“EAT HEALTHY”
In the “Eat Healthy” drop down menu (“What is MyPlate”, n.d.) the very first option, “Start Simple” has enough information to get any uninformed person started down the right path and how to keep it interesting enough to hold their attention. It hits on all the main food groups and even contains a tip in the heading: fruits (focus on whole fruits), vegetables (vary your veggies), grains (make half your grains whole), proteins (vary your protein routine) and dairy (move to low-fat or fat-free milk or yogurt). They have a page and healthy tip for every component found in the Healthy Eating Index – 2010 (Robertson, 2016, Pg. 208). Each group has at least 5 tips and tricks below if to keep your eating habits fresh and interesting so you don’t get burnt out on a healthy lifestyle before it even has a chance. Each of these groups also has an entirely separate page that breaks down what foods are in that food group, how many servings of that group are needed on a daily bases and how much of a group must be consumed to be considered a serving.
This information is great because people may not even know that they are getting their daily value of any of a group until they see that what they eat on a regular basis is classified in the different groups and how much of that food you eat is fulfilling your daily needs. You could already have a strong basis in eating healthy with your daily routine and not even know it! Here they help you figure that out and show you what is needed and not needed to get where you want to go.
“BROWSE BY AUDIENCE”
The “Browse by Audience” drop down menu (“View all audiences”, n.d.) is fantastic because it helps a person find the information they are looking for by the type of person they are looking to find information for. The options are: children, students, adults, families, professionals and even offer the information in multiple languages. What’s really interesting is the children page has a table of how much daily calories a child needs to consume based on their activity levels, the servings of the different groups the child should be consuming on a daily basis, then even meal and snack options for that active child’s life. As a father of two young children, one of which very active and the other not even old enough to walk, found the meal and snack suggestions very useful and helpful that they showed how those choices fit into the recommended daily values. On the children’s page they also had tips for working with picky eaters, so they also recognize that it isn’t as simple as telling a young child what to eat.
They also offer a page to professionals such as teachers that want to pass on to their students the benefits of a healthy lifestyle or build a lesson plan around it, The offer all the graphics from the page in numerous different file formats so graphs and tables of healthy eating information can be printed and shared in the classroom.
MyPlate Kitchen
The “MyPlate Kitchen” drop down menu (“Welcome to MyPlate Kitchen”, n.d.) menu has all the information you need to make a healthy eating lifestyle interesting and keep it fresh and exciting, from recipes to videos that show you exactly how to prepare those recipes. They even have an option to make your own cookbook to download in a shareable PDF format from your favorite recipes on the site. With this option and the 980+ recipes on the site to choose from you have pretty much unlimited options when it comes to the variety of your new chosen healthy eating régime.
ROLE APPROPRIATE AND RELEVANT INFORMATION
Given my role as an early education professional working with toddler I found MyPlate.gov an excellent place to look for information on building a healthy lifestyle for children of the age 12 to 36 months. The page have unlimited resources that helped to determine how much children should be eating according to their level of activity. It offers examples and ideas of meals and snacks to feed them throughout the day and even activities for them to stay active so their nutritional needs can be met properly. It had information on the expected growth and milestones (“Behavioral Milestones,” n.d.) of children these ages and recommended activities that were age appropriate for toddlers.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Of all the resources I looked at on the resources tab, I found the “Print Materials” tab the most useful, in my current role as father and as my chosen role of early educational professional. They had copious amounts of printouts that can be used as reminders in almost any situation of trying to lead a healthy lifestyle. From PDFs of blank coloring sheets with the food group names to a daily food checklist for toddlers, just looking at a few of the info graphics I found that most of them could be printed out at taped up around a house or classroom as constant visual reminders of the better options and choices for the lifestyle. I myself am going to printout the food group coloring sheet and introduce them to my daughter tomorrow and try to get her on the path to the healthy-eating adventure I learned the most about on MyPlate.gov.
Reference
Welcome to MyPlate. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.choosemyplate.gov
What is MyPlate, (n.d.) Retrieved from https://www.choosemyplate.gov/eathealthy/WhatIsMyPlate
View all audiences. (