Your child’s diet and a diet in general has two different kinds of fats saturated and Unsaturated fats. Unsaturated fats are the healthy ones and saturated fats are unhealthy these should be held to minimum in your child’s diet. But what are fats in general and why are some healthy and others unhealthy.   

Our body uses fats to build cell membranes, hormones and also nerve tissue. Another use of fats is as fuel. It is also needed for the Vitamins A, D, E and K as these vitamins are fat soluble and can just be absorbed if there is fat in the diet. So far so good the bad thing about them is that our body stores fat that it does not use as reserve for bad times in fat cells. Which then can lead to obesity if it is to much and also more serious health problems like heart attacks and general heart problems because of to much cholesterol building up. The bad thing also is that if you build up the fat cells you have to do a lot of sport to get rid of them but you also have less energy because of them. That is because fat has about twice as much calories than carbohydrates and proteins have. For reference one gram of protein has 4 calories whereas 1 gram of fat has about 9 calories.  

So how can we reduce the unhealthy fats  but still have good fats in the diet of our children and in ours as well. Most fats are found in fried foods and also restaurant food and takeout are generally higher in fat so trying to reduce those and also checking what you cook at home because sometimes there is a easy low fat alternative found like low fat milk instead of full fat milk. Also packing you children school lunches and snacks for if there is an activity planned so they do not have to get fast food or get the school meals is a great method. What you should also not forget that you as a guardian are always setting an example for the children so if you choose low fat and healthier foods the children will do so too.  

But do not forget that there are also healthy fats mostly found in salmon, avocado, nuts and olive oil these fats are beneficial as they take care of a correct brain and eye development and also give your children energy for the day so do not try to reduce them. Rather try to animate your child to choose these healthy fat sources rather than unhealthy fats.  

A good method to find out if the food that you want to give your children is healthy not only in regard to unsaturated fats is to check the the labels as unsaturated fats are always mentioned there so you can easily check how high the amount is. 

Sources:

https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/fat.html

https://www.aboutkidshealth.ca/article?contentid=1943&language=english