Creating good eating habits from the moment of birth is important to the lifelong health of a child.

Parents play a big role in shaping children’s eating habits. When parents eat a variety of foods that are low in fat and sugar and high in fiber, children learn to like these foods as well. It may take 10 or more tries before a child accepts a new food, so do not give up if your child does not like a new food right away.

Parents have an effect on children’s physical activity habits as well. You can set a good example by going for a walk or bike ride after dinner instead of watching TV. Playing ball or jumping rope with your children shows them that being active is fun.

Just like adults, children need to eat a wide variety of foods for good health. When you help children build healthy eating habits early, they will approach eating with a positive attitude—that food is something to enjoy, help them grow, and give them energy.

To have a healthy life, it needs a proper diet or a balanced diet.To have this kind of diet here is the eigth recomendations for a healthy diet.

First , Learn the four basic food groups:

* milk products: milk, cheese, yogurt, and ice cream
* meat/eggs: red meats, poultry, fish, and eggs
* grains: breads, cereals, rice, pasta, and so forth
* fruits/vegetables; may be consumed as solids or juices.

Twenty percent of a healthy diet should consist of milk, meat and eggs, and 80 percent should be vegetables, fruits, and grains. (Fiber is found in grains, fruits, and vegetables.) This is similar to the recommendations that children receive 55 percent of their calories from carbohydrates, 30 percent from fats, and 15 percent from proteins.

Second, Eat three meals a day.

Breakfast is essential for children. Skipping breakfast can compromise performance at school. For dieters, skipping breakfast usually doesn’t lead to weight loss. All meals should contain fruits or vegetables, as well as grains. Meat or milk should be included in two of the meals.

Eating snacks is largely a habit. Snacks are unnecessary for good nutrition but harmless unless your child is overweight. If your child likes snacks (and most children do), encourage fruits, vegetables, and grains, but don’t give them close to mealtime.

Third,Decrease the amount of fat (meat and milk products) in the die.

Americans eat excessive amounts of meat and dairy products. Although cholesterol is important for rapid growth, children over age 2 should consume it in moderation (not eliminate it).

To decrease the amount of fat in the diet, follow these guidelines:

* Remember that one serving of meat per day is adequate for normal growth and development. (Don’t serve meat more than twice a day.)
* Serve more fish and poultry and fewer red meats, since the latter have the highest cholesterol levels. Lean red meats are lean ground beef, pork loin, veal, and lamb.
* Trim fat off meats and the skin from poultry.
* Don’t serve bacon, sausages, spareribs, pastrami, and other meats that have a high fat content. Cut back on hot dogs, lunchmeats, and corned beef.
* Limit the number of eggs to 3 or 4 per week. (Eggs have the highest cholesterol content of any of the commonly eaten foods. The cholesterol in one egg is equivalent to the cholesterol in 14 ounces of beef, 1-and-1/2 quarts of whole milk, or 1 quart of ice cream.)
* Serve 2 percent milk instead of whole milk for children over 2 years of age.
* Decrease the amount of milk your child drinks to 2 or 3 cups per day. (Encourage your child to drink water to satisfy thirst.)

On the other hand, some teenage girls may need to be reminded to consume adequate milk products (the equivalent of 3 glasses of milk) to lay down the bone mass required to prevent osteoporosis later in life.
* Buy margarine instead of butter.
* Keep in mind that red meat may be hard to give up because of the widespread misconception that red meat helps to build muscle mass and strength.

Fourth, Increase the amount of fruits, vegetables, and grains in the diet

Follow these guidelines:

* Children should consume at least five servings of fruits and vegetables per day. (Fifty percent of American children eat only one fruit or vegetable per day.)
* Try to serve a fruit at every meal.
* Offer fruits as dessert and snacks.
* Start every day with a glass of fruit juice. (Caution: limit fruit juices to 2 cups per day to prevent diarrhea.)
* Since fruits and vegetables are interchangeable, don’t force children to eat vegetables they don’t like.
* When making casseroles, increase the amount of vegetables and decrease the amount of meat.
* Serve more soups.
* Encourage more cereals for breakfast.
* Use more whole-grain bread in making sandwiches.

Fitfth, Include an adequate amount of iron in the diet.

Throughout our lives we need adequate iron in our diets to prevent anemia. Everyone should know which foods are good sources of iron. Red meats, fish, and poultry are best. One serving per day of these foods will provide adequate iron. Although liver is a good source of iron, it contains 16 times more cholesterol than beef and should be avoided. For young children who refuse meats in general, use low-fat luncheon meats as a meat source. Adequate iron is also found in iron-enriched cereals, beans of all types, peanut butter, raisins, prune juice, sweet potatoes, spinach, and egg yolks. The iron in these foods is better absorbed if the meal also contains fruit juice or meat.

