5 Unexpected Ways Healthy Eating Can Help Your Child’s Health

Every parent wants to give their children the very best start in life they can and one of the most important ways we can do this is by ensuring a healthy diet from the start. What’s more, it has many more benefits than simply building healthy bones and promoting physical development – the effects can often be unseen but nevertheless very important.

Increased concentration

Many studies have shown that children who are well nourished have much higher levels of concentration than those who are not. This means that they are able to apply themselves at school and develop more quickly. It’s also why breakfast is such an important meal for the day – and that’s why more and more schools are introducing ‘breakfast clubs’ so children can go into lessons nourished and ready to learn.

Brain development

There may well be something in the old wives’ tale that eating fish is good for the brain. Certainly, studies have shown that not having enough iodine, iron and fatty acids in the diet can have a negative effect on cognitive development. It’s also a very good reason why children really should be encouraged to eat their greens.

More sociability

The family meal, when everyone gets around the table to enjoy eating together, is becoming a rarer and rarer occurrence these days – our busy lives have seen to that. But many experts agree that this presents a great opportunity to help children to interact and become more sociable. Surely, these are skills that will set them in good stead for the future?

Healthier lives

Also looking to the future, instilling healthy eating habits at a young age can have some long-lasting benefits. For example it’s thought that people brought up to eat well are less likely to misuse drugs and alcohol when they’re older and it also reduces the risk of diet- related conditions such as obesity, diabetes and cancer.

Better hearing

One of the most surprising benefits of a good diet is the effect that it can have on promoting good hearing.

For example a study has shown that a diet rich in the omega acids found in oily fish can help to reduce the risk of age-related hearing loss and that eating foods high in magnesium like bananas, broccoli and potatoes can give extra protection from noise induced hearing loss.

That’s not to say that eating these foods will give total protection from hearing problems and for many people these are inevitable as they grow older. However help is always at hand from experts who can provide a number of solutions, including hearing aids.

So making sure your child eats well really couldn’t be more important – but it’s also worth remembering that eating should, above all, be enjoyable. So let them also have the occasional sweet or sugary drink but – like everything – moderation is the key!