea. Nevertheless, it belongs on the weekly menu. It provides important nutrients that your young body urgently needs. Not only the often mentioned omega-3 fatty acids but also the mineral iodine are contained in fish. This is important for the proper functioning of your thyroid gland. If you are a regular fish, you can also prevent cardiac arrhythmias.

To retain its nutrients, fish should be as fresh as possible. Frozen goods are often more nutritious than smoked or refrigerated fish because they are frozen immediately after processing. This preserves valuable vitamins, trace elements, and amino acids.

Tip: Fish sticks are lower in calories when prepared in the oven. Preparation in a frying pan only works with plenty of oil. This is pure fat and turns the delicious sticks into real calorie bombs.

Helping Out And Learning To Cook

Every adult should be able to cook a few simple, healthy dishes. After all, at the latest when you move out of home, you’re on your own. It would be a shame if you then had to “cook” yourself spaghetti with ketchup because you are incapable of anything else. Many young adults often go out to eat, buy a kebab or currywurst. It’s okay to do that once in a while. Over time, however, something like that goes into the money quite a bit. Besides, kebabs and the like are considered fast food. This is English and means something like “fast food”. Fast food is usually very high in calories and unhealthy. Therefore, you should not eat fast food every day.

It is advisable that you learn a few tricks from your parents as early as possible. Look over your mother’s or father’s shoulder when cooking at home. Ask if you can help and try to remember the individual preparation steps.

Ask if something is unclear to you and always remain inquisitive. Asking lots of questions makes it easier to remember things.

Help Decide What To Buy For The Week

For most parents, it is difficult to do justice to their children when it comes to food. That’s because many kids are real foodies. They have a long list of foods they can’t stand. So it’s hard to cook something suitable.

There are two solutions to this, and you should consider them equally:

No. 1: Overcoming

It’s not good for you to eat only chicken nuggets and the like all the time. It is understandable that you like this kind of food. However, sooner or later you should get used to eating fresh foods as well. Start small by eating a little of your favorite fruit or vegetable every day. Once you’ve acquired a taste for it, you may be tempted by other fruits and vegetables that were previously unknown to you. In addition, it doesn’t hurt to try dishes you haven’t tried before. You can never know if something tastes good if you’ve never tried it, right?

No. 2: Going Shopping

Sometimes it helps if you go shopping with them. If it’s possible for your parents, you can ask them to do it. Look around a bit and discover new foods that you might like. Ask yourself honestly what appeals to you and what doesn’t. If you’re brave, you can get up the courage to try something new. Also, when you go grocery shopping, you should primarily eat what your parents prepare for you. You should not expect that from now on only what you want will be on the table.

We Are Creatures Of Habit

We humans usually prefer foods and dishes that we already know. Because in doing so, you don’t run the risk of being disappointed. You know that spaghetti is delicious. That’s why you would like to eat it again and again.

On the other hand, if something comes to the table that you don’t know yet, you’re naturally skeptical at first. That’s okay and it’s in your nature. Nevertheless, you should always try unfamiliar dishes. Often you are surprised how good something tastes because you would not have expected it. Maybe you’ll even discover your new favorite food this way.

We can harness our habitual instinct by getting into the habit of eating something healthy every day. Once it’s become a daily routine to eat an apple or two, eventually you won’t want to give it up. It’s good for the body and makes your diet more balanced. Of course, you don’t have to eat apples if you prefer oranges or other fruit. What’s important is that you get into the habit of eating fresh foods and don’t just reach for chocolate and other sweets whenever you feel like having something sweet. After all, even ripe fruit can be wonderfully sweet and flavorful. Unlike sweets, however, it contains many more important nutrients.

Wheat Products And Food Allergies

Some people cannot eat wheat products. Their digestive system is very sensitive to it. For people who are allergic to wheat, the grain is even harmful. However, this is not a big problem nowadays, because you can bake and cook wonderfully with other grains like spelled.

Milk is also not everyone’s cup of tea. If you get stomach ache, flatulence, or diarrhea after drinking milk, it’s better to stay away from it. Then it’s better to use rice, soy, oat, or almond milk. There is now even lactose-free milk for allergy sufferers. Lactose is the milk sugar that many people cannot tolerate. If someone is allergic to lactose, they are called lactose intolerant.

Did you know that in some countries people don’t eat milk or dairy products like cheese at all? Many Asians even find milk disgusting. Also, their stomach can’t process milk and they can get sick from it.

If you don’t drink milk, it doesn’t automatically mean you have a calcium deficiency. Because figs, nuts, some types of fish as well as cabbage also contain a lot of calcium.

Raw Vegetables For Snack

Whether for a school snack or a daily dinner, raw vegetables provide more vitamins and minerals than cooked ones. Unfortunately, many nutrients are lost during preparation. The effects of heat and light destroy some vitamins within a few seconds.

That’s why you’re doing yourself a favor by eating raw vegetables like peppers, kohlrabi, radishes, or tomatoes from time to time. With good wholemeal bread and some cheese, you have a full meal that is filling and very tasty. By the way, you make sure that your body can cope with everyday life more easily.

Greens Are Not Only Healthy For Animals

Salad and spinach are hated foods for many kids. Yet both can be really tasty if you prepare them properly. Lettuce keeps you young because its ingredients neutralize harmful, carcinogenic substances.

Especially salads can be made very varied. With a homemade yogurt and herb dressing, seasonal vegetables, and pine nuts, it tastes much better. Avocado and lemon also go great in fresh salads. Depending on the season, you can vary the type of salad. Rucula is particularly healthy for digestion and can be mixed with other, more neutral salads.

Spinach, which is very rich in natural iron, can be boiled and pureed. Creamed spinach with fried eggs, onions, and roasted potatoes is a popular dish in our latitudes. If you like it creamy, you can add some cream to the spinach. Pepper also makes the dish tastier. By the way, most people don’t like spinach because they have never tried it. Actually, it is a portion of very tasty food.

Why Sweets And Snacks Are Not Taboo

Our body usually knows what is good for us. That is why we should not ignore the cravings that it triggers in us.

Many kids are addicted to sugar. They consume more of it than they actually need. Low-sugar snacks are a distraction and help to break the habit of snacking. The key is to find a middle ground. A little snacking is okay. But make sure you don’t overdo it.

Tip: Fruit Salad

Fresh fruit mixed with a little lemon juice is wonderfully sweet and healthy. This makes fruit salad a great alternative to chocolate and cookies.

If you like to nibble, eat a small portion of nuts from time to time. They are rich in minerals and vitamins. However, due to the oils they contain, they are high in calories and can make you fat. Therefore, you should not eat more than a handful of them per day.

Tip: Banana Or Strawberry Milk

Bananas and ripe, local strawberries (not the partly green ones from other countries) contain a lot of natural sugar. If you mix them together with fresh milk, you get delicious shakes. They are sweet and filling. If you drink banana milk, you have also snacked, but you need much less to have enough because the milk is very satiating.

Worksheet For The Text

1) Explain the difficult words from the text.
What does…

• Dietary supplements.
• Lactose.
• lactose intolerant.

2) What did you remember about food allergies?

3) Do you know the recipe for a healthy meal? Maybe it’s even your favorite meal. Write down the recipe for it here. You can design and decorate it with crayons.

Photo: evgeny atamanenko / bigstockphoto.com