We can meet today’s challenge of our children eating over-processed, grease soaked, sugar filled and chemical laden food, by instilling in them healthy eating habits from childhood.
Developing children’s attitude towards food is like teaching our children how to handle money and allowing them to make sensible choices and be responsible for their decisions.

Healthy eating represents a lifestyle, which involves balanced nutritious meals to be eaten at least three times a day. As parent our role is to guide them down the right path.

Below are some manageable changes to create an environment that encourages our children to develop good eating habits.

Making game of reading food labels:
Our daughter, Raina learnt about healthy eating choices in Grade 2 at school. They went to a supermarket to learn to read labels as part of the unit. Since then every time we would go to a supermarket, she would read labels and tell me which is healthier choice. It was such a great initiative by the school, which we can carry forward by making reading food labels as fun game during shopping. Briefly there are some of the things to look for in the label: The serving size, the number of calories, kind of fat, sodium content, dietary fibre, sugars, proteins, vitamins and minerals and presence of chemical additives for flavour, increasing shelf life. 

Making wide variety of nutritious foods available to our children instead of refined or junk food. 

Be a positive role model and eat healthy fruits and vegetables in front of them. Don’t worry that children don’t listen to you, worry that they are always watching you. Children like to imitate elders. Rashmi Hurali's daughter, Anagha saw all elders at home, eat lots of colours in our salad through various vegetables and fruits everyday. For first few times she was amazed how they are eating it, then she got curious as to how it will taste and why we enjoy eating vegetables and fruits so much. She would imitate them eating a vegetable or fruit. She would like some, dislike some. She would see them eating everyday. Slowly, she loved doing same. Now she is serious about salads herself! It was a journey, which they went through patiently.

Try not to use food to punish or reward your children.

Encourage your children to eat slowly, giving plenty of time for them to enjoy their meals.

Like @Biswajit and Saswati, involved their daughter Aadna in shopping, preparing and cooking meals. When children cook their food, they are more willing to eat and try new vegetable.

Add a healthier option to balanced a meal outside. When we are having a movie night with pizza, a salad is prepared at home or we have freshly prepared vegetable juice in evening to compensate for nutrition in the pizza meal.

Limit the amount of salt and sugar and replace artificial sweeteners with natural sugars. Raina has been baking since she was 4. Now she bakes all her goodies with healthier options of sugar like a fruit or vegetable puree. That way even a cupcake can be made healthier, it is in form a child likes but filled with nutrition which I like.

Offer plain water over packed juice, powdered fruit drink concentrate or soda. The packed drinks are reason for obesity in children.

Educate them, through animations, how Archana Gharge-Jadhav showed to her son Advay, what are the nutrients present in fruits and vegetable and how they play a role in their growing year.

Never force your children to eat or finish all their food. Fighting will only make them resent their food. If they disobey, politely tell them that they cannot snack later or offer healthy snack after sometime. 
Children need models rather than critics.

Make meal times a family event where whole family eats together. It is happy memory created associated with food, every child wants to go back to.

Teach gardening to children to help them learn more about nutritional value, how each vegetable and fruit grows, how to pluck tomatoes and basil and make fresh breakfast bruschetta. Make the experience like he or she is living a fairytale.

Educate the children about dangers of eating disorders, obesity, free radicals, juvenile diabetes, anorexia, bulimia etc. Diseases does not start overnight. 

Practise prevention rather than treat disease in order to bring up healthier kids. Health is like money, we never have the true idea of its value, until we lose it. We must first make our habits and then habits makes us.