Eating healthy foods ensures that your child’s body and mind are nourished and able to grow.To help your child make healthy food choices, learn about nutritious food options and healthy ways to prepare them.
You can find out a lot about the foods you eat by reading nutrition labels with your child. Together, determine which foods are healthy and which ones have empty calories (high calories, low nutrition). Also, pay attention to serving sizes. One serving is often smaller than you would expect.
Helping Your Child Eat a Healthy Diet
To help your child make healthy food choices, you can:
• Make sure she eats breakfast, so she has more energy for school.
• Make fast food and other foods, like chips and cookies, “once-in-a-while” foods.
• Encourage healthy snacking. Give your child healthy snacks like fresh fruits and vegetables, low-fat yogurt or whole-grain cereal.
• Get your child involved in meals. Let her help make dinner, or help pack her school lunch.
• Make time to have family dinners. This will help you introduce healthy habits to your child.
• Limit desserts and sweets. For example, have fruit for dessert or only have dessert once a week.
Food Pyramid
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) emphasizes:
• Variety—eating foods from each food group
• Proportion—eating the recommended amount of food from each group
• Moderation—limiting your child’s intake of saturated and trans fats, added sugars, cholesterol and salt
• Activity—being physically active every day The pyramid is made up of five food groups, plus oils.
How much food your child needs depends on her age, sex and physical activity. The chart below is for children who are active at least 60 minutes a day. Children who are less active may need fewer calories. Your doctor can help you determine how many calories your child should have.
How to Fit Healthy Foods into Your Child’s Diet
Whole Grains. Give your child whole-grain foods for snacking, like popcorn. Try brown rice or whole-grain pasta. Make sandwiches on whole-grain bread or whole-grain tortillas.
Meats and Proteins. Bake, broil or grill lean meats and fish, and cut away extra fat. Have whole beans instead of refried beans.
Vegetables. Add a variety of colored veggies to dishes, like corn, green peppers and tomatoes. Serve baked or steamed plantains as a snack.
Fruits. Allow your child to pick a new fruit to try each time you go to the store. Use fruits or dried fruits for snacking, and serve fruit for dessert. If your child likes juice, offer drinks with 100-percent fruit juice, but remember that fruit juice is high in sugar and calories.