By Susan Y Attiyah

It's easy after a hard day of work to pick up fast food for dinner. Your kids need more than that, and they need you to set the example. Here's some helpful advice for establishing some healthy eating habits for your kids.

Following the pyramid
Trying to get your children to eat right seems to become harder and harder. How can we make it easier to get them to have healthy eating habits? Although nothing is easier after a hard day at work than to order pizza or go through the McDonald's drive thru, they can't eat that forever. As concerned parents, we want our children to eat the correct amount of servings in the food pyramid, which includes:

• Dairy: 2 to 3 servings
• Meat: 2 to 3 servings
• Fruit: 2 to 4 servings
• Vegetables: 3 to 5 servings
• Bread group: 6 to 11 servings

Seasoning improves taste
Parents today know more than they did before about preparing healthier foods at home that taste better. Seasoning can make a world of difference in eating healthier as well. There was a time that people chose not to eat healthier because the food didn't have any taste to it, everything was bland. Now, there have been so many new and different types of seasonings that improve the tastes of these healthy foods.

Other ideas would be to have your children help prepare the meals and set the table for dinner. Doing things in the kitchen makes the children proud of themselves and that can help encourage them to eat. If allowed, try eating dinner at the same time every night so that it becomes a routine. There are families who can only be together at the same time every day at dinnertime; it's also the best way to find out more about your children and how their day went.

Grocery shopping together for meals can also be helpful. Have your children help choose what to prepare for the next day; the more they ask for certain meals the more they will eat.

Set limits on sweets
As much as we would like to cut out fat and sweets from their diets the more they will want it. Offer certain treats to your children, just offer them in a moderate amount. At the same time, have a wide variety of healthy foods available in the home.

Vegetables are a great snack, especially when served with a dip. You can always put cut up vegetables in a little bag for car trips or any other place you are heading to in a hurry. They are also good to eat before sport events and exercising because it is so light on your stomach.

"My son Zachery is fond of cheese and apple 'sandwiches,' which are slices cut up an stacked together. I also like to make him a concoction of 'squirrel food' which is peanuts, raisins, cheese and apple cut up and he loves it," says Hannah Hayes, a freelance writer and teacher. "I also offer him crackers, like Ritz or Wheat Thins, which are his favorite. They take the place of potato chips as well as, cheese and cracker sandwiches do."

And what about that sweet tooth those kids always seem to have? Explain and show your children there are fruits that are sweet too. Kids may think fruit is boring, it is up to us as parents to show them how appealing fruits can be. Some quick and handy options for sweets can be, granola bars with chocolate bits, flavored yogurts, Nutri-Grain bars, and how about a good ol' peanut butter and jelly sandwich? Kids are usually only familiar with raisins - have them experience other types of dried fruits as well. Sure, some of these snacks are expensive and the costs can add up, but think about the health benefits in the long run.

Be creative with fruit
Carrie Myers Smith, mother of four and an exercise physiologist says, "In our family we do many things to make fruit different. For instance, serve apples and bananas with peanut butter. Sometimes I slice the banana cross-wise (into small circles), put peanut butter on each one, and stick a small pretzel stick in the middle of each. They love to pick them up by the pretzel. Or, I cut the banana length-wise in half, smear each with peanut butter and put 'ants' on them (raisins). Apples are good sliced with peanut butter, too, with or without 'ants.'"

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