It’s the end of August so I know all of the parents out there are trying to get into the back to school mode. Just because you may be packing lunches now or your schedule is full, it doesn’t mean you have to eat junk food. As a parent, I’m sure you are doing the best you can to ensure that your kids are eating healthy.
All of my kids have a major sweet tooth, they got it from me. If left to their own devices, I’m sure they would eat junk all day. They’re kids, who wouldn’t. So I wanted to make sure that my kids knew the importance of eating healthy foods rather than having to hear tell them, it’s healthy just eat it.
What foods are healthy?
Do your children know the basic food groups and what each of the foods that they are eating belong to?
Fruit and vegetables
This one is an easy group to discuss because we eat tons of fruit and vegetables. We don’t buy a lot prepared foods so everything we eat is prepared from scratch and we eat a lot of fruits for our snacks. We also have a vegetable garden so it’s been fun watching our veggies grow throughout the summer and they love helping me harvest them although they are not big fans of green peppers and tomatoes.
Grain products
We talked about which foods are grain products so your bread, bagels, pasta, tortilla, crackers, muffins, rice, popcorn and cereal. We also talked about which grains were better that whole grain is better than whole wheat which is better than white bread/pasta.
Meat and alternatives
This is where you have your chicken, turkey, beef, pork, fish as well as your alternatives such as beans, nuts, eggs, tofu and peanut butter.
Milk and alternatives
Here is where you have milk, yogurt, cheese and soy milk.
We also discussed junk food and which foods would be considered junk, if they couldn’t fit into the basic food groups, it was likely junk. Some of their favorite treats like Cheetos, chips, chocolate and ice cream. Although some of them are made of milk, we discussed that it was not significant enough to categorize them into those groups.
We also had fun pick apart some of our meals. If you had a pizza what group would the sauce, dough, toppings fall into?
We discussed that junk food was fine if it was in moderation.
I created this little 3 page printable for your kids to work on as they sort different types of food into the 4 basic food groups. There’s also a daily checklist so your kids can track what they have eaten for the day.
Download the printable here >>> Healthy Foods for Kids Printable
The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Junk FoodKids’ Fun and Healthy Cookbook
Kid Chef: The Foodie Kids Cookbook: Healthy Recipes and Culinary Skills for the New Cook in the Kitchen
Raising a Healthy, Happy Eater: A Parent’s Handbook: A Stage-by-Stage Guide to Setting Your Child on the Path to Adventurous Eating
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This post was sponsored by Horizon Organic. Heading back to school doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice healthy snacks for convenience, fruits and veggies make awesome snacks as well.
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This conversation is sponsored by Horizon Organic. The opinions and text are all mine.