Sixth, Avoid excessive salt.

Salt is not usually harmful for people without high blood pressure. However, to discourage a taste for excessive salt in infants do not add it to their foods. Remove the salt shaker from the dinner table. Use other herbs and spices instead of salt. Purchase salty foods such as potato chips and pretzels sparingly.

Seventh,Avoid excessive pure sugars.

Sweets are not bad, but they should be eaten in moderation. Most humans are born with a “sweet tooth.” They seek out and enjoy candy, soft drinks, and desserts. The main side effect of eating candy is tooth decay if the teeth are not brushed afterward. Eating food with a lot of sugar (”a sugar binge”) can cause, 2 or 3 hours later, jitters, sweating, dizziness, sleepiness, and intense hunger. This temporary reaction is not harmful and can be relieved by eating some food. A love of sweets is not related to obesity (if the total calories per day are normal) or hyperactivity. A high amount of sugar in the diet has not been correlated with coronary artery disease or cancer.

Eight, Know what to eat before exercise.

Eating meat does not improve athletic performance. The best foods to consume before prolonged exercise are complex carbohydrates. These include bread, pasta (noodles), potatoes, and rice. These should be consumed 3 to 4 hours before the athletic event so they have passed out of the stomach.

Water consumption continues to be important up to the time of participation and every 20 to 30 minutes during the activity.

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Going on” a diet ” is not the answer to losing weight. This is because the weight is soon regained after you “go off” your diet. If diets really worked, there wouldn’t be so many of them! Instead, your usual eating and exercising patterns need to be changed so that your weight stays right for you.

Even though everyone talks about weight, it’s really how much fat you have that matters. Two people can be the same height and weigh the same, but one person may look overweight and the other may look fine. Someone who exercises regularly and has more muscle looks thinner than someone who is inactive and has more fat.

You may think you should weigh less when your weight is already a healthy one. Pictures of models in magazines pressure people into thinking that they should be very thin.

The high prevalence of obesity and overweight problems in our culture means much more emphasis is placed on losing weight rather than gaining weight. It is easy to forget about people who have the problem of being too thin.

Being underweight can result from eating disorders, chronic diseases, and it is also a concern for athletes and naturally thin people who wish to be bigger, stronger, and more muscular. Elderly people may become underweight. The gradual loss of taste and smell, or the inability to prepare healthy meals, results in becoming too thin.

While being overweight or obese is a well-known risk factor for chronic diseases, being too thin may also increase a person’s risk of dying from diseases such as heart failure and cancer. Elderly women who are underweight may become frail, which means they are more likely to suffer from osteoporosis and hip fractures. Being underweight may also increase a man’s chance of erectile dysfunction.

How to gain weight

Weight gain is as difficult as losing it, if you are naturally thin. Gaining weight is a problem for many people. They complain that they can’t put on any weight.

Increasing your intake of junk foods and greasy foods is not a good way to gain weight. Junk foods usually contain unhealthy trans fats or saturated fats. Even though you need to increase your calorie consumption to gain weight, those calories should come from foods that are good for you.

Healthy fats include omega-3 essential fatty acids sources like tuna, salmon, flax, and walnuts. Good sources of protein include lean meats, fish, poultry, nuts, seeds and legumes. Healthy carbohydrate sources include fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

It may be easier to eat five or six smaller balanced meals per day rather than eating three large meals, especially if you are not used to eating much at one sitting.

Protein powders and nutritional supplement drinks such as Ensure (buy direct) can be added as in-between meal snacks if you still need more calories. Some protein powders are flavored and only need added water and some others can be blended with your choice of juice or milk to improve the taste.

It would also be a healthy idea to add a small amount of flax seed oil and some psyllium powder to add some omega-3 essential fatty acids and extra fiber.

Why Men Want To Gain Weight?

1. Men, just like women have to live up to the medias expectations of what an ideal male body looks like. However, many men, especially young men are naturally thin with high metabolisms. So they feel they have some catching up to do to look “ideal”
2. Men feel women like men with larger muscles
3. Being skinny can make you look awkward in your clothes. It might be hard to find shirts that look good on you or pants that complement your body.
4. Men want to be macho. they want to feel strong and powerful.
5. Gaining weight helps men dramatically increase their confidence levels.

