Hollywood's healthiest families

Aww, check out Naomi Watts, 44, gathering fruits and flowers at the Farmers’ Market — picture of health and my favourite example of how to age gracefully in Hollywood. More on her later!

In the meantime, we’re celebrating our Today’s Parent Healthy Family Challenge, which started this week. Have you joined yet?

Join the Today’s Parent Healthy Family Challenge>

To help inspire you, I’ve rounded up some healthy family tips and quotes from some of our favourite health-conscious celebrities. Enjoy!

Biggest Loser trainer/author Jillian Michaels, 39, has been vocal about family fitness. She and partner Heidi Rhoades, are often snapped going to the farmers’ market with their kids — Lukensia, 3, and Phoenix, 10 months — which is no surprise, since Jillian is a big proponent of eating “clean, organics” whenever possible.

“I also do what I can to be active WITH the kids,” Jillian told Babble.com of her workout regime. “I take my daughter out with me on the paddle board, or the baby for a hike in the Bjorn. It is important for me to find ways to be active as a family.  It sets the kids up for good habits now.”

Matt Damon, 41, admits he’s no top chef. But he’s confessed that he and his wife, Luciana, are pretty good at getting their four kids to eat healthy. Matt shared his great tips with People Magazine, as follows:

1. “I cook pasta with butter and steam broccoli. It’s all about getting enough healthy food in front of them every three hours.”

2. “It’s all about starting early.”

3. “My mother made a salad with every single meal we had, so I was raised thinking that’s how you eat. It’s a good balance that I’m trying to teach to my own kids.”

See more celebrity parents who have lots of kids>

The Garner-Affleck family is practically synonymous with farmers’ markets! They’re constantly spotted exploring the aisles and sampling fresh, local goodies.

I’ve actually had the privilege of speaking with Jennifer Garner, 40, about this very topic. In addition to sharing her go-to dinner recipe, she had this healthy family tip to offer: “I’ve been so into . . . keeping fresh vegetables out on the counter, cut up, while I cook. Because you know how everyone’s so hungry before dinner, so I like just having it out, no pressure. Eventually, the sugar snap peas and carrots and bell peppers…they go!”

Check out Jennifer Garner’s go-to family recipe and the rest of the interview>

Australian supermodel Miranda Kerr feeds two-year-old Flynn an uber-healthy diet. What she told Fitceleb.com is definitely worth quoting at length:

I do steamed sweet potato with broccoli and baby spinach all mushed up in there together…. And then in the morning I’ll do yogurt with blueberries and raspberries all mushed up together. It’s all about the mushing! But he does have some little rice snacks that he snacks on throughout the day. I really make sure everything is organic.

He drinks coconut water . . . loves just munching on little blueberries. And he eats fish as well. And he actually has green juices because we make green juices with kale and spinach and parsley and lemon. He has a little bit of that mixed in with his water.

Wow…! Miranda went on to say she’s even gotten her handsome hubby, Orlando Bloom, into eating organic now, too — “He loves it!” 

“I lead by example when my little girl looks at me,” singer Pink, 33, has said of parenting her almost-two-year-old daughter, Willow, “and I show her that a woman can accomplish anything, and not based on her looks alone.”

Since Pink follows a mostly vegan diet, it’s no surprise her daughter got a vegan cake for her first birthday. “And thanks for the most amazing cake I’ve ever seen Jamaica’s Cakes…,” Pink tweeted, with a photo of the beautiful cake. “She loved her first vegan carrot cake!”

Naomi Watts, 44, has a refreshingly moderate approach to her own health and that of her family — partner Liev Schreiber, 45, and their boys, Sasha, 5, and Samuel, 4.

“I like to cook,” she said in a recent interview with Body+Soul. “As a mum, you end up cooking at least three or four times a week. It’s easy to eat out or get something delivered in New York, but I think the kids enjoy it if it’s cooked for them. I pretty much always have fish and vegetables or roast chicken. The boys like protein.”

Naomi enjoys being active with her family, as well. When asked how she likes to chill out, she said, “Lots of bike rides and walks with my family.”

See why Naomi and Liev are one of our favourite celebrity couples>

For Angelina Jolie, 37, food has been a tasty cultural transmitter for her internationally adopted sons Maddox, 11.5, and Pax, 9.5. 

In a campaign video for Louis Vuitton, she talks about introducing them to one of their now-favourite Southeast Asian delicacies — crickets! “I wanted them not to be turned off by something that was of their culture,” she explains.

“They ate them like Doritos,” she recalls, “and they wouldn’t stop.”

See our gallery of most-buzzed about celebrity adoptions>

When her first child, Mason Disick, 3, was a baby, Kourtney Kardashian started making his food from scratch.

“My mom gave me the Beaba baby food maker that steams and purees fruits and veggies,” she told Shape Magazine. “I use only organic foods for him, and it made me think about what I put into my body too. I couldn’t sit around eating cookies and expect him to eat vegetables.”

Definitely into whole and organic foods, Kourtney’s switched up some of her childhood favourites, too. “My mom fed us a lot of processed food when we were kids, like chicken fingers, grilled cheese sandwiches and quesadillas,” she said. “I make those treats for my family too, but I use organic cheeses and whole wheat bread and tortillas.”

