How to approach nutrition education with preschoolers

When to begin nutrition education

It’s never too early to introduce nutrition concepts to children. Age-appropriate teaching can begin in simple ways, even during infancy. Here are a few simple ways you can tailor  nutrition education to evolve with your child's developmental stages:

• Babies: Start by reading books about healthy foods like fruits, vegetables, and where food comes from. This introduces the idea of nutritious eating through fun stories and visuals.
• Toddlers: Involve them in simple kitchen activities like stirring or washing produce. Engage their senses by asking how a food feels or tastes — “Is it crunchy? Is it sweet?”
• Preschoolers: As their understanding grows, start conversations about how different foods help keep their bodies strong and healthy, connecting food choices to how they feel.

Teaching nutrition to preschoolers

Preschoolers understand concrete concepts, so explaining that a food is "healthy" might be too vague for them.  Instead, focus on simple, relatable concepts like "Milk has calcium which makes your bones strong." Using language like this makes the concept easier for them to understand. Kids also learn best through hands-on experiences, like getting them involved in the kitchen. Here's what they gain by helping out with food prep:

• They discover the importance of food
• They start understanding how food relates to health
• They can practice math and science through baking and cooking
• They can refine fine motor skills
• They gain independence through learning new skills
• They can explore new flavors and textures

Understanding balance

One of the most important nutrition lessons is teaching about balance. A fun and simple way to introduce this concept is by making a dressing with basic ingredients like olive oil, salt, and lemon juice. Give a preschooler these ingredients without specific instructions on how much to use. After they taste their creation, ask if it’s balanced or maybe too salty or sour. Without guidance, it's most likely unbalanced.

This hands-on experience teaches kids the importance of balance, both in cooking and nutrition. As they grow, they’ll begin to apply this lesson to their meals, and understand that too much of one type of food can affect the balance of a healthy meal.

Nutrition concepts

Hunger and satiety cues

Help kids recognize how their bodies signal hunger and fullness with a simple exercise:

• Ask them to notice how they feel 30 minutes before a meal, right before eating, halfway through, when the meal is over, and 15 minutes afterward.
• Explain that food is like fuel for their bodies, just like a car needs fuel to run well. Their bodies need good food to stay energized and strong.

The power of food groups

Educate the importance of eating a variety of food groups by explaining how each one provides unique nutrients or "powers" for their bodies. Here are some examples:

• Beans: Packed with protein to build and grow strong muscles.
• Grains: Full of carbohydrates to provide the energy needed to run, jump, and play.
• Fruits and vegetables: Each color has its own special power, like orange-colored fruits and vegetables are rich in vitamin A that keeps eyes healthy.

Chewing exercises

To help children understand nutrition, it's important they learn how food connects to their bodies, starting with how it feels and tastes in their mouths. Highlight how tastes can change as they grow and how foods feel different depending on how they’re chewed. Here’s an easy exercise to try out:

• Choose a food with a unique texture, like carrots.
• Encourage your child to chew the carrot with their back molars and then with their front teeth. Discuss how the texture and flavor changes.
• Point out that the center of the tongue has more taste buds, making flavors more intense than the edges of the tongue.

Energy and fuel

Teach kids how different foods affect their energy levels and how they feel with this simple experiment:

• Fill a cup with plain water and pour it into a bowl. Discuss how quickly the water flows.
• Refill the cup with water and stir in several spoonfuls of sugar until it dissolves.
• Pour the sugar water into a bowl and discuss how the thicker liquid moves slowly into the bowl.

This visual activity demonstrates how some foods, like sugary foods, can slow down the body’s ability to function.

How to approach healthy vs. not healthy

Instead of framing food as “unhealthy” and “healthy,” frame foods as "most of the time foods" and "sometimes food.”

• ​​Most of the time foods: These are the foods that help our bodies grow and feel strong, like fruits, veggies, whole grains, proteins, and healthy fats.
• Sometimes foods: These are fun to enjoy occasionally, like sweets, chips, or sugary drinks, but they don’t give us the lasting energy or nutrients we need every day.

No food should be viewed as unlimited, not even vegetables. For example, too many vegetables can cause stomach aches and may crowd out space for other nutrient-rich foods like proteins and healthy fats that kids need to grow. All foods fit, but it’s about finding the right balance.

Nutrition activities for preschoolers

• Grocery shopping.
• Pantry or fridge organization.
• Citrus or pomegranate stamping.
• Sorting food by color or food group.
• Measuring ingredients.
• Build a rainbow with fruits and vegetables.
• Cooking and baking.
• Gardening.
• Picking produce from a local farm.

Tips for encouraging healthy eating habits

Make family meals a priority

Regular family meals are one of the most effective ways for promoting healthy eating habits. They provide opportunities for kids to observe positive eating behaviors, try a variety of foods, and engage in meaningful and positive conversations about food.

Lead by example

Kids are more likely to adopt healthy eating habits when they see adults enjoying a variety of nutritious foods. Children learn by observing, so it's more effective to show them what balanced eating looks like than to simply talk about it. Create meals with a variety of food groups and let them see you enjoying different flavors and textures. Model mindful eating by slowing down and savoring your food, and talk about how different foods fuel your body in a positive way.