Food Pyramid aimed at 6-11 year-olds unveiled by US Dept of Agriculture

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Main Category: Nutrition / Diet
Article Date: 29 Sep 2005 - 16:00 PDT

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The US Department of Agriculture has unveiled the Food Pyramid for Kids. It is targetted at children aged 6-11 and includes an interactive computer game. It is aimed at improving children's health by encouraging them to adopt a lifestyle that hopefully will reverse the alarming rise in the number of obese and overweight children in the USA.

The Pyramid for Kids tells children to :

-- Eat plenty of fruit and vegetables

-- Opt for wholegrains rather than refined (processed) cereal products and bread

-- Eat plenty of nutrients rich in calcium

-- Opt for beans, nuts, seeds, lean meats rather than processed sausages and burgers and greasy junk.

-- Eat plenty of chicken but leave out the skin

-- Take part in 60 minutes of physical activity each day

You can access the Food Pyramid for Kids at:
mypyramid .gov

The Pyramid game tries to engage the child ; there is a rocket which reminds the child how well he/she is doing (the child records what he/she eats and how much exercise has been done each day). If the child has eaten 'well', the rocket gets the right fuel and takes off. If the child has eaten 'badly', the rocket struggles to move, releases a load of smoke and does not take off.

The USA has the fattest and unfittest children in the developed world. At Medical News Today we often receive emails from European children who are in the USA, either on an exchange program or just on vacation. Most of the messages we receive have a similar vein - initial shock at how unhealthy American children look, and then comments on how badly they eat and how little they move around. To quote one Italian 11 year old 'I was in the USA for three months and just ate junk, junk and more junk. Junk for breakfast, junk for lunch and junk for supper. Portions were huge. All the food at school was pure junk. Nobody in the house did anything - they all just watched TV and played video games.'

Unfortunately, as more American style 'food' outlets open up in Europe, it will not be long before the problem explodes across the Atlantic.

Written by : Christian Nordqvist
Editor : Medical News Today
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

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