Healthy Eating Guidelines and Balanced Diet Information

What is balanced diet for the 6to12 year children of middle class. How to improve their physical and mental Health?

• Make the child accustomed to your routine family meals. Family meals are prepared according to your cultural values and practices.
  Your child needs to get adjusted to your meals. Do not develop a habit of preparing a separate meal for the child. This can be tedious and time consuming for you.
• Prefer healthier option for your child. You child is in the growing phase. Hence he should receive proper supply of protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals. Certain points that can be considered for planning healthy diet are :
  
  
  1. Select seasonal fruits and vegetables. Your child should have at least five servings of fruits and vegetables daily. Include fruits and vegetables at every meal. You can include fruits in the form of fruit salads or fruit milkshakes, added in the custard if your child doesn’t like to eat whole fruit.
  2. Include carbohydrates as it is essential for providing energy to the body. Include cereals like rice, wheat, ragi and semolina in your child’s diet. You can give him whole wheat breads or fiber biscuits.
  3. Protein rich foods are essential for proper growth and muscle development of your child. You should give him good quality proteins like soybeans, eggs, poultry, milk and meat. Animal foods can be expensive. Hence you can prefer plant foods like pulses, nuts and legumes. Combination diets like cereal pulse combination or pulse oilseed combination can improve the quality of protein in the diet.
  4. Limit excessive consumption of fried foods or fatty foods. Baked or roasted foods and grilled foods are healthier option. Limit the intake of animal fats like clarified butter or butter. Prefer vegetables oils and low fat foods like low fat milk and lean meat.
  5. Reduce the intake of junk foods or processed foods. Do not avoid it totally. You can even prepare these foods at home .Limit the intake of carbonated beverages, sugary drinks or cola drinks. Encourage your child to have ample amounts of water and milk.

• You need to be role model for your child. Your child will learn to eat nutritious meals if you eat well yourself. You should not indulge too much into outside foods or fast food. Be sure that you are eating healthy foods so that you can teach your child the same.