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Educate your patients on the importance of 3-A-Day of Dairy: Here's
a great
tool (PDF: 618k) to show families how to get their 3-A-Day of Dairy
every day for stronger bones.
Developed in conjunction with The American Academy of Family
Physicians, The American Academy of Pediatrics, The American Dietetic
Association, and The National Medical Association.
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Dairy Council Digest Archives
Healthy Snacking For Healthy Kids
Summary
Snacking is important for children and adolescents to help meet their energy and nutrient needs for growth and development. However, many parents and health professionals are concerned that snacking is undermining the nutritional quality of children's diets and contributing to childhood overweight.
To ensure that snacking - consuming foods and beverages between regular meals - is nourishing without being a source of excess calories, parents/care providers should be aware of when and where children snack and what snacks they consume. Studies indicate that children and adolescents snack more frequently today than in previous decades. Unrestricted access to snacking can lead to excess calorie intake and an increased risk of overweight. For this reason, snacks should be offered to children at regularly scheduled times of the day, preferably a couple of hours before the next meal to stave off hunger and avoid spoiling their appetite.
Children also are obtaining more of their snacks away from home - at schools and fast food establishments. At home, snacks should be consumed at a designated place and, to avoid mindless overeating, not consumed while watching television or engaged in other activities.
Many children obtain snacks at school. The U.S. Surgeon General's Call to Action to Prevent and Decrease Overweight and Obesity recommends that healthy snacks be provided in vending machines, school stores, and other venues within the school's control. Efforts are being made to provide and promote nutritious snacks wherever snacks are available in schools. For example, fluid milk in well-chilled, single-serve resealable packages in a variety of flavors and fat levels is being offered in some school vending machines as an alternative to high energy, low nutrient beverages. Also, USDA's Afterschool Snack Program for Children through age 18 is an effort to provide students with nutritious snacks and the opportunity to practice skills learned in classroom nutrition education.
Because many popular snacks consumed by children are high energy, low nutrient foods obtained from the tip of the Food Guide Pyramid (fats, sweets), they should be eaten sparingly. When offering snacks to children, the best approach is to make foods from the five food groups of the Food Guide Pyramid - the Milk, Meat, Vegetable, Fruit, and Grain groups - readily available and teach children how to balance their food choices throughout the day. Parents/care providers can positively influence children's snacking behaviors by consuming nutritious snacks themselves and by making these snacks readily available.
Intake of dairy foods as snacks can have nutritional and health benefits. Because of their nutrient density, consumption of dairy foods can improve the overall nutritional quality of children's diets. Also, because dairy foods are a rich source of calcium and provide other essential nutrients needed for bone health, consuming at least three servings/day of milk, cheese, or yogurt during childhood may reduce the risk of bone fractures in childhood and osteoporosis in later adult years. Milk and several varieties of cheese (e.g., aged Cheddar, Swiss, process American) may also protect children's teeth from dental caries.
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