Healthy eating for children
Children need plenty of energy to grow, but it can be a challenge knowing how best to ensure they have a healthy, balanced diet. Encouraging children to eat and enjoy a wide variety of foods goes a long way towards establishing healthy eating patterns for life.
While the nutritional status of children and young people is good overall, many have worryingly low intakes of minerals such as zinc, iron, calcium and magnesium. This reflects children's food preferences. A poorly balanced diet, particularly one combined with low activity levels, could affect their health as adults by increasing the risk of heart disease, osteoporosis and obesity. Short-term, it may affect concentration, immunity, energy and cholesterol levels.
A balanced diet |
A healthy diet will provide everyone, including children, with the balance of nutrients necessary for growth and development. The five major food groups are:
- Bread, cereals and potatoes
- Fruit and vegetables
- Milk and dairy
- Meat, fish, eggs and alternatives
- Fats and sugars
The ideal diet includes plenty of fruit and vegetables, cereals, rice, pasta, breads and potatoes, with a selection of meat, poultry, fish, eggs, beans, lentils and pulses. Foods with large amounts of fat, sugar or salt may need to be limited.
Encouraging healthy eating early on in life will help to ensure that good eating habits are carried through to adulthood. Children must be encouraged to be active, as this will balances the energy equation and promotes life-long health. Introduce your children to a wide variety of tastes as soon as you begin weaning. Humans are born with an inborn liking for sweetness and many fruits and vegetables are naturally sweet which aids the process.
All children should eat a wide variety of foods and, relative to their body size, they need more energy than adults. As children enjoy eating sweet and savoury snacks they may need some encouragement to include more fruit and vegetables in their diet. Ensure they sit down to eat regular meals and make meals occasions for the family to share. Serve vegetables imaginatively, for instance as part of the savoury dish as well as separately, and include fruit in desserts. After-school snacks are an important part of a child’s day, so offer fruit, plain or fruited cake or a sandwich along with a drink |
