The U.S. Department of Agriculture introduced the New Food Pyramid to help parents and children understand what kinds of foods they should eat, and how much they should be eating. Each food group is assigned a color, making it easier to find information about that group. Grains and whole grains are orange, vegetables are green, fruits are red, dairy products are blue, lean proteins are purple and fats are yellow.
Step 1
Find a copy of the New Food Pyramid and print a copy of the pyramid so you can post it on your refrigerator as you teach your children about how the pyramid works. Explain to your children that the bottom of the pyramid contains the most nutritionally important foods, according to MyPyramid.gov.
Step 2
Point to the bottom of the pyramid, which is for grains. Show your children they need to eat six to 11 servings of grains per day, with at least 3 oz. of these coming from whole grains. Teach your children that whole grains have not been milled and the nutrition stays in these foods, according to MyPyramid.gov.
Step 3
Move to the next bar on the pyramid. Teach your children that the vitamin C in vegetables makes their bodies stronger and healthier. Your children should eat three to five servings of vegetables a day. Vegetables also contain fiber, which helps them digest their food, according to Kids Health.
Step 4
The area next to the vegetables is for fruits. Your children should eat two to four servings of fruit per day, preferably fresh. They can enjoy frozen and dried fruit as well. Your children can eat canned fruit, but be careful of the sugar content in canned fruit.
Step 5
Show your children the next bar above vegetables and fruits. One side of the bar is for dairy products, such as milk, cheese and yogurt. MyPyramid.gov recommends eating and drinking low-fat or fat-free dairy products. Next to the dairy bar, show your children the protein bar, which contains meats and beans. Again, teach your children they should choose lean meats, such as chicken, turkey, fish and lean red meats. Included in the protein group are nuts, beans, peas and seeds.
Step 6
Point out that the area for fats is on the highest, most narrow point of the pyramid, meaning your children should not eat as much from this group as they do from the grains, vegetables or fruits groups. Explain to your children that they should pick healthful fats, such as omega-3 fatty acids, vegetable oils, fish and nuts. In order to lower their risk of heart disease, they should limit their intake of saturated fats such as butter, shortening, stick margarine and lard.
Tips and Warnings
- Show your children how the width of each stripe matches how much of that food group they should eat--the grains stripe is the widest, meaning they should eat the most from that group, while the fats stripe is the most narrow, meaning they should eat the least from this group.
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