Location: indoor or outdoor (wherever the meal is being eaten!)

Materials: none

Children can be pretty logical, and if you give them a good reason to do something they will often comply. Nutrition and healthy eating is one of those things. Simply telling kids to eat something because it's "healthy" is probably too abstract for most kids to understand or care about.

On top of that, research shows that teaching children about nutrition results in healthier and more adventurous eating.

Take advantage of this by getting specific in how you talk about the food you're eating. Talk about why eating or drinking protein is important (don't you want to grow your muscles big and strong?), why calcium is good for our bodies (strong bones to hold us up!), how green vegetables keep us healthy (being sick is no fun!), and why sugar is better in small doses (a lot of energy and then we crash!).

Food can feel like a very personal topic, especially with families following all sorts of different diets, but you don't need to feel like you're forcing your view points on anyone by talking about nutrition. Someone that is vegetarian or vegan or gluten free or kosher needs all the same nutrients, they just might just be getting them in different ways.