Food Pyramid and Children

August 7th, 2011 admin No Comments »

Food Pyramid And Children

Healthy eating is an important part of your child’s upbringing, and knowing just how to accomplish that, is an important part of being a parent. The first step to achieving these things, is to make yourself familiar with a food pyramid that suits your child, and the lifestyle you all lead. Not all children can eat the same foods. Allergies and other disorders may prevent a normal diet, but being familiar with the food pyramid is paramount to helping you overcome these things.

Because we are not born with healthy eating habits, we need to learn them, and this should start as early as possible with your child. It is very easy, and also very quick, to acquire bad eating habits even as young as a few months old when their choices in taste are being developed. To make sure this does not happen, steer your children in the right direction, with flair and creativity in your food and they will learn to enjoy a good eating routine, and good eating habits.

To start with, eating healthily is not hard, or stressful, and as your child grows, they will appreciate the food choices you have steered them toward, because they will be fit and healthy, will cope with childhood ailments like chicken pox, measles,etc. really well, and will, in most cases, be high achievers. This is what good food does for you. These children also go on to make the right choices for their children, and so it goes through the generations. Other things that you are protecting them from is obesity and things like, heart disease, and diabetes. What a great legacy.

While we are patting ourselves on the back though, and thinking that we have conquered the food pyramid, there are traps that we can fall into that may well make it all a waste of time if we do not observe a few small rules.

The way we cook and serve our food is a huge factor here, If you are cooking healthy spinach, or carrots, and other vegetables, make sure that you do not cook the goodness out of them. Overcooking vegetables kills all the good vitamins and nutrients, so that there is very little goodness left. The other thing is that vegetables, or any other food, does not taste very nice overcooked, or doesn’t look very appealing to the eye either, and will not look as appetizing to a child, so the rule here is, make sure that all your food comes from a good menu, and looks attractive.

In the early stages of planning your food pyramid, and your menus, it is a good idea to involve your child in the process, providing they are old enough. Getting them involved in the planning of the type of food that you need to have, and helping plan menus for it, helps your child understand the importance of what they are eating, and gives them some ownership of what goes in their mouth. Believe me, when you put these strategies into place, the kitchen, in fact the whole household, will be a much nicer and calmer place to be, and mealtimes will be better, and a lot less stressful, because your child, or children have planned their own meal, and in most cases will enjoy it. This is a big learning curve for your child when they have learned to do this,because they have got to know the importance of all the food groups, all their nutrient values, and where they belong on the food pyramid. With this also comes an awareness of what effect each of these food groups has on your system, and how they work when you have them in the right quantities.

One of the most important things in your child’s diet is the food grains they consume. Children need these because they are the complex carbohydrates that young bodies need to build them up. This is a child’s base that they need to build on, makes them strong and healthy as they grow. Things like rice are good also because it provides vitamins, fibers, and iron, this along with whole wheat, and oatmeal type cereals,are perfect growing tools.

Try to keep bread and flour out of the diet, and replace it with grainy breads. Cut out your bad cooking fats and replace these with olive oil, sunflower, or, safflower oil, so that your child learns to develop a taste for these instead of butter and margarine, which are not very healthy for your child, or yourself.

Meat is and important part of your diet and you should always include it. There are many people out there who still say that meat is the healthiest food you can eat. This of course is disputed by those that say meat is bad for you and themselves prefer a vegetarian diet. Well we think that it has its place so lets go with that. If you include meat in your diet, then make sure it is a lean meat. Too much animal fat is extremely bad for you. Chicken, oro, turkey are good lean meats, and are nice however you eat them. These sort of meats definitely provide you with needed nutrition. The rule is to stay clear of red meat, and I have to agree with that one.

Last but not least we have our fruit and vegetables. These are the most important food on the food pyramid and are needed every day in reasonable quantiles. Five servings of each of these a day is the standard requirement and must be adhered to if you practice the values of the food pyramid. So there you have it. Try out the system, I can guarantee it works.

 

 

Old Food Pyramid

August 3rd, 2011 admin No Comments »

The old food pyramid has now been replaced, but while it was in play we made some great changes to the way we see food, and our daily diet.

The old food pyramid was constructed with children in mind, to put to rest the mystery of what foods we could feed our kids, and in what quantities. The building of the food pyramid was more than just working out whether broccoli was good for them, but it helped both kids and parents alike understand quantities of certain foods that could be consumed.

The old food pyramid looked exactly like that, a pyramid. It was constructed in layers that divided up the food into nutrients that could be found in each layer. The lower layer showed, how you had to consume a larger amount of one type of food nutrients, and as you advanced higher up, you consumed less of that nutrient at the top. We have broken down this structure, to show you more clearly how it worked. The pyramid had 4 tiers. Tiers 2 and 3 had two food groups.

See the picture to understand this more clearly.

  • The Bread, Cereals, Rice and Pasta Group: This is the lowest tier on the food pyramid and represents the food groups whose intake should ideally be the highest. These food groups largely contribute fiber, starches and complex carbohydrates to fuel our body. As carbohydrate is the food nutrient which largely fuels the body, these foods should be consumed more than others. Ideally it is prescribed that you have about 6-11 servings of this food group.
  • The Fruits and Vegetables Consortium: The second tier on this pyramid is split into two groups, the fruits and the vegetables. Fruits and vegetables lend our body a variety of vitamins and minerals that the body needs to perform its daily activities. Vegetables include both leafy and non leafy, while no segregation is shown between citric and non citric fruits. 3-5 servings of vegetables and 2-4 servings of fruits are prescribed.
  • The Milk and Meat Conglomerate: The third tier is the proteins tier, comprising dairy products and milk on one side, and meat and beans on the other side. These foods contribute protein to the body. While proteins are said to be the building blocks of the body, overconsumption of proteins is not advisable as they are more difficult to digest. Hence, dairy products and meat should be consumed 2-3 servings each daily.
  • The Fats, Oils and Friends: The fats, oils and sweets occupy the topmost layer of the old food pyramid, and should be consumed very sparingly.

