Home Cooking Tips for Children
Good cooking is essential for the health and well-being of every family.
Whoever cooks for their family is building not only a healthy and peaceful
home, but a healthy and peaceful world. We encourage all members of the
family to study and practice this all-important art. The joy of selecting,
preparing, and serving balanced natural foods can be taught to every child. All
members of the family can help in the kitchen.
The flavor of foods can be varied. Children need a more naturally sweet taste,
such as that of properly cooked grains and vegetables. Adults and elders may
have a variety of tastes, while sick persons tend to dislike strongly flavored
dishes, including those with spicy or bitter flavors.
You will want to mind what your children eat and take note of their food
preferences. Parents, who observe what their children eat, and then see how
they behave afterward, can learn much about how to cook for them. It is very
important to notice whether your children are happy, sad, crying, fighting, or
peaceful, and then remember what it was that they ate to make them this
way.
Each child has different needs and wants. If you are sensitive to these
differences, you can avoid many problems or sicknesses. Make suggestions to
your children about what to eat if they are older and able to understand the
importance of food. Point out how the foods they eat affect their behavior.
Explain how certain foods cause problems and how other foods are good for
their health. However, for children to develop properly, you need to be flexible.
Give them time to think about these ideas, and let them make the association
between the foods they eat and their physical and emotional health. Rather
than imposing rules or using discipline to control their eating habits, let your
children experience and discover things for them¬selves. If parents do not
clearly understand the relationship between food and health, their method of
handling these matters may become rigid or conceptual.