Building Healthy Eaters at Home: A Parent-to-Parent Chat

Dear fellow Parents,

I want to share something that has surprised me throughout my studies: healthy eating is far simpler than most of us have been led to believe. You really don’t need a Harvard biochemistry course or a degree from Aberdeen to put a balanced plate in front of your child. The recommendations from the World Health Organisation and EU food authorities are wonderfully clear, and if we explain a few of these basics to our kids in language they can grasp, we give them a foundation that will serve them for the rest of their lives.

Let me start with the part that seems to confuse families the most, which is carbohydrates. Despite what trendy diets suggest, carbs are not the enemy. They are the steady fuel our children’s brains and their growing bodies depend on. Complex carbs in particular, like oats, wholegrain bread, brown rice, pasta, potatoes, legumes and fruit, deliver consistent energy throughout the day. With my own two athletes at home, I have seen first hand how dropping their carb intake leads to tired afternoons, scratchy moods and slower recoveries after training. Carbs should not just be allowed, they should be the largest part of the plate.

Protein is the second piece, and it is the one parents most often worry about. The reassuring news is that most children, unless they follow a strict vegan diet, get plenty of it from a normal mix of dairy, eggs, fish, meat, beans and pulses. Protein builds muscle and quietly powers almost every system in the body, so we want enough of it at each meal, but there is no need to push protein shakes or bars onto growing kids when whole foods are already doing the job beautifully.

Then there are fats, which deserve a much better reputation than they have. Healthy fats keep hormones in balance, support brain development and help our children absorb essential vitamins. The fats we want on regular rotation are the ones from oily fish, olives and olive oil, avocado, nuts and seeds. The ones to keep occasional are the trans fats and heavy saturated fats hiding in many ultra-processed snacks and fried takeaways.

Now, here is where it gets less about food groups and more about family culture. One of the most important things we can do as parents is to stop using food as a reward or a punishment. When we promise pudding for finishing vegetables, or cancel a treat because of bad behaviour, we accidentally teach our children that some foods are emotional currency. Those associations are surprisingly sticky, and many of us still wrestle with them as adults. At the same time, we don’t want to make any food taboo. If a child eats well most of the time, an ice cream after a match or a Friday night pizza is completely fine. In my experience, kids and teens who are properly fed do not crave junk food the way we might fear, simply because their bodies are not running on empty.

Children also understand more than we give them credit for. When we tell them that food is what builds their bones, their muscles, their brains and their moods, they begin to make better choices on their own. The phrase “you are what you eat” lands surprisingly well with younger kids, and even teenagers respond when we explain why something matters rather than simply forbidding it (sometimes you have to counter social media influencers that promote questionable diet approaches too).

Of course, all of this starts at home. Cooking together, sitting down to balanced meals as a family and modelling healthier choices when we eat out shapes our children’s relationship with food more than any single conversation ever will. They are watching us closely, and the small things we do over and over again quietly become their normal.

Another approach worth bringing into your kitchen is intuitive eating. This is simply the practice of helping our children listen to their own bodies, to notice when they are hungry and when they are full, and to eat in response to those signals rather than to clean a plate or to follow the clock. It is a skill they will need long after we stop packing their lunches. I think this is especially important for girls, who are far more likely to start restricting food during their teenage years. Eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia are incredibly difficult to treat once they take hold, and the strongest prevention I know of is a steady, calm, body-positive food culture at home.

So my gentle invitation to all of us is this: be the model, be the teacher, be the inspiration. Talk to your children about why we eat what we eat. Cook with them, eat with them, and let them see you enjoying real food without guilt. That is how we raise kids who will keep feeding themselves well long after they leave our table. And when fueled right, the performance will peak.

With love and a full plate,

Olesya
/mum of two and clinical nutrition candidate at the University of Aberdeen/

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Building Healthy Eaters at Home: A Parent-to-Parent Chat

Building Healthy Eaters at Home: A Parent-to-Parent Chat

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