Eating Healthy

Parents and caregivers play a key role in not only making healthy choices for children and teaching children to make healthy choices for themselves. But in today’s busy world, this isn’t always easy. So Let’s Move! offers parents and caregivers the tools, support and information they need to make healthier choices while instilling healthy eating habits in children that will last a lifetime.

Nutrition Information

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, put forth by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), provide science-based advice for individuals over the age of two to promote health and reduce the risk of major chronic diseases. The current Dietary Guidelines, encourage most Americans to eat fewer calories, be more physically active, and make wiser food choices.

MyPlate

USDA's new food icon, MyPlate, serves as a quick visual reminder to all consumers to make healthy food choices when you choose your next meal, built off of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for all Americans. MyPlate can help prioritize food choices by reminding us to make half of our plate fruits and vegetables and shows us the other important food groups for a well-balanced meal: whole grains, lean proteins, and low fat dairy.

Empower Consumers

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is currently deliberating on how to enhance the usefulness to consumers of point-of-purchase nutrition information. This includes information on the main display panel of food products, called "front-of-pack" labeling. The new labeling provides 65 million parents in America with easy access to the information they need to make healthy choices for their children.

Pediatricians as Partners

The American Academy of Pediatrics, in collaboration with the broader medical community, is educating doctors and nurses across the country about obesity to ensure that they regularly monitor children’s BMIs, provide counseling for healthy eating early on, and, for the first-time ever, write a prescription for parents laying out the simple things they can do to increase healthy eating and active play.

Eating Healthy on a Budget

Eating healthy doesn’t have to cost more. Use these tips and materials from USDA to help you make choices that are not only healthy but also economical.

• The 3 P’s ― Plan, Purchase, and Prepare Food on a Budget (pdf), these reminders help you stay within your food budget.
• Smart Shopping for Veggies and Fruits (pdf), get the fruits and vegetables you need without breaking the bank.
• Sample 7 Day Menu (pdf), this sample weekly menu meets all nutritional needs at a cost below current average food costs.