How to Make Sure Your Child is Nutritionally RICH!
Understanding the nutrional needs of your child is very important! Here aer some quick tips to ensure your child gets exactly what they need.
Frazzled car pooling moms should not be made to feel guilty over their children’s nutrition. Life is full; there is not a soccer mom on earth who has not succumbed to the call of the drive thru window. For a brief moment, behind the wheel, mom is everyone’s hero. She is heralded from the back seat. Apparently, ‘she rocks!’ Hungry kids swallow down French fries, burgers and slurp down milkshakes. No one in the car is pointing a ketchup stained finger at her, insisting she re-evaluate her priorities. Everyone is happy; everyone but mom. She knows that while the drive thru window is magnetically inviting, what passes through is not nutritiously sound. Visions of hot, nutritious dinners dance in her head, as she resolves to do better.
With careful planning it is entirely possible to do better. We all know what is not good for you, but are we armed with what is good? Fruits and vegetables are on every mom’s short list as an offering of good nutrition to their kids. This is an excellent place to start, but transferring our thoughts on good nutrition into three squares a day can be a challenge and time consuming. The USDA has the perfect solution; The Food Pyramid is the answer to your nutritional questions. It is an educational tool which uses color to represent five necessary food groups for your child’s healthy nutrition. A familiarization of the Food Pyramid will aid you in providing nutritious meals for your family.
The five food groups are;
1. Bread and cereal
2. Fruits and Vegetables
3. Meat
4. Milk
5. Fats and oils
Within each group are sub groups. For example; within the milk group is yogurt and cheese, the meat group; poultry, fish, eggs and nuts. The pyramid is downloadable from the USDA website and provides daily portion suggestions. It is very easy to follow, and takes away the guesswork as to what to feed your hungry family.
Serve your kids several servings a day from the food pyramid and forget about it. Follow the colorful chart and your children will not miss out on daily nutritional requirements.
What will be more impressive to your kids than the food pyramid, is your commitment to good nutrition. If you want your children to practice what you preach, you must lead the way. Take nutrition seriously, eat healthy snacks, and drink less sugary drinks. Don’t forget to drink lots of water daily. Obesity and Type II diabetes (commonly found in adults) is on the rise, in children. If for this reason alone, it is more important than ever, that parents lead by example. With a little perseverance moms can instill in their children the importance of balanced healthy nutrition.
