How to Make Your Family Eat Healthier

It's a new year and of course, it's time for new resolutions. Probably the best thing you can do for you and your family is to make 2016 healthier. The best way to achieve that is to consciously become more open about developing healthy eating habits.

Here are some tips to make your family eat healthier:

1.) Don't immediately say no to new foods

Expanding our food choices may not always agree with what we like and how foods should taste, however, that shouldn't stop you and your family from eating new fruits and vegetables. Yahoo reports that only about 4 percent of Americans eat enough vegetables as stated by the recommended guidelines. A great idea to trying out new foods is to make it a weekly habit. You can use the net to look for new food that the whole family hasn't tried yet and then find a recipe that you want to try.

2.) Try substitution

If the kids in the house aren't as open to trying out new foods as the adults, then try substituting fruits and veggies in their favorite foods. There are a lot of "sneaky" recipes that can be found online.

3.) Eat a rainbow

Not, not as in the object in the sky. Rainbow as in how it looks when you gather as many colored veggies and fruits as you can. A Healthier Michigan recommends challenging the whole family to consume rainbow every day; the more colors the better.

4.) Stock up on healthy snacks

Instead of encouraging kids to gorge on snacks that are artificially flavored and most likely loaded with sugar, get healthier snacks like fruits instead. My Fitness Pal recommends putting them in plain view so if family members see it, the more likely they are to eat it.

5.) Consume less sugar

Our sugar intake is not only limited to desserts, it also includes liquid sugars such as soda and sugary beverages. According to US News & World Report, large sugar intake is linked to increased development of chronic diseases such as blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease. The best way to cut on sugar is to lessen the soda habit and commercially available fruit juices and go natural. It can be a lot of fun to experiment and concoct your own.

6.) Cut back on salt

As with salt, excessive amounts of it can also have dire health consequences. According to SF Gate, while sodium can be helpful too much of it can result to increased high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. Life is about balance, eat out less and use less seasoning for home cooked meals because you not only save money, you can also control how much salt you take.