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Let's be honest here--most kids love junk food.  The brighter the color, the stronger the artificial taste, the more they love it.  While you may never dim your children's passion for junk food, you can teach them to appreciate and enjoy food that nourishes their bodies.

Sounds easier said than done, right?  

If you start feeding your children healthy foods when  they're young, you'll certainly have an easier go of it.  However, even if you wait until your children are 7 or 8 or older, you can help them prefer healthy eating.

One of the simplest ways is to create an organic garden and let your children help care for it.

Home Grown Food Tastes Better

One thing your children might notice and appreciate right away is that food grown from your own garden that is organic, local, and fresh, tastes much better than food bought at the grocery store that has traveled many hundreds or thousands of miles.

Kids Like to Garden

What kid do you know who doesn't like to dig in the dirt?  Most kids like to garden.  They enjoy planting the seeds and watching them grow.  They enjoy carrying water to water the plants or spraying them with a hose.

Kids Like to Eat What They've Grown

Most kids also experience a sense of pride when they see a plant that they've lovingly cared for grow and become edible food.  Because they were involved in growing the food from seed to table, they're more likely to try the vegetables.

Of course, you can make the transition to eating healthy food easier by planting mostly foods that your kids already enjoy eating.  If your kids love broccoli, make sure to plant that.  You'll also want to plant a few vegetables that the kids haven't tried or don't like just to see if they will be willing to expand their horizons.

Remember, most children need to eat a food up to 20 different times before they like it, especially when it comes to vegetables.

Understand the Cycle of Nature & Care for the Environment

If you also practice composting, your children can learn how to care for the environment by recycling organic material.  Watching peels and other kitchen waste turn into organic matter that helps nourish the soil and the plants is like having a constant science experiment in their backyard!

By learning about composting and gardening, children learn how food grows and how much effort it takes to create this food.  In the future, they may be less likely to waste food.