This was the old food pyramid, But we are now aware of the new food pyramid, which has many alterations to it, and is said to be better for us and will be suitable for people of all ages.

The new food pyramid was launched by the United States Department of Agriculture, to improve the food standards, and make them more accurate. To replace the tiers of the past, it has highlighted sections, and to replace servings, the new pyramids shows a daily amount to be consumed based on a 2000 calorie diet. This can be modified to encompass your own daily calorie requirements.
The new food pyramid too has sectors divided on the basis of food groups. It recommends for a 2000 calorie diet; the following intake:

  • Grains: 6 oz. Keeping a higher emphasis on whole grains.
  • Vegetables: 2.5 cups. Eat all vegetables, equally as different vegetables supply different nutrients.
  • Fruits: 2 cups. Have a good mix of citric and non-citric fruits.
  • Oils: Restrict the amount of oil in food. Use vegetable oil more than others.
  • Milk: 3 cups. Low-fat or fat free milk is recommended.
  • Meat: 5.5 oz. Avoid frying and consume white meat more than red meat.


There you have the basic differences between the new and old pyramid style. It is now widely accepted, that the new food pyramid is more accurate and more relevant for whichever diet plan you take up. The new food pyramid is very different, but one thing we can be assured of, is that it is a great food guide for our busy life styles. So there you have it. There is still more to learn about this amazing food scale that we have all started to look towards as an everyday guide, but just for now we need to concentrate on what more we can learn about what we put into our mouthes and how it affects our health. There are many ways we can vary these items in the pyramid to suit our everyday requirements and make our diet more enjoyable, and it just requires a little bit of initiative. So have a go and see what you can come up with to make some changes and modify the food pyramid to your own tastes.

 



Food Pyramid Guidelines

August 2nd, 2011 admin No Comments »

The food pyramid indicates the guidelines of our diet and the importance of every single item of food that we put into our mouth at every meal and in between, on a day to day basis. It is important that we are aware of these food groups, so that we can make sure we get adequate nutrition, and that anyone that we are responsible for feeding, is also cared for in the healthiest and most nutritious way.

Have you ever come across the words, recommended daily allowance. This is part of the whole food pyramid, and gives an age, and size, daily allowance guideline, for adults and children alike, so that they are able to maintain a well balanced, nutritious daily diet.

The term RDA or, recommended daily allowance was introduced during world war ll, to help provide nutritious food for civilians, and also for those fighting in the war. This proved to be very worthwhile, owing to the fact that there was a severe shortage of food and rationing had to be introduced. Having the RDA in place meant, that although all of the food groups were in short supply, everyone learned how to make the most nutritious use of what they did have. Because this worked so well during those times, the food and nutrition board decided to revise the recommended daily intake, or RDA’s every five to ten years. These guidelines help those even on the strictest budgets, because this food pyramid points out the important nutrients each age needs in a day, then suggests options. The wonderful part of this scale, is that it is adequate enough to meet the requirements of approximately 95 to 98 % of the healthy population. By healthy we mean that it does not relate to the sick, as their needs may vary, and will be dealt with accordingly.

The food pyramid with its recommended daily intake has changed to allow for our more sedentary lifestyle. Gone are the days when we needed to have a large calorie intake to sustain our daily energy levels. Actually the difference between the RDA in 1944 to 2011 is huge. The three meals we eat a day now need to be higher in vegetables and lower in carbohydrates, where as back in the 1930s we needed all of the food groups to sustain our more physical lifestyle. Just think, there were no automatic washing machines, no clothes driers, no supermarkets to drive to. There was wood to be chopped, lawns to be hand mown, bread to bake, butter to churn, and most families had no car so everyone walked or had a push bike and this is only a few things, so as you can see, we do not need all of the food that we used to need, but some of us have forgotten that, so read all this and study the food pyramid to help improve your diet.

Below are the suggested figures for the daily calorie intake for men, women, and children. This chart has been created by the many worldwide health organizations, but remember, these are a suggested average.

 

  • Adult Men – 2500
  • Adult Women – 2000
  • Children Aged between 5 to 10 – 1800

These, however, are suggested figures, and vary greatly, depending on three factors:

  • The total body weight
  • The muscle mass in the body, and
  • The kind of lifestyle one leads (active/sedentary)

 

Because this is a guide only, if you can establish the amount of calories your body needs, then you will be able to make better and healthier choices of the food you choose to eat.

People with lower activity levels require less calories, than those that have a higher activity level. For instance, a builder has a higher activity level than an office worker. Or a mother running around after preschoolers all day will have a higher activity than an office worker. These are just examples but I know you understand the point I am trying to make, so set your levels around these.

One of the most important tools you can have when constructing your own food pyramid is a Daily Tracker. This is a chart you can make for yourself where you write down everything that you put in your mouth. First you have a planner and you fill it out with an idea of what you will eat each day, but the tracker is the one that keeps you honest. Every bit of food or drink that goes through your lips should be recorded on your tracker. The reason for this is very simple. If you find that you are gaining weight, or your skin has broken out, or you are getting more that your share of upset tummies or indigestion, then look at your tracker chart. Because you have written everything down that you have eaten or had to drink, then you can check it here and start an elimination process, which works toward you achieving the perfect balanced diet just for you.

You should by now, have a good understanding of what a food pyramid is, and how it relates to you. In further articles we will go into this in more depth, so, watch this space.

 



 

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