Как да създадем здравословни хранителни навици при децата?

Nurturing children’s healthy eating  through early habits!

Future global health depends on the health of today’s children. Those children who establish healthy eating habits early in life will be well-equiped to maintain their good health far into adult life. During the last IUNS congress in Oct. 2017 and the last Nutrition & Growth Conference, in March 2018, the Danone Institute International presented the “Nurturing Children’s Healthy Eating” support document, with the aim of instilling positive changes to support families in creating healthy eating habits in children.

If the education role is key, some foods, as yogurt, may also be good helpers to introduce and acquire healthy eating habits.

Yogurt as a good contributor to children’s nutrient intake

A large proportion of the population does not meet the Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) for several vitamins and minerals. An interesting solution could lie on yogurt, known for its nutrient density within the dairy food group. Several studies in the US, UK or Spain have shown the interesting contribution of yogurt to nutrition intake, especially for children. The yogurt, as a nutrient-dense food, helps meeting the dietary guidelines, specifically in micronutrients like calcium, iodine or vitamin B12.

Yogurt associated with a better diet quality among children

If yogurt may be associated with a better nutrition intake of micronutrients, recent studies show also that it may have a role in the overall diet quality and even the quality of life among children and adolescents. It can be an interesting tool to introduce new healthy eating habits in children.

Yogurt as a way to introduce new healthy eating habits in children and teens

Frequent consumption of yogurt may contribute to an improvement of diet quality and insulin profile in children. The frequent consumers (min. one serving per week) have a better diet quality.
Introducing healthy habits with a regular breakfast including yogurt could be a good initiative. A recent study shows indeed that children who skipped breakfast eat snacks more often for lunch and are more often in overweight or obese.

TO GO FURTHER…

YINI experts have published several documents and takeaways on Children’s nutrition and healthy eating, which are at your disposal:

All you need to know about yogurt and children’s health, a practical hand-out, published in March 2017 for the 2017 Nutrition & Growth congress.

Yogurt and children’s health: summary and best of studies, published in March 2017

The valuable reasons why yogurt is a great snack for children (infography)

Yogurt, good food for everybody, a “Yogurt in Nutrition digest” published in 2017

RECENT NEWS
Yogurt associated with better diet quality in children
Yogurt consumption is associated with higher nutrient intake, better diet quality and improved metabolic profiles in children
According to a recent study on UK’s National Diet and Nutrition Survey, children who often consume yogurt may have a healthier diet and better metabolic profiles than those who don’t eat yogurt. Including yogurt in children’s diet may prove to be a great way to boost their intake of certain key nutrients, particularly calcium, magnesium, iodine and riboflavin, say the authors.

Switching to whole-fat fermented milk is associated with reduced risk of stroke

Substituting whole-fat fermented milk in place of other dairy types is associated with a reduced risk of ischaemic stroke, according to the results of this large-scale Danish study. The findings call into question dietary guidelines that recommend low-fat dairy products to prevent stroke.