Healthy eating ABCs for early childhood educators

The key nutrition concepts in Eating Between the Lines (EBTL) are:

1. The importance of eating a healthy diet — what good food does for our bodies and brains.
   
2. The importance of eating a variety of foods within the food groups.
   
3. The importance of eating a good balance of foods across the food guide (Eat a rainbow).
   
4. The ability to make good, informed food choices.
   
5. The importance of diversity of food and food habits.
   

The information below has been adapted from Healthy Start for Life, an excellent program by Dietitians of Canada. More information is available at :

http://www.dietitians.ca/healthystart/content/courses/

 

 

Why is healthy eating important for pre-schoolers?

• To provide them with energy and nutrients to grow properly and be active.
• To develop their taste, acceptance and enjoyment of different foods.
• To help them feel good.
• To develop healthy food habits that will last a lifetime.

Tips for healthy children:

• A child's appetite will vary so let them decide how much he/she wants to eat.
• Provide a variety of nutritious foods from each of the four food groups to support normal growth and development.
• Involve children in daily physical activity.
• Be a good role model for healthy eating and active living.

What does healthy eating mean?

Healthy eating means choosing foods according to Canada’s Food Guide. Our new Canada’s Food Guide was released in January 2007. It is now for ages 2 and up, and provides important information about the kinds and amounts of food to eat.

An exciting new part of Canada’s Food Guide is the ability to create a guide for children based on their age and their favourite foods called My Guide. This is available at The Canada Food Guide Website and is a fun way for children to understand all the different choices available in each food group. A sample is provided below.

Build Your Own Food Guide

 

Children can eat the same kinds of foods as adults but typically eat smaller servings. The amount of food a child needs depends on their age, body size, activity level, growth rate, and appetite.

Healthy eating also means limiting foods that are high in salt, fat, sugar, and caffeine (i.e. chips, fried food, candies, and pop). These should not be offered on a regular basis.

Finally, healthy eating means enabling children to adopt healthy eating habits for life.

Meals and snacks.

Because of their small stomachs, children need 3 small meals with nutritious snacks between.

Meals should include foods from 3 of the 4 food groups, while snacks should include foods from at least 2 of the 4 food groups. Snacks are an important part of a healthy diet for children.

It is best that there be no more than 2½ hours between meals and snacks.

Family style service works best: this means putting a serving dish on the table and allowing children to help themselves. This is recommended because it encourages them to try new foods, avoids food battles at the table, and allows children to eat according to their appetites.

What does a healthy snack and lunch look like?

There are many ways to create a healthy lunch using Canada’s Food Guide. This link shows us how to create healthy snacks and lunches.

Variety: The spice of life

Variety means eating different foods within each food group. Varying colours, textures and flavours are a way to make eating fun and delicious, and also a good way to make sure we get enough of the nutrients we need. For example, if we consume foods from the Vegetables and Fruit, we could consume a number of different coloured foods every day: purple grapes, orange sweet potatoes, red apples, and yellow corn. Eating a variety of foods also helps prevent children from becoming bored or tired of foods.

Balancing acts

A key idea in this program is trying to have a balanced diet. This means eating the recommended number from each group and not having too much or too little of any one food group. This is important to make sure we get enough of the nutrients we need, like vitamins and minerals, and to make sure that we are not getting too much of one group and not enough of another.

 

Celebrating the diversity of food:

Food is a central part of any culture. Trying and appreciating new foods is a way to celebrate the many different cultures in Canada and to enjoy a wider variety of foods in our diet. There will be lots of opportunities to do this, with the number of immigrants increasing, and the expansion of ethic and international foods in our grocery stores, markets, and restaurants.

Looking for more information on healthy eating?

A new draft healthy living policy for early childhood education programs in PEI has been developed. The intent of the policy is to promote and maintain healthy eating and physical activity in all early childhood education centres. The nutrition component of the proposed policy provides information on food to serve most often/sometimes and least often, as well as guidelines for portion sizes for young children. It is anticipated that this policy will be adopted by all early childhood centres in the near future once consultation with centres has been completed. The draft policy can be found at www.healthyeatingpei.ca .