Nutrition Information for Parents, Caregivers and Educators
Nutrition Tips for Families
1) Make half your grains whole. Choose whole-grain foods, such as whole-wheat bread, oatmeal, and low-fat popcorn more often
2) Vary your veggies. Go dark green and orange with your vegetables- eat spinach, broccoli, carrots, and sweet potatoes.
3) Focus on fruits. Eat them at meals, and at snack time, too. Choose fresh, frozen, canned or dried, and go easy on the fruit juice.
4) Get your calcium-rich foods. To build strong bones serve low-fat and fat-free milk and other milk products several times a day.
5) Go lean with proteins. Eat lean or low-fat meat, chicken, turkey, and fish. Also, change your tune with more dry means and peas. Add chickpeas, nuts, or seeds to a salad; pinto beans to a burrito; or kidney beans to soup.
6) Change your oil. We all need oil. Get yours from fish, nuts and liquids such as corn, soybean, canola, and olive oil.
7) Don't sugarcoat it. Choose foods and beverages that do not have sugars and caloric sweeteners as one of the first ingredients. Added sugars contribute calories with a few, if any, nutrients.
Families and communities who nurture and protect toddlers, children and adolescence must develop an understanding of sound nutrition principles to help foster healthy growth and development. Poor nutrition practices at this vulnerable time in our children's lives often have far-reaching effects on physical as well as mental development. The toddler years are marked by bustling activity made possible by new strength and coordination. School age children can grow at least 2 inches each year, once a child hits a
growth spurt, he or she can grow 4 inches or more in a year! At the very time in children's lives when nutrition plays a critical role in short and long term health and well being, they are bombarded by an array of foods with excess added sugar, saturated fat and total calories. What is a busy parent to do?
Fortunately, we can use the 2005 Dietary Guidelines and the Food Guide Pyramid as a tool to design meals and snacks to ensure appropriate nutrition for children over the age of 2. (insert graphic of food pyramid)
So, What is a healthy Diet anyway?
In general, the Dietary Guidelines describe a healthy diet as one that
*Emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products;
*Includes lean meats, poultry, fish, beans, eggs, and nuts; and
*Is low in saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol, salt (sodium), and added sugars.
Research tells us that when we impart healthy attitudes about nutrition and eating behaviors to children at a young age, we can have a significantly positive influence on their emotional and physical well being. The goal for parents, caregivers and educators is not to try to raise 'perfect eaters' but to encourage a healthy relationship with food. If we can teach children to eat when they are hungry and to stop eating when they are full, they will develop a sense of their own unique regulatory system and develop a healthy body image as well as a healthy body weight.
2005 USDA Food Guide Pyramid
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