Get Your Kids to Eat Less Dessert: 5 Proven Tricks
How to guide your little ones to cut back on the junk.
Raise your hand if your kids eat cake three times a weekend at various birthday parties, cap off dinner every night with a sweet treat, or rarely finish playing a soccer or baseball games without digging into a baggie of cookies from the team snack parent. Sound familiar?
Yep: Junk. Is. Everywhere.
“Kids, [and] adults, are bombarded by unhealthy food all the time...the food is non-stop,” says Dyan Hes, MD, a pediatrician in New York City who is double board certified in pediatrics and obesity medicine.
It’s no surprise that kids eat treats all the time—especially if they’re surrounded by them and they don’t necessarily understand why certain foods aren’t healthy choices. (It’s hard enough for you, an adult, to say no to a dessert craving, and you know why you shouldn’t.)
That’s why it critical to teach kids what healthy eating is at home, says Frances Largeman-Roth, RDN, a nutritionist and cookbook author in New York City. “It’s fine to have treats, it’s fine to have cake and ice cream, but that has to be balanced out with the healthy stuff—the fruits, the veggies, the whole grains, and the lean proteins,” she says.
Teaching your kids to have a healthy relationship with food early on can give them the tools to be healthy for the rest of their life. Here are five pediatrician- and nutritionist-approved ways to encourage kids to eat more nutritiously.
1. Limit desserts to weekends. “For my family, our rule is that we can have dessert Friday, Saturday, Sunday. So that usually covers those birthday parties and things like that,” says Largeman-Roth.
2. Don’t deprive. “It’s important not to deprive kids ether, because they’re going to gorge when they see their sweets and their goldfish and their pretzels,” says Alok Patel, a pediatrician at New York Presbyterian and Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital.
3. Supplement treats with healthy choices. “Talk to them [about] why things aren’t healthy,” says Preeti Parikh, MD, a pediatrician at Mount Sinai Hospital and HealthiNation’s chief medical editor. “Say, ‘you know what you can have this now, then later let’s pick a healthy choice. What’s the healthy choice we’re going to eat today because we just had that treat?’”
4. Teach how treats affect their body. “Say, ‘we can have treats, but this is what it does to your body. It’s going to make your stomach not feel so good, and you’re going to have low energy,’ Educate them. You’ll be surprised how much kids actually respond to that,” says Dr. Parikh.
5. Limit portions. Tell your kids: “If you eat healthy and you eat fruits and vegetables, good lean proteins almost all of the time, then when you go to that birthday party you can have that piece of cake. You can’t have two pieces of pizza, you don’t have to have two pieces of cake, but you can have it. But if you don’t eat well all the time then I’m not going to let you have it when we go out to that party,” says Dr. Hes.
Just like in your own diet, it’s OK for kids to indulge, as long as they’re healthy most of the time. “Parents don’t like to say no all the time, so it has to be about balance,” says Dr. Hes.
Dr. Hes is a pediatrician and medical director of Gramercy Pediatrics in New York City. She is double board certified in pediatrics and obesity medicine.
Frances Largeman-RothFrances Largeman-Roth is a nutritionist and cookbook author in New York City.
Alok PatelDr. Patel is a pediatrician at New York Presbyterian-Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital.
Preeti ParikhPreeti Parikh, MD serves as the Chief Medical Officer of HealthiNation. She is a board-certified pediatrician practicing at Westside Pediatrics, is an Assistant Clinical Professor at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and is an American Academy of Pediatrics spokesperson. She holds degrees from Columbia University and Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and has completed post-graduate training at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
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So kids, as adults, are bombarded
by unhealthy food all the time.
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Kids are invited to parties every weekend,
there's holidays, there's Halloween,
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there's Christmas.
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The food is non-stop, and I always say
parents don't like to say no all the time.
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So it has to be about balance.
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[MUSIC]
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It's so important to really show your
kids what healthy eating is at home.
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It is fine to have treats,
it is fine to have cake and
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ice cream, but that has to be
balanced out with the healthy stuff.
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The fruits, the veggies,
the whole grains, the lean protein.
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So for my family, our rule is that we can
have dessert Friday, Saturday Sunday.
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And so that usually covers those
birthday parties and things like that.
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It's important not to deprive kids
either, because then they're going to
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gorish when they see their sweets and
their goldfish and their pretzels.
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So instead, talk to them why things
aren't healthy, and then you know what?
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You can have this now, but later,
let's pick a healthy choice.
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What's the choice we're gonna eat today,
cuz now we just had that treat.
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And limit the treats.
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And say, we can have treats, but
this is what it does to your body.
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It's gonna make your stomach feel not so
good, you're gonna have low energy.
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And educate them, you'll be surprised
how much kids actually respond to that.
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If you eat healthy,
and you eat fruit and
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vegetables and good lean proteins, almost
all of the time, then when we go to that
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birthday party you can have the pizza and
the piece of the cake.
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You don't have to have
two pieces of pizza.
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You don't have to have two pieces of cake,
but we can have it.
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But if you don't eat well all the time,
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then I'm not gonna let you have
it when we go out to that party.
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