In this guide, I explore a range of ideas for talking to children about healthy eating, food and exercise without planting the seeds for eating disordered thoughts, feelings and behaviours. You can access downloadable versions of this and my other guides via my patreon page which supports my work: http://www.patreon.com/pookyh

1. How to Talk to Children
About Healthy Eating
Helping
you to help
your child
Simple, actionable ideas for parents, carers
and other supporting adults

2. I get asked quite regularly for advice about
how to talk to children about healthy eating
in such a way that you don’t set them up for
a lifetime of eating disorders. It’s a difficult
balance to strike as it’s important to
educate our children about food and
healthy lifestyles, but at the same time we
don’t want them to develop unhealthy
habits as a result of our good intentions.
These ideas are my suggestions based on
what I would be happy to say to or do with
my own children. Each child is different and
what works with one might not work with
another so you might pick one of two of
these ideas and ignore the rest.
Introduction
Each child is
different, pick
the ideas that
work for you
and your child
pookyknightsmith.com | @pookyh
Pooky x

3. We can often be guilty of over-simplifying
things for our children when they are very
able to understand quite complex
processes if we explain them in simple
terms. Instead of just branding foods as
good or bad, we can think about the
different types of food and what they’re for.
Exactly how you explain this to your child is
likely to depend on your child’s age but
very, very simply I talk to my children about
foods which are:
pookyknightsmith.com | @pookyh
Discuss nutrition
-1-
(like eggs, fish, nuts and meat) - these are needed to help
us grow. These are our building blocks or ‘lego’ foods.
These foods also keep our tummies full and happy for a
long time
Protein Based
(anything high in calcium including milk, cheese and
yoghurt). In our house we talk about how we need these
foods to grow strong bones and teeth
Dairy

4. pookyknightsmith.com | @pookyh
We've always had an ‘eat as many as you like’ policy in our
house and the kids can help themselves. We tell the
children that fruit and vegetables have vitamins and
minerals which are important to keep us healthy and that
fruit and vegetables help digestion (this always ends in talk
of poo which most children delight in!)
Fruit and Vegetables
(cakes, sweets – anything traditionally considered
'unhealthy') – my kids know that these foods give us a
quick burst of energy but that eating too many sweet foods
will make the dentist unhappy as they can be bad for your
teeth.
Fatty and Sugary foods
Taking time to talk about what’s in food and why we
need a range of foods in varying amounts helped my
children to approach food with a good attitude.

5. The alternative to talking about different
food types is generally to talk about ‘good vs
bad’ food or ‘healthy vs unhealthy’ food.
I think that these labels are unhelpful, in part
because they are simply wrong; there are
very few ‘bad’ foods which cannot be eaten
in moderation as part of a healthy diet, and
also because constantly labelling foods in
this way can cause children to worry
unnecessarily about what they’re eating.
These labels can also return to haunt us later
on and can fuel eating disordered behaviours
with children completely avoiding 'bad
foods'
pookyknightsmith.com | @pookyh
Avoid Black & White
Categories
-2-

6. One thing that children can find difficult to
moderate is how much to eat – and we’re
not great at it as adults either. Ideally, meals
should be a mixture of foods, and we should
eat enough to make us feel full, but not
more.
We can help our children to recognise
feelings of hunger and satiety and to use
these as cues for eating. We can also talk
about how we might need to eat a bit more if
we’ve been very busy or we’re expecting to
go for a long walk – or if we’re going through
a growth spurt.
You shouldn’t expect your child to finish
what’s on their plate, nor reward them for
doing so. Nor should you always prevent
them asking for seconds if they still feel
hungry. The important thing is not how much
is on the plate, but how full your child is
feeling and whether their nutritional needs
have been met.
pookyknightsmith.com | @pookyh
Talk About Feeling Full
-3-

