Feeding children nutritious, healthy foods regularly can feel overwhelming. Convenience foods are often high in calorie and fat content, time is limited and children can be picky eaters. Ensuring adequate exercise, avoiding sugary drinks, concentrating on a well-balanced meal plan and eating a variety of foods will help to develop a simple diet plan for kids.
Significance
According to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 17 percent of all children and adolescents are obese, three times the number from just one generation ago. Providing kids with the tools to make healthy choices is vital to improving their health and reducing the potential health risks of obesity.
Exercise
No diet is complete without exercise. Excess weight is a function of too many calories consumed versus the calories that are expended through daily activities and exercise. Exercise is important, according to the Kids Health website, not only in reducing overall calorie intake but also in the health of a child's bones, muscles, lungs and heart, as well as their overall outlook on life. Kids Health also suggests that kids engage in the three elements of exercise daily -- endurance, strength and flexibility. School-aged kids are encouraged to get at least one hour of exercise a day.
Misconceptions
Adult diets are not suited for kids. Children have increased and specific nutritional needs to support their growth, impending puberty and developing bodies. Eliminating certain food groups or restrictive diets often have poor results with kids.
Warning on Sugary Drinks
Nemours Health and Prevention Services in Delaware has developed a formula to help parents and kids stay on track with healthy lifestyles. The formula is simply, 5-2-1-Almost None. It refers to five servings of vegetables and fruits daily, two hours of screen time every 24 hours, one hour of exercise and drinking almost no sugary beverages. Sugary beverages include sports drinks, juice that is not 100 percent juice, coffee drinks, lemonades and sweetened ice teas. By eliminating these sugary, high-calorie beverage options, hundreds of extra calories are eliminated from a child's diet daily.
Features
According to My Pyramid.gov, a healthy and simple diet for children is one that focuses on vegetables, fruits, whole grains, low-fat or fat-free milk and dairy products and proteins such as lean meat and poultry, seeds and nuts, and fish. Choose foods that are high in nutritional content and low in calorie and fat.
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