Nutritional Health Bytes

Toddlers and preschoolers need to eat often - up to 6 times a day, with 3 meals and up to 3 small snacks.  Plan meal and snack times so a routine can develop.

     -Kids in Motion 2007

Offer healthy foods but let your child choose which ones to eat, how much to eat or whether to eat at all.  This way they will learn to eat when they are hungry and stop when they are full.  This is an important skill to having healthy weight and body.

     -Kids in Motion 2007

Folic acid has been shown to significantly reduce the risk of neural tube defects such as spina bifida.  For this reason, Health Canada recommends that all women of child-bearing age consume 0.4 mg of folic acid daily through a supplement and a healthy diet containing folate-rich foods.

     -www.pulsecanada.com

Foods high in folate include dark green vegetables (broccoli, spinach, peas and brussel sprouts), corn, pulses (peas, beans, lentils, chickpeas), oranges and orange juice.

     -www.pulsecanada.com

Young children with iron levels below normal do not learn as well.

     -Beef Information Cenre 2002

Iron is an important mineral found in every cell in the body.  Iron builds red blood cells, helps cells work in the body, carries oxygen from the lungs to all parts of the body and helps the brain work at its best.

     -Beef Information Centre 2002

If you're like most Canadians, you need to get more fibre.  It's estimated that most people need twice the amount of fibre they're getting now.  That amounts to about 25 - 35 grams of fibre each day.  It sounds like a lot of fibre but it's not hard to get if you coose the right foods.

     -Heart and Stroke Foundation - Fibre Facts Pamphlet

The food labels of higher-fibre foods often list the dietary fibre provided per serving.  Foods containing at least 2 grams of fibre can be called a 'source or moderate source' of fibre; at least 4 grams of fibre renders the food a 'high source' and 6 grams or more fibre per serving is a 'very high source' of dietary fibre.

     -Heart and Stroke Foundation - Fibre Facts Pamphlet

Ideas for adding more fibre to your diet:  top up your ceral with a scoop of raisins, a sliced banana, or some orange sections, fibre boost salad with carrots, apple slices, dried fruit, raw broccoli or cauliflower pieces, snack on fibre-filled fruit: pears, raspberries, apples, oranged, nectarines and bananas.

     -Heart and Stroke Foundation - Fibre Facts Pamphlet

Toddlers and preschoolers need to eat often - up to 6 times a day, with 3 meals and up to 3 small snacks.  Plan meal and snack times so a routine can develop.

     -Kids in Motion 2007

Offer healthy foods but let your child choose which ones to eat, how much to eat or whether to eat at all.  This way they will learn to eat when they are hungry and stop when they are full.  This is an important skill to having a healthy weight and body.

     -Kids in Motion 2007

Your body needs cholesterol.  The amount and type of

cholesterol in your blood can affect your risk of heart

disease.  You can help control the cholesterol in your

blood with healthy eating.

   - Canadian Egg Marketing Agency:  Cholesterol Clues 2001

Science shows that consuming either saturated or trans

fats raises the blood levels of the so-called 'bad'

cholesterol (serum LDL-cholesterol) LDL-cholesterol is

a risk factor for heart disease.  In addition to raising

'bad' cholesterol, trans fats also reduce the blood levels

of the so-called 'good' cholesterol (HDL-cholesterol)

HDL-cholesterol protects against heart disease.

   -Health Canada - Fact Sheet on Trans Fat 2004

                                                       In Canada, 43% of men and 45% of women                                                        have unhealthy cholesterol levels.  Lowering                                                        cholesterol by even one percentage point in                                                        a middle-aged male is linked to a 2%                                                        decrease in heart disease risk.

                                                                                                 -Heart and Stroke Foundation

Dietary cholesterol is found in such foods as eggs, regular milk products, meats and poultry.  Cholesterol is found only in foods that come from animals,  never in vegetable products such as vegetable oil or margarine.

                                     -Heart and Stroke Foundation - Cholesterol Facts

Women who do not eat any meat, fish or poultry need almost twice as much iron as women who do.

     - Beef Information Centre 2002