Our Content Affiliates Site Map Advertisement Using the Pyramid and Food Label to Build Healthful Eating Patterns for Kids Healthful eating patterns and active lifestyles begun in childhood and continued through adult years may help prevent or postpone the onset of chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and some cancers. Parents can help children establish healthful eating habits by offering a variety of foods and creating balance in their own healthful eating patterns. Meal planning and food shopping are opportunities to share positive ideas with children. The Food Guide Pyramid Parents and children should remember that no individual food is good or bad.
All foods can fit into a healthy eating style.
Help children learn how foods fit into the Food Guide Pyramid and how each food group can help them grow. Even young children can identify foods from the Food Guide Pyramid's five food groups and understand how their bodies use the nutrients provided by the foods they eat. Grain products contain carbohydrates, vitamins, iron, and fiber. Children need grains as sources of energy to grow, develop, learn, and keep physically active. Complex carbohydrates and sugars are valuable energy sources for children.