Check out Kourtney’s “birth tape,” and other so-called celebrity parenting scandals>

Jessica Alba, 31, started a whole company based on her desire to make her “natural” lifestyle accessible to families. 

“I’m very strict with Honor,” the mom of two has said. “She’s healthy and on a schedule. We eat organic, our house is all green, we don’t waste. It’s more about having as green a house as possible. We recycle, we have a hybrid car, we do that kind of stuff.”

See Jessica Alba and other celebs in our gallery of Top 20 best-dressed celebrity moms>

We all know Top Chef host/cookbook author Padma Lakshmi, 42, takes food seriously! So it’s no surprise she’s serious about what her daughter eats, as well.

“I never gave her any baby foods, even when I was on the road with [Top Chef],” Padma told Access Hollywood. “She’s on set with me and I always took time to cook homemade meals every day. Sometimes it was super simple, like sautéed eggs, peas and rice because that’s all I had time to do.”

When at home, Padma and her daughter have a specific system in place. “When we sit down as a family, we eat what’s most important first,” Padma explained. “We eat the protein and vegetables. And, then afterwards we eat the starch. So we aren’t just reaching for food.”

For Gwyneth Paltrow, 40, taking care of herself is key to taking care of her kids, Apple, 8.5, and Moses, 6.5.

“Taking care of yourself is being there for your kids,” Gwyneth told Self Magazine, “like how on a plane, they tell you to put on your oxygen mask first.”

In one of her Goop newsletters, Gwyneth explored the challenge that is the school lunchbox. She suggested turkey wraps, almond-butter and jam sandwiches, dips, pesto pasta, granola bars and a veggie sushi lunchbox — which, she writes, is “a great way to use leftover cooked rice and sneak some extra vegetables into your kid’s diet.”

Check out Gwyneth and Apple in our gallery of celebrity kids who look just like their parents>

Chef and father of four, Jamie Oliver, 37, has made it his mission to get kids around the world eating healthy.

“I’m not suggesting people make their own pasta from scratch every day, but at least use fresh ingredients so that you know you’re in control of the nutrients that your kids are eating while they’re at home,” Jamie said in a recent issue of our very own Today’s Parent Magazine. “Another great thing to do . . . is to get them involved and helping you with some of the simpler stuff like mixing and tearing up herbs. It gives them a sense of ownership and will get them into understanding about food and learning key life skills at a young age….”

In his own kitchen, he says he puts his kids to work tearing up herbs, chopping veggies (“supervised, of course”) and making bread.

Actress/reality-TV star Tia Mowry, 34, feeds her little guy, Cree, 1.5, the purest foods possible.

“Cree only eats organic foods,” Tia told Essence.com. “He does not eat any processed sugars — our favourite food for him is Yummy Spoonfuls. It was started by a woman named Agatha from Africa, who has educated me on the importance of providing good quality foods to our children from a young age.”

See Tia Mowry and other celebs in our gallery of former child stars who are now parents>

Actress Alicia Silverstone, 36, is the author of The Kind Diet. It’s a vegan diet/cookbook that has an accompanying website, which includes a vegan parenting section. So, yes, when it comes to feeding her little guy, Bear Blu, 2, she means business.

Here’s what Alicia has said about raising Bear vegan:

Bear was grown on vegan food, and we’ll continue nourishing him with a healthy diet. He’ll be eating an organic, plant-based diet. I intend to take great care of his precious, new baby body, so I’m committed to giving him nothing but the purest and most healthy food possible. We want to keep his immune system strong so that he’ll be super healthy, which is just one of the many reasons he’ll eat vegan.

Alicia also caused quite a stir by posting a video of herself pre-chewing Bear’s food> 

Nicole Richie, 31, is on the strict side when it comes to what her kids, Harlow, 5, and Sparrow, 3.5, eat.

“Sugar is obviously a big no-no,” Nicole said on The Talk, so they enjoy “sugar-free vegan cupcakes.”

“They’re children. Their brains are developing, their bodies are developing,” she added. “You have to pay attention about what goes into their bodies and what they’re around — it’s important.”

In an interview with thefood-life.com, she shared her go-to dinner dish: brown-rice pasta in low-sodium vegetable broth and grilled chicken. “I’m a huge cook,” she said, “and I love cooking for Joel [Madden] and the kids.”

“Nothing makes me happier than the fact that my kid eats kale chips as a snack,” Bethenny Frankel, 42, tweeted.

Like Alicia Silverstone and Pink, Bethenny has chosen a plant-based diet for her daughter, Bryn, 2.5. Bethenny shared her reasons for this on her website:

As far as raising Bryn as a vegetarian, that was a personal choice. If Bryn is older and wants something at a party that isn’t vegetarian, I don’t want her to feel ostracized. She’ll find her way. I have eaten raw, vegan, vegetarian etc., and I love the feeling of eating all of those healthy foods and not incorporating meat. If I have to vow to never eat meat again, because she starts to notice that I have a piece of turkey bacon, then I may make that sacrifice.