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How You as the Parent Can Help Prevent Heart Disease in your Children Later in Life

Parents, you want to do whatever you can to spare your children pain and suffering right? Well, what you do with them now can affect their health later when they are your age. Do you want them to be at the doctor's getting the bad news that they have heart disease? Chances are you do not. So the habits they form today need to be able to serve them well in the future and it is up to you to set a good example and ensure they are healthy and pick up good habits as far as eating and exercise is concerned.

Starting with the diet

Examine your children's eating habits as well as your own. After all, they are not necessarily going to buckle down to eat right unless you are right along with them - lead by example remember? Do your cabinets have an overabundance of chips, cookies, snack cakes and other overly processed, sugary foods? You are going to have to replace them with healthier options! Baked chips or even veggie chips are good. Fruits are important. Make your cookies homemade so you can control the ingredients like using whole wheat flour over white flour and honey instead of sugar.

Read food labels. Even foods you think are healthy may be full of salt, sugar and refined ingredients. Choose whole grain foods over those made from white flour. Look for the "good fats" like monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats and ban the saturated and trans fats as much as possible. Drink low fat milk, water or all natural fruit juice instead of sodas or juice cocktails that are loaded down with sugars.

Make fast food a treat instead of par for the course when your life is busy. It does not take much time to make a healthy sandwich, which is a much better alternative than a hamburger or chicken nuggets. Pick portable foods like fruit that you can eat without preparation like apples, bananas or grapes. There are a number of things you can do so that your kids eat healthier.

Exercise time

In these times of the internet, Nintendo and television, fewer kids are staying active outdoors. You've got to put a stop to that and limit their electronic activity. Get your kids riding their bikes, walking to the park, running around playing tag, playing Frisbee or tossing the ball. Get a gym membership for the family so everyone can go swimming, try some weight lifting or strength training and play organized sports.

Pop a musical movie in the DVD player and encourage your kids to dance and sing to it. Start a garden and enlist their help carrying dirt, digging holes and watering the garden. There are plenty of things you can do as a parent to get your children moving. In this day and age of schools focusing on standardized testing, physical education and recess are often phased out. It is up to you to ensure the kids are getting the activity they need to stay health.

By instilling good eating and exercise habits now in your children, you are setting them up for a lifetime of good health. You are giving them the best gift possible - the gift of prolonged life.