The 5 Food Groups That Are Essential For Your Growing Child

Proper nutrition in growing children is fundamental to their growth and development. This is because not getting the right nutrients in their daily food intake could translate into your child experiencing stunted growth and developmental issues.

It is essential to understand that providing your child with food packed with the right nutrients will promote their growth and boost their mental and physical development.

When handling food caterers in Saskatoon for kids, it is vital to remember that, how and what a child consumes today can have massive implications on their overall health and well-being during adolescence and even adulthood.

Why Should You Emphasize on a Healthy and Balanced Diet When Catering for Growing Kids?

Several benefits can be attributed to healthy eating in growing children. Some of the most prominent benefits include:

• Help keep chronic diseases such as obesity, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and cardiac diseases at bay.
• It ensures your child will be able to maintain an ideal and healthy weight.
• Proper nutrition boosts their mental development.
• Provides your child with adequate energy they need for growth and daily activities.
• It helps stabilize your child’s moods.
• Help keep mental health conditions such as anxiety, ADHD, and depression at bay.

Ensuring your child develops healthy eating habits is quite important because this will most likely stick with them even as they transition into adulthood.

By providing your growing child with a healthy and balanced diet, you are making sure that they are consuming all the fundamental nutrients they require for their growth and development.

Essential elements such as vitamins, micro and macronutrients, and minerals that a growing body needs can all be obtained through proper nutrition.

What Are Some of the Important Nutrients a Growing Child Requires?

These are some of the critical nutrients your growing child needs:

• Calcium- key for the proper development of bones and teeth
• Fiber- aids in proper digestion and improves bowel movements.
• Vitamin E – an antioxidant, cleans out blood vessels and vital in cell development.
• Potassium- promotes proper blood pressure levels.
• Iron- important for developing red blood cells
• Vitamins A, B, and C – essential for proper cardiac functioning, energy metabolism, and development of the nervous system
• Vitamin D- works with calcium for proper bone development.

The above essential elements can be obtained from foods that your child can consume on a daily basis.

When food catering for kids, it is essential to know the food sources for these essential nutrients and to balance them so that your child has access to these nutrients at every meal.

What Food Groups Are Packed With These Essential Nutrients?

Here are five key food groups that should form a daily part of your child’s diet.

1. Fruits

Fruits are packed with lots of vitamins, antioxidants, minerals, and fiber. They are also a good source of energy. The vitamins help to boost immunity and prevent diseases, while minerals such as potassium are essential in muscle development and proper brain function.

The fiber is vital for digestion and eradicating constipation, and the antioxidants are essential in the prevention of chronic diseases and heart diseases. Excellent choices may include berries, bananas, oranges, watermelons, mangoes, and kiwi.

2. Carbohydrates

This is where they get their energy to play and grow. Excellent sources of carbohydrates are grains. Grain foods such as pasta, noodles, rice, quinoa, oats, bread, and corn provide your child with lots of energy.

It is crucial, however, to load your child up with grain foods that have a low glycemic index such as whole grain bread, pasta, and rice. These will make your child feel full long after their meal and provide them with long-lasting energy levels.

3. Proteins

Proteins are fundamental for your child’s proper growth and muscle formation. Foods such as lean meats, fish, chicken, eggs, beans, and lentils are packed with proteins.

These foods are also loaded with other essential nutrients like omega 3, iron, vitamin B, and zinc. Iron and the omega 3 facilitate proper brain development.

4. Dairy products

These include cheese, yogurt, and milk, packed with proteins and calcium for healthy bones and teeth. It’s essential, however, to introduce reduced-fat dairy products to your child’s diet, especially for children above the age of two.

5. Vegetables

Rich in minerals, fiber, and vitamins A, E and C and yes should form part of your child’s daily meals.

Here at Fueling Minds, we understand the overall effect a balanced diet has on your child’s growth and development. That is why all our meals are balanced and freshly made each day from locally sourced ingredients to ensure your child gets nothing short of the best in terms of diet.