How to identify a healthy child’s diet

A child needs to eat a balanced diet of health foods every day. Find out how to identify a healthy child’s diet by reading this informative article!

Every child needs to grow up eating a well-balanced, healthy diet for optimum health benefits, as well as for their proper growth. Good nutrition in a child helps them to develop strong bones, a strong body, and a healthy mind as well. The United States Department of Agriculture created what is called “The Food Guide Pyramid” several years ago, replaced in 2011 by MyPlate. Its target was children six years of age and older. The purpose of the food pyramid is to outline a healthy daily diet. The food pyramid lists the five main food groups, and it also suggests serving sizes for the same.

With the help of “The Food Guide Pyramid”, you can better identify a healthy child’s diet. For example, you can learn from the pyramid that bad fats, unhealthy oils, and sweets should be eaten in small amounts, and only on occasion.

Let’s take a quick look at the five main food groups:

A healthy diet for a child includes lean meat, poultry and fish. These foods contain protein and essential vitamins like Vitamin B, along with iron and zinc that a child needs. Examples of these foods include sausage, hamburgers, fish sticks, and the like.

The milk, yogurt, and cheeses category includes cottage cheese, mozzarella cheese (often found on pizzas), cheddar cheese, cheese sticks, and ice creams too. All of these foods contain calcium, which is a necessity in order to build strong bones and teeth.

The fruit and vegetable category includes fruit juices, apples, bananas, cherries, strawberries, potatoes, lettuce, green beans, et cetera. Fruit and vegetables contain the essential vitamin C, as well as nutrients and enzymes that are crucial for a child’s growth, as well as healthy body maintenance.

The bread, cereal, rice, and pasta group includes breads, hamburger buns, tortillas, breakfast cereal, pancakes, doughnuts, cakes, pies, white rice and brown rice.

And finally, the fats, oils and sweets category includes butter, canola oil, corn oil, et cetera. A child’s daily intake of this category should not have more than thirty percent of it in their total caloric intake. That means, for an average child eating twenty-two hundred calories a day, only seventy-three grams of fat should be eaten.

Keep in mind that not all fats are the same too. There are saturated fats, as well as unsaturated fats. Saturated fats -palm oil, coconut oil, et cetera- tend to raise cholesterol levels, while unsaturated fats- olive oil, peanut oil, corn oil, et cetera- are a healthier choice.

Refined sugar is nothing more than a sweet taste full of a lot of calories. Sugar has absolutely no vitamins, minerals, or anything that a child needs in their healthy diet. Sugars are commonly found in candy bars, soft drinks, breakfast cereal, et cetera. Sugars are known for causing tooth decay and hyperactivity in children.

As you can see, a healthy diet for a child is not restricted to meats, vegetables and fruits, although these foods should comprise the majority of the foods eaten on a daily basis. A child may also eat foods they are especially fond of, such as ice cream, pancakes, cookies, cakes, and pies. Candy falls under the “sweets” category, and, of course, should be eaten only occasionally.

So, overall, a child should eat a balanced variety of healthy foods. “Healthy foods” include lean meats, vegetables, fruits, and grains. “Unhealthy foods” include cookies, cakes, and other sweets, and should be eaten only on occasion. In conjunction with plenty of fresh air and exercise, a child can grow up to be a healthy, strong adult who knows who to continue to eat properly.