October 24th, 2013
Healthy Eating
Healthy Eating: It seems simple but with all the food choices and health claims out there, it can be hard to figure out what is best for you and your family. Healthy eating has many benefits for children. It gives them the nutrients (e.g., vitamins, minerals, protein, and water) to keep their muscles, bones, organs, and teeth healthy. It also reduces the risk of childhood obesity and juvenile diabetes. Being well-nourished supports healthy growth and development and gives children the energy needed to carry out daily activities. Eating healthy has also proven to help children perform better at school. Here are some of the nutrients children can receive from eating healthy foods:
Calcium helps keep bones, teeth, and muscles strong
Iron is good for blood and cell functions
Vitamin A maintains healthy eye and skin development and also helps your body fight infections
Vitamin C helps to heal cuts and keeps your teeth and gums strong
Drink Water: Without water, your body would stop working properly. Water makes up more than half of your body weight. Your body has lots of important jobs and it needs water to do many of them. For instance; it helps your immune system fight off illness, digest your food, excrete waste, and carries oxygen in the blood cells throughout your body. Luckily we can get water from eating fruits and vegetable as well as drinking it!
Foods To Avoid or Limit
Some foods should be limited due to their affects on children’s health (e.g., juvenile diabetes, childhood obesity).
Foods that are high in added sugar (e.g., pop, cookies, cake, candy, chocolate, and some fruit drinks) tend to be high in calories and low in valuable nutrients. As a result, a high-sugar diet is often linked with obesity and tooth decay. Instead of serving foods that are low in nutrients and high in added sugar, offer healthier choices such as fruit that contain natural sugars.
When reading food labels please note that sugar can also be disguised as glucose, fructose, or dextrose andwhen looking at the ingredient list on a box it lists the ingredients in order of greatest quantity to least quantity. For example: if the ingredients for fruit gummies says Sugar, corn syrup, fruit puree, food colouring… the main ingredient is sugar.
One way to cut down on added sugar is to eliminate soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages, which can cause erosion of tooth enamel from the acidity and dental cavities (or caries) from the high sugar content. Consider this statistic: Each 12-ounce (355ml) serving of pop contains the equivalent of 10 teaspoons (49 ml) of sugar and 150 calories. Sweetened drinks are the largest source of added sugar in the daily diets of children.
Instead of soda or juice drinks (which often contain as much added sugar as soft drinks), serve low-fat milk or water.
The Ministry of Education – PPM 150
| The Ontario government is committed to making schools healthier places for students in order to establish the conditions needed to realize the potential of all students. A healthy school environment enhances student learning and success, and enhances students’ social and emotional well-being. Schools have an important role to play in helping students lead healthier lives, including teaching students the skills to make healthy choices and reinforcing those lessons through school practices.The school food and beverage policy (PPM 150) contributes to improved education and health outcomes for all students. Research shows that “health and education success are intertwined: schools cannot achieve their primary mission of education if students are not healthy” and that “healthy eating patterns in childhood and adolescence promote optimal childhood health, growth, and intellectual development”. |
WT Townshend
At WT Townshend we are trying to model healthy eating. We want to optimize learning by encouraging parents to avoid sending unhealthy snacks such as chocolate, pop, and candy to school which can affect their behaviour and attention during prime learning time. These treats can be consumed at home.
Thanks for your support!
WT Townshend
Categories: School Information