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A Visual Guide to Healthy Eating
Using the Food Pyramid By Donna Smith
Preschoolers seem to seep energy out of every pore on their rapidly growing bodies. One way to make sure these bundles of energy stay healthy is to instill good eating habits – and the earlier, the better.
"Teaching nutrition in preschool is crucial," says Vanessa Levin, a pre-kindergarten teacher in Dallas, Texas. "The earlier we can reach children and help change their food choices the better off they will be in the long run. Preschoolers are very resilient by nature; they can make these types of changes in their diet at an early age because they haven't become 'set in their ways' like so many older children and adults."
"The food pyramid works well because it is a visual, proportional guide to a healthful diet," says Connie Liakos Evers, M.S., R.D., child nutrition consultant and author of How to Teach Nutrition to Kids (24 Carrot Press, 1995). "Even before children can grasp the concept of food groups, they can still look at the graphic and understand that we need more of certain foods and less of other foods. It gives kids a framework for understanding the concepts of good nutrition."
The breakfast table is a good place to begin. "Since the pyramid is often on cereal boxes and other packages, sitting at the table might be a good place to start," says Evers, who also promotes good nutrition on her Web site, nutritionforkids.com. "Children do need to understand that all five major groups are equally important – we just need different amounts of each of the groups. Just as the 'tip' is a small piece of the pyramid, the foods in the tip (sweets and fats) should make up a small part of our daily diet."
Once the concept of food groups is grasped, serving sizes can be demonstrated, which is a concept that even some adults are still confused by. "Most Americans are suffering from serving size distortion, so it is important to have a basic concept of serving sizes," says Evers. "Interestingly, the serving sizes don't vary much at all from the adult pyramid. From a practical standpoint, it is important to encourage children (and adults, for that matter) to start with a small portion and eat according to hunger."