Tools to Help You Gain Weight

Use these tips and tools to help gain weight:

* Use a food diary to track your calorie intake to be sure you are getting all of the calories and foods that you need.
* You can also use an online program such as Calorie Count Plus to track your calorie intake, your exercise and your changes in weight. Calorie Count Plus has a large data base of nutrition information for almost any food you like to eat.
* Add healthy calories to breakfast with an extra slice of whole-grain toast and peanut butter.
* Mid-morning and afternoon snacks should be nutritious, not junk. Trail mixes contain healthy nuts, dried fruits and can add healthy calories to your diet.
* Don’t add calories to your meals by choosing unhealthy fried foods such as french fries, chicken nuggets and fish sticks. Choose healthy foods such as baked potatoes, baked chicken and fish, just make your portions a bit bigger.
* Keep your meals balanced. One meal should have a healthy protein source such as fish, low fat meat, chicken or legumes plus two or three servings of vegetables. Green vegetables add lots of vitamins and phytonutrients while starchy potatoes and corn add extra calories.
* Drink healthy beverages such as milk and fruit juices to add calories. Don’t choose sugary sodas, which only add calories and no nutrition.
* Design a weight training program with help from About.com’s exercise site and our weight training site.

How to Lose Weight

Weight loss is a tricky topic. Lots of people are unhappy with their present weight, but most aren’t sure how to change it — and many would be better off staying where they are. You may want to look like the models or actors in magazines and on TV, but those goals might not be healthy or realistic for you. Besides, no magical diet or pill will make you look like someone else.

Despite what you may think, losing weight isn’t a mysterious process. In fact, weight loss doesn’t even have to involve strange diets, special exercises or even the ‘magic’ of pills or fitness gadgets. Want the secret to weight loss? Make small changes each and every day and you’ll slowly (but surely) lose those extra pounds.

To lose one pound, you must burn approximately 3500 calories over and above what you already burn doing daily activities.

Skipping meals is not helpful for a healthy diet,though skipping meals may work for a while, it backfires in the long run. This is because you get hungry and frustrated, and then eat too much at once.
You may be so used to skipping meals that you don’t feel hungry at normal mealtimes. For example, you may not be hungry in the morning. But after about a month of eating a normal breakfast and lunch and a light dinner, your body will readjust.

The best way to lose weight is to work on the things that have contributed to your being overweight. A new diet plan may help you lose weight for a little while. But the weight often comes back unless you find new ways to deal with the things that have contributed to your being overweight. This may include learning new ways to deal with your stress, finding ways to feel less lonely or talking with a counselor about how you’re feeling.

A few general tips may help you.

1. A regular exercise program. Few people lose weight and keep it off without exercise. Your doctor can help you plan an exercise program that will be right for you.

2. A regular eating pattern. For most people, this will be three meals a day. The three meals should be about equal in size, and the foods eaten should be low in fat.

3. Support. Support from family or friends is very important for long-term success in losing weight.

Exercise has so many benefits for people who want to lose weight. Regular exercise helps you burn calories faster, even when you’re sitting still. Exercise does this by raising your metabolism. It also helps you burn fat and build muscle. So, even if you don’t lose pounds, you may lose inches.
Exercise also tends to curb your appetite. It’s a healthy alternative to eating for entertainment. It can help reduce stress. Exercise is good for the health of your heart and bones too.

The best kind of exercise is exercise that you’ll keep doing throughout your life. Aerobic exercise raises your heart rate and helps burn calories. The longer you exercise, the more your body will burn fat. Working out for even as little as 10 minutes at a time will help you get some benefit from aerobic exercise. Aerobic exercises include swimming, walking fast, jogging and bicycling. Try to work up to 20 to 30 minutes at leas three times a week.

Walking, even at a slow rate, can be very helpful. If you choose this as your exercise, work up to walking for one hour, five times a week.
The main thing to remember is that any sort of exercise is better than none at all.

To be helpful in the long run, the exercise you choose can’t be a drudge or a chore. Choose an exercise you enjoy. Exercising with a friend may help. It may be hard for you to keep at something if you do it alone all of the time.

Tips on achieving a healthy weight

1. Eat only until you feel satisfied.
2. Begin meals with clear soups, broth or something light.
3. Eat vegetables, grain foods or other starchy foods and protein foods at each meal.
4. Eat slowly so your body has time to know when it’s full.
5. Drink 8 glasses of water a day.
6. Exercise.
7. Stock your desk or home cupboards with low-fat snacks.
8. Don’t keep high-fat foods in the house.
9. Avoid alcohol.
10. Let yourself indulge now and then. This helps you not feel deprived, which may
cause you to eat too much later.

