When it comes to eating healthy, it goes beyond just the foods you eat, but it also includes the way you prepare those foods and the seasonings you use in those foods. You can take a healthy food, but if you prepare it with seasonings that are loaded with empty calories, you have defeated the purpose of eating healthy foods. In order to assure that you are eating the healthiest foods possible, you want to pay close attention to the way you prepare foods your family eats and the type of seasonings you include. Many herbs and spices have almost no calories yet provide flavoring that is even tastier than that of the customary butter, salt and pepper.

One of the problems with choosing healthy foods is learning to prepare them in ways that are healthy as well. For example, when people buy zucchini, the first thing they want to do is bread it and fry it in butter which turns a healthy vegetable into one that is high in saturated fat and cholesterol.  If you want to fry foods, you should learn to use olive oil which has no cholesterol and is actually healthy for you. Learning to bake or grill meats instead of frying them makes a big difference in not only the calorie content but also the cholesterol and fat. Unfortunately there are still many people who insist on frying chicken, steak and pork chops because that is the way they were taught or because they have developed their own recipe and think any other method of cooking will spoil the flavor of their creation. It’s important to learn how to make adjustments so that your family is eating meals that are healthier, something that is not only a part of the foods you prepare but also the way you prepare them as well.

In addition to parents learning how to cook healthy foods, the schools need to learn to prepare healthy snacks. Some of the responsibility falls to the vending machine vendors that service the schools, but with Healthy Student Vending (a YoNaturals initiative) offering healthy and organic snacks, they can replace the empty calorie snacks that many schools now offer in their vending machines. Replacing unhealthy snacks in vending machines in our schools is certainly a step in the right direction, but it has to follow to every area of a child’s life, especially the home. Parents need to make a commitment to change the foods they buy and the way they cook them in order to provide their families with healthy meals.

Author: Brenda Coxe

Author: Laura Rayburn

In the on-going fight against childhood obesity, it is increasingly important for parents to model healthy behavior for their children. It’s no secret that children look to their parents for ideas on what kinds of actions, behaviors, and attitudes are accepted and expected in their household. Children will then imitate these patterns and habits that are set forth by their parents or guardians. This means that, as a parent, it’s your responsibility to model the positive attributes that you want and expect to see in your children one day, including good attitudes toward healthy eating and exercise routines.

The food that you put on your child’s plate (and on your own plate) now will affect them for the rest of their life. Feed them healthy foods now, and later on it will seem strange to them if they are not eating healthy foods. For example, if you put an emphasis on purchasing and preparing fresh vegetables for dinner each night, then your children will be much more likely to make fresh veggies a cornerstone of their diets when they are grown and have families of their own.

Exercise is another area where you can get your child involved early on. A cursory glance at your local park will reveal that there are many new moms and dads that take their babies out for jogs, walks, and bike rides. In addition to the physical fitness benefits that you will reap now, bringing your children up in a climate where fitness is emphasized will benefit them as they grow older and are able to exercise on their own. As your child matures into her adolescent years, talk to her about the importance of maintaining a regular exercise schedule and the impact of exercise on your own health.

Another positive habit that you can model for your children is maintaining a positive body image. Even as children, they will be on the receiving end of many of the messages that our culture sends. Unfortunately, one of the messages with potential to cause the most harm is that in order to be beautiful, a person must meet certain physical standards set forth by the fashion industry. Reinforce positive ideas about physical fitness and healthy eating instead of focusing your attention on comparing yourself to a stick-thin supermodel.
Last but not least, remember that it’s going to be difficult to always be prepared with a healthy snack when you’re a parent. Fortunately, these days you have a better option than choosing a snack or soda from the traditional vending machines. Seek out YoNaturals healthy vending machines instead. Choose it for you, and choose it for your child.

Author: Jessica Vachal

Eating healthy can most certainly be tricky, especially when you are dealing with so many other difficulties and stresses in your life. The last thing you want to have to think about is how many calories you are eating or how much more fiber you may need in your diet. All you seem to have time to concentrate on is how much work you have to do or all the errands you have to run, and all you want is to stuff yourself full of enough food to keep your stomach from growling through your next meeting.