7. Many people use sweets and puddings as
rewards and I’m sure some of you will
question me on this. However, I feel it’s
important that we talk about food in entirely
unemotional terms. Once we start turning
food into a reward or a punishment then we
give a child a tool they might use to reward
or punish themselves later on.
Many people who binge eat start off by
doing so because they feel a temporary
reward from eating foods such as sweets and
cakes and chocolate bars. Equally, some
people with anorexia will punish themselves
by depriving themselves of all but the most
bland foods.
Telling children that McDonalds is a treat or
that pudding can be eaten only if they’ve
finished their dinner sends confusing
messages – especially if they have learned
that these foods are bad!
pookyknightsmith.com | @pookyh
Be Careful About Foods as
Rewards
-4-

8. I think we should be prepared to try new
foods with our children and not stop them
from eating unusual combinations if they
want to explore their food.
Eating a wide variety of foods in front of our
children and letting them help with
preparation (or even growing) is a great way
to get them interested in what they’re eating
and willing to try new things.
When they were little, being willing to try
some of the slightly bizarre concoctions my
daughters come up with seemed to make
them a little more willing to try my new
vegetable of the week, so I’d recommend
being willing to try a teensy spoonful of
cabbage and cream, or whatever the latest
concoction is, once in a while!
pookyknightsmith.com | @pookyh
Try New Things
-5-

9. You might need to have a certain number of
rules in place to ensure your child eats
enough of the right range of foods at the
right times, but the less rules you can have
and the more sense these make to your child,
the less likely they are to be misinterpreted
and used to fuel eating difficulties later on.
For example, if you feel that your child
should eat their sandwich before their
orange don’t just tell them to do so but
explain why (because if they eat the orange
first, their tummy will feel full and they won’t
manage their sandwich, but they’ll soon feel
hungry again). Kids are generally more
willing to accept rules that make sense and
are explained in the context of things that
matter to them, so knowing that they need to
eat a certain amount of breakfast so they’ll
have enough energy to play at school is likely
to be more successful than ‘because I said
so’.
pookyknightsmith.com | @pookyh
Use Rules Sparingly
-6-

10. Where possible, it’s great to lead by
example – If you’re eating a balanced diet
with a good mixture of foods yourself, then
there is no reason your child shouldn’t eat
the same.
They’ll often be more willing to eat what
you’re eating and it can be a good way to
introduce a variety of foods to their diet. If
you eat together you can talk about what
you’re eating and why, to help them
understand. You can also have great fun
exploring new foods and combinations
together.
pookyknightsmith.com | @pookyh
Eat What Your Child Eats
-7-

11. Mealtimes as a family can become a real
pleasure, but only if you make enough time.
If mealtimes are constantly shoehorned into
an already too busy day then it leaves little
time to discuss the types of food we’re
eating and why, and it can make mealtimes
become a less pleasurable experience for
everyone.
It can also lead to us having to bark orders
for kids to finish meals and end up relying on
rules that don’t make sense or aren’t fully
explained. Having more leisurely meals can
end up being a genuinely pleasurable
experience for the whole family and a great
forum for discussion for a huge range of
things beyond the dietary value of protein.
pookyknightsmith.com | @pookyh
Don't Rush Mealtimes
-8-

12. It’s important that children understand the
value of keeping active. That doesn’t mean
they need to hit the gym three times a week,
but do try and get outside and running
around with them regularly.
Help them to realise that as well as eating a
range of foods, we need to give our bodies
exercise too – but that if we’re going to do
lots of running around, we’ll need to eat a bit
more to keep us going.
Talking to your children about how you keep
active and which activities you enjoy and
how they make you feel physically and
mentally is great role modelling; they might
even like to join in.
pookyknightsmith.com | @pookyh
Discuss Exercise
-9-

13. pookyknightsmith.com | @pookyh
Things to Avoid Discussing with a
Younger Child
Exercise for weight loss
Dieting for weight loss
Getting fat from eating too many sweet or fatty foods
Your body image or weight concerns
Being too fat or too thin
Weight or height other than as an objective measure
Purging (e.g. vomiting after eating)
You may need to proactively tackle these issues if they
come up, but I wouldn’t intentionally introduce
conversations on the following topics to younger children:
Whilst it's important that we develop a culture of open
and honest conversations and tackling the hard stuff,
some of these concepts can take root and be
misinterpreted by children early on and may fuel eating
disordered thoughts or behaviours later.

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Helping
you to help
your child
- Thank You! -
Pooky x