Children's Nutrition

The right children's food is extremely crucial. What children eat not only affects their health at the time, but makes a significant difference to their later health as well. However, children are less able to make decisions about their best interests. The regulation of people's free choice about the foods they eat is often attacked as namby-pamby stuff. We should therefore see to it that the children eat properly balanced food. To ensure good children's nutrition, and that they grow up, they will need to eat a large variety of foods. The amount of food they eat is much less important. Remember that your child's appetite may decrease and become pickier over the next few years as his/her growth rate slows. As long as they are gaining weight and have a normal activity level, you have little to worry about.

The Food Guide Pyramid for children is to promote healthy nutrition and is meant to be a general guide to daily food choices. The main emphasis of the Food Pyramid is on 5 major food groups.

Grain group servings include 1 slice bread, half cup of cooked rice or pasta, half cup of cooked cereal and 1 ounce of ready to eat cereal.
Vegetable group servings include half cup of chopped or raw vegetables or 1 cup of raw leafy vegetables.

Fruit group servings include 1 piece of fruit or melon wedge, 3/4th cup fruit juice, half cup of canned fruit or 1/4th cup of dried fruit.
Milk group servings include 1 cup of milk or yogurt or 2 ounces of cheese.
Meat group servings include 2-3 ounces of cooked lean meat, poultry or fish, half cup of cooked dry beans. You could substitute 2 table spoons of peanut butter or 1 egg for 1 ounce of meat.
Fat, oils and sweets: No more than 30% of the diet should come from fats. For a 1600 calorie diet, than would equal 53 gram of fat each day. Saturated fats in foods such as meat, dairy products, coconut, palm and palm kernel oil raise cholesterol more than unsaturated fats that are found in olive, peanut and canola oils or polyunsaturated fats in safflower, sunflower, corn, soybeans and cottonseed oils.

Sugars supply large amount of calories with little nutritional value.