Unfortunately, most people use potato chips or candies from the vending machine at work to keep themselves satiated enough to get through the day, when in reality this food is  not at all beneficial to their bodies and is serving no good at all to the functioning of your day. Unfortunately, most people don’t have the option of choosing their midday snacks from a YoNaturals healthy vending machine, which offers organic fruit juices and other organic snacks, and instead are only given options ranging from fatty chips to too-sugary candy bars. This is no selection at all, really, being as it is that foods this high in fat and oils can do nothing for your body but deplete it of vital nutrients. This, in turn, leaves you feeling hungrier throughout the day rather than full for that meeting.

The key to staying fuller, longer is to eat foods that are more full of fiber and nutrients so your body is getting benefit from the meals you eat rather than ending up hungry again in a couple of hours. Eat fresh fruits and vegetables and you will be amazed at how well your body will function throughout the day and how satiated you will remain for not all that many calories. Yes counting calories can be exhausting and frustrating which is why so few people do it on a daily basis. However, if you simply focus on making sure to eat fresh fruits and vegetables, you don’t have to worry about counting the calories you consume because you can rest assured that the calorie count will not be very high with how full the foods will make you, and the nutrients your body will be getting will make any excess calories worth it. Of course eat protein sources as well, but make sure you don’t skimp on the fruits and veggies!

Jessica VachalThe desire to eat healthfully is the sort of thing that is affecting all adults these days – the desire to look your best is a huge push towards this desire, but whatever it takes, right? The same should be true for children, however, and with the childhood obesity epidemic reaching epic proportions in the United States today, looking good can even be a minimal priority at such tender ages. The fact is, overweight children have a tendency to be teased at school, and wouldn’t any parents want to spare their children from any teaching if at all possible? There should be no focus on a child to look any certain way of course – there is no need to plant seeds that may forever damage a child’s fragile ego – but there should definitely be an emphasis on encouraging your child to be healthy.

Being healthy can mean nothing more scary or intense than eating fruits and vegetables. The push to encourage kids to eat such foods however, can be rather tricky, as any human being is going to go for fatty, sugary foods over fresh fruits and vegetables for taste alone. Yet that is the key to starting your children off young in learning what is healthy to eat and what is not. The child who grows up eating fruits and vegetables habitually and having fast food as a treat every now and again is going to be much more capable to keep their weight down all throughout their adult life, and will lead a healthier lifestyle because of it..

This responsibility does fall on the parents, however, because they must lead by example. They must teach a child what is good to eat everyday and what is not so that a child can make good decisions all by himself. If you teach that fruit juice is better than soda, then a child will be able to choose the YoNaturals vending machine between the vending machine options at school, and will choose one of their organic fruit juices or organic snacks rather than the potato chips or chocolate candies located in one of the other vending machines. Giving your child the tools to deal with life on their own is the real task of parenthood, after all. So make sure you work as a family to teach healthy living habits to your children, and do your best to keep them from picking up unhealthy habits that will hinder them into adulthood.

Author: Jessica Vachal

The push to eat and live healthfully is a strong one for many Americans – despite the rising rates of obesity in their country. Unfortunately, the same needs to be just as true for parents - as childhood obesity is becoming an epidemic within this country as well. It cannot be denied that there is nothing sadder than the thought of your child being teased by mean classmates or standard bullies. However, overweight children are very often the brunt of such cruel childhood pranks, and as parents we should want to do everything possible to keep that from happening with our own children. However, in order to do this, parents generally need to make the first stand in setting an example for their children and in doing so, they need to start eating and living healthfully on a day-to-day basis.

After all, many adults will eat or live healthfully as a particular date draws near that they want to look their best for – a reunion, a vacation, and so forth. When a child is looking up to you for guidance, however, you need to ensure that you are being healthy day in and day out or else your offspring will not learn that this is the way life should be lived every single day. Eating fruits and vegetables is one easy way to make living healthfully a part of your day-to-day life, and at the same time this will allow you to teach your children that the best way to stay healthy and, let’s face it, trim, is to eat a diet rich in both fruits and vegetables. High in fiber and relatively low in calories, fresh fruits and vegetables are a great way to teach your children – and to teach yourself – how to feel fuller, longer with great nutritional benefits to boot.

Learning that fruits and vegetables should be the largest component of your daily intake of food can help a child to make smart choices when they are left to their own devices as well. At school, a well-taught child may choose to get a fast lunch from the YoNaturals vending machine on campus and will choose from its selection of organic fruit juices and organic snacks rather than the potato chips and soda from a neighboring vending machine. A well-taught child will go to a friend’s house and have an extra serving of salad with their pizza rather than two extra slices. The point is that parents must be involved, however, so go to it moms and dads, and buy some bananas and carrots for the fridge.