5-A-Day Nutrition
5-A-Day is a program started in the United States to encourage kids to eat more fruits and vegetables while learning healthy nutrition habits. Everybody needs to eat a variety of fruits and vegetables, every day, to keep them looking and feeling healthy. These foods contain nutrients that the body needs like Vitamin C, which helps teeth stay strong, and Vitamin A, which helps with healthy skin. Eating five servings of fruits and vegetables a day may sound difficult, but using a few easy recipes makes this an easy thing to do.Try Ants on a Log for a quick afterschool snack. All this is takes is peanut butter, celery sticks and raisins. Spread a small amount of peanut butter on the celery stick to make the "log" and then dot it with the raisins to act as the ants. Those who don’t like peanut butter or those who are allergic can try using cottage cheese, cream cheese or yogurt instead.
Kids can also make an easy fruit parfait at home, either as a snack or for a quick breakfast. Take a large glass or plastic mug and pour a small amount of yogurt in the bottom. Flavored yogurt makes this even yummier. Then add a handful of sliced fruit or berries on top of the yogurt, such as strawberries, raspberries, peaches, apples or any other type of fruit. Keep alternating between the yogurt and fruit until the cup is full.
Another recipe that kids can make with a little help from their parents is vegetable pizza. Take a can of refrigerated crescent rolls and spread them out on a baking sheet, making sure the edges are pressed firmly together. While that’s baking, mix one bar of cream cheese and one cup of mayonnaise with a packet of ranch dressing. Remove the crescent roll "crust" from the oven and let cool. Spread the ranch mixture on top of the cooled crust and top it with chopped vegetables. This makes a great snack.
Kids can also find recipes that they can make on their own at websites like Kids Cook Index, Cooking With Kids and Recipes for Kids.
Dole SuperKids is one of the best websites about the 5-A-Day Program. They have fruit and vegetable comics, games and recipes. Their games are a fun way to learn about the program and about why everyone should eat more fruits and veggies. The History of the 5 A Day website helps kids see exactly what’s in a serving and how much they need to eat every day.
Kids will also like the California Asparagus Kids page. They have games, recipes, and information on why asparagus is such a healthy food. California also has the Avocado Page, with games, recipes and other great stuff.
There’s also the Fruit & Veggie Color Champions, which lets kids pick out their own screen name before going on. They have games, recipes, activities and lots of other stuff specially geared for kids. Or try Fresh for Kids to find recipes and learn about their different characters. Lastly kids can check out the Healthy Choices from Washington’s Farmers. This has lots of fun activity pages to download and copy. Learn all about making healthy choices while having fun at the same time.
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