Choosing Healthy Snacks Using MyPyramid

What is a snack? A snack is any food that is eaten between meals. Now, what is a smart snack? A smart snack includes healthy choices from the food groups in MyPlate. So, if your meals come up short on any food group, choose foods from that food group for your snacks. Try fresh fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy products, and lean meats or whole grains products.

Avoid snacks high in fat, sugar and salt. These include candy bars, doughnuts, fries, hamburgers, and regular soda.

Snacking Myths:

MYTH: Snacks cause weight gain. FACT: No! You gain weight when you consume more calories, no matter what you eat, than you burn during the day.

MYTH: Snacks ruin appetites. FACT: No! Eating a snack 1–2 hours before a meal helps adults satisfy hunger and eat a smaller meal. Snacks help children and adolescents get the extra nutrients they need.

MYTH: Snacks cause cavities. FACT: No! You get cavities when you eat sugary and starchy snacks throughout the day. In contrast, snacks that include milk or cheese help prevent tooth decay, while fruits and vegetables keep teeth and gums healthy.

Who Should Snack?

Everyone should snack: children, adolescents, adults, and older adults. Many children do not get enough calories from three meals a day; older adults often do not eat enough calories and need snacks to meet their needs. Adding in snacks between meals helps provide calories and nutrients.

Eating healthy snacks gives you the fuel you need to keep going! Planning is KEY to Successful Snacking!

·         Make sure to keep ready-to-eat portions of crackers, canned fruit, yogurt, and tuna packed in water.

·         Wash fresh produce and keep ready-to-eat portions in bags in the refrigerator. Keep low-fat yogurt or dip to grab and go.

·         Prepare your own granola or trail mix. Combine 1 cup whole-grain oat cereal with ¼ cup of chopped nuts such as walnuts, and ¼ cup dried fruit such as cranberries for a healthy trail mix.

·         Make your snacks interesting, fun and creative. Variety is the key!

·         Keep healthy, tasty, and easy to carry snacks in your backpack or purse nearby.

Source: Choosing Healthy Snacks Using My Pyramid, University of Florida Extension

Pick Your Portion Sizes

Is it tricky to visualize the recommended amounts of foods from the five MyPlate food groups or determine how much food from each food group you should eat? To help you determine the appropriate amount of food specifically for you, MyPlate.gov allows you to personalize your eating plan based on your age, sex, and daily level of physical activity. The recommended amounts are given in cups or ounces according to each food group. Unfortunately, there is not always time or resources for using measuring cups or food scales to help you accurately measure your food. To help you picture these amounts, you can use common household objects for comparison. This process can help you learn to recognize what the right amounts of foods for a healthier you really are—and before you know it, picking sensible portion sizes will have become second nature.

Picture your portion sizes as specific objects:

1 cup of dry cereal, fruit, pasta, chopped vegetables = a baseball.

1/2 cup of cooked rice, pasta, cereal, chopped fruit or vegetables - a small computer mouse.

1 1/2 ounces hard cheese = 4 stacked dice.

3 ounces of meat, fish or poultry - a deck of cards.

1 teaspoon of margarine = one die.

2 Tablespoons of peanut butter - a golf ball.

 

Children and Diets

The diet industry represents a multi-billion dollar industry today. New books and diet programs appear almost every week with offers to help us FINALLY figure out how to eat right and stay in shape. While these programs are typically targeted to adults, the adults who are dealing with their own nutrition issues are also raising the next generation... often with the same rules they learned as kids or imposing the new rules they are trying to follow as adults. In many cases, neither of these is appropriate.

For example, according to Ellyn Satter, low-fat food is neither nutritionally appropriate nor appealing to toddlers (much less adults!). Likewise, for all the Atkins followers out there, starches are not only good for children, but appealing. Satter recommends always having bread and a second starchy food on the table.

Another important shift in philosophy is over control. For all of you raised by the “yours is not to question why, yours is but to do or die” parenting style, consider this. Satter says you're too controlling if you make your child stay at the table to eat her vegetables; make your child clean his/her plate or eat everything else before he/she can have dessert; or if you make your child get by on only three meals a day.

However, she says you aren't providing your child enough structure and limits if you give your child a snack whenever he/she wants one; let your child behave badly at the table; short-order cook for him/her; or let your child have juice or milk whenever he/she wants it.

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Reference: Satter, Ellen. "Child of Mine". Bull Publishing, 2000 Boulder, CO.