A food diary can be a great way to keep track of the calories your kids are eating, especially if they are overweight, and to make sure that they are getting enough fruits, vegetables, vitamins, and minerals, etc., from all of the different food groups.
Food Groups
Calories
In recording what your kids eat and drink on a food diary, you can make sure they aren't getting too many calories. It can help to understand how many calories they actually need each day though. In general, kids who are:- 1-3 years old need about 1,300 calories each day
- 4-6 years old need about 1,800 calories each day
- 7-10 years old need about 2,000 calories each day
- 11-14 years old (boys) need about 2,500 calories each day
- 11-14 years old (girls) need about 2,200 calories each day
- 15-18 years old (boys) need about 3,000 calories each day
- 15-18 years old (girls) need about 2,200 calories each day
Food Groups
Although a food diary is usually used to keep track of calories and limit calories when trying to help overweight children lose weight or maintain a healthy weight, they can also help you make sure your kids are eating a healthy diet with a variety of foods from each food group:- Grains, with a preference for whole grains
- Vegetables
- Fruits
- Milk and dairy - especially low fat dairy products, like cheese and yogurt, and other foods that are good sources of calcium
- Meat and beans, especially lean or low-fat meats and including poultry, fish, eggs, and nuts
Vitamins and Minerals
Keeping track of what your kids are eating can help make sure that they are getting a good amount of vitamins, minerals, and other important nutrients. You can record and be on the look out for foods that are good sources of fiber, iron, calcium, potassium, and any other nutrients that you are concerned that your kids don't get enough of.Example Food Diary
The following example food diary shows what you can do with your own printable food diary. Can you spot the problems? For one thing, assuming this is a toddler, he is getting too many calories. Also, he is getting:- too many snacks. Kids typically don't need a bedtime snack and if they do, it should likely just be a healthy piece of fruit, like an apple, and not cookies and milk.
- too many extra calories from high sugar and high fat foods, including the Root Beer and Oreo Cookies, which would be better as an occasional treat and not a regular snack
- some oversized portions, including the serving size of Oreo Cookies which would typically be three cookies, not six
- a very limited number of vegetables in his diet
- plenty of calcium from the Orange Juice and milk
- some very healthy choices, including 1% milk, whole grain cereal, and some fruit
- Meals
- B = Breakfast
- sAM = Morning Snack
- L = Lunch
- sPM = Afternoon Snack
- D = Dinner
- sBT = Bedtime Snack
- G = Grains
- V = Vegetables
- F = Fruits
- M = Meats/Beans
- D = Milk/Dairy
| Example Food Diary (not necessarily a healthy example!) | |||||
| Food | Meal | Serving Size | Calories | Food Group | Description |
| Orange Juice | Breakfast | 8oz | 110 | Fruit | Minute Maid Kids+, Calcium 35% |
| Cereal | Breakfast | 1 cup | 160 | Grain, Dairy | MultiGrain Cheerios plus 1/2 cup 1% Milk |
| Apple Juice | Snack 10am | Juice Box | 100 | Fruit | 100% Fruit Juice |
| Banana | Snack 10am | 1 | 105 | Fruit | Good source of fiber, potassium, vitamin C. |
| McDonalds Cheeseburger Happy Meal | Lunch | 500 | Meat, Dairy, Fruit, Grain | Apple Dippers, 1% Milk | |
| Celery with Peanut Butter | Snack 4pm | 4 small stalks, 2 tbsp | 200 | Veggies, Meat/Beans | Good sources of fiber, protein. |
| Root Beer | Snack 4pm | 8oz | 120 | Extra sugar | |
| Macaroni and Cheese | Dinner | 1 | 220 | Grain, Dairy | |
| Oreo Cookies | Snack 8pm | 6 cookies | 300 | Extra fat and calories | |
| Milk | Snack 8pm | 8oz | 120 | Dairy | |
| Calorie Totals: | 1,935 | ||||
| Food Group Totals | Fruits 4 | Veggies 1 | Dairy 3 1/2 | Meat/Beans 2 | Grains 3 |
| Notes: | Too many snacks! Need more veggies and healthier snacks. | ||||
0 التعليقات:
Post a Comment