Being healthy is really about being at a weight that is right for you. The best way to find out if you are at a healthy weight or if you need to lose or gain weight is to talk to a doctor or dietitian, who can compare your weight with healthy norms to help you set realistic goals. If it turns out that you can benefit from weight loss, then you can follow a few of the simple suggestions listed below to get started.

Weight management is about long-term success. People who lose weight quickly by crash dieting or other extreme measures usually gain back all (and often more) of the pounds they lost because they haven’t permanently changed their habits.

Calorie burning can be increased by controlling how we exercise. Different exercises burn various amounts of energy and some use different fuels. Take a look at some facts about burning calories. *

Calorie burning is higher when exercise is performed for longer periods

If exercise is performed at a faster pace more calories will be used

A higher number of calories are burned when exercise becomes intense

The heavier an individual the more energy burned during exercise

The more lean weight an individual possesses the more energy burned during rest

Fitter people tend to burn more fat during exercise

Weight is determined mostly by the balance of calories - how many you burn vs. how many you eat each day. To lose weight, you need to increase your activity to burn more and/or eat fewer calories each day.

Calories and Weight

A pound of fat equals 3500 calories. To lose 1 pound a week you will need to expend 3500 more calories than you eat that week, whether through increased activity or decreased eating or both. Losing 1-2 pounds of fat a week is a sensible goal, and so you will want to use the combination of increased activity and eating less that will total 3500 calories for 7 days.

How You Burn Calories

Your weight x distance = energy used walking. Time does not matter as much as distance. If you speed up to walking a mile in 13 minutes or less, you will be burning more calories per mile. But for most beginning walkers, it is best to increase the distance before working on speed. A simple rule of thumb is 100 calories per mile for a 180 pound person.

Note About the Calories Chart

You burn more calories per mile at very low speeds because you are basically stopping and starting with each step and your momentum isn’t helping to carry you along. Meanwhile, at very high walking speeds you are using more muscle groups with arm motion and with a racewalking stride. Those extra muscles burn up extra calories with each step. Running may burn more calories per mile as there is an up and down motion lifting your weight off the ground as well as moving it forward.

Water is crucial to our survival. Because our body is made up of 60% water, it is important to be aware of our body’s need for hydration. Each day we need to replace about 2 liters of fluid to balance general body losses. For athletes it is well established that dehydration can have detrimental effects on sports performance. Even in the presence of available fluids, that lowers blood volume and negatively affects performance. Given the tremendous amount of heat that must be dissipated during exercise through sweat evaporation, athletes must pursue strategies that will sustain the hydration state. Failure to do so will result in poor performance and may also lead to heat illness.

Fluid needs are important to your competition strategies, so start developing good drinking habits in advance. Look forward to better training when you are better hydrated. Be organized with drinking plenty of fluid over the day.

In general life, athletes should drink around 1.5 liters of water a day to help maintain hydration status. This baseline amount must be increased in hot conditions. Athletes should also avoid alcohol, tea, coffee and cola drinks, because these have a diuretic effect which increases dehydration.

Water is the appropriate drink before, during and after exercise. However, for exercise lasting longer than one hour and after exercise, it is important to replace electrolytes lost. Sodium replacement not only maintains blood concentration but also increases palatability, and therefore the desire to drink.

The addition of carbohydrates will delay the onset of fatigue and help to maintain blood glucose concentration. A sport drink with 4%-8% carbohydrate is recommended for replacement during exercise, especially with exercise bouts lasting longer than one hour. Gatorade, All Sport and PowerAde are all great choices. Coke, normal Lucozade and fruit juices are not suitable for rehydration because their concentration of CHO (carbohydrate) is too high.

Please be aware of the importance of hydration. It is a simple step that can save your life!

Good Calories

These are from foods without easily digestible carbohydrates and sugars. These foods can be eaten without restraint.

Meat, fish, fowl, cheese, eggs, butter, and non-starchy vegetables.

Bad Calories

These are from foods that stimulate excessive insulin secretion and so make us fat and increase our risk of chronic disease—all refined and easily digestible carbohydrates and sugars. The key is not how much vitamins and minerals they contain, but how quickly they are digested. (So apple juice or even green vegetable juices are not necessarily any healthier than soda.)

Bread and other baked goods, potatoes, yams, rice, pasta, cereal grains, corn, sugar (sucrose and high fructose corn syrup), ice cream, candy, soft drinks, fruit juices, bananas and other tropical fruits, and beer.

The Q & A that would help you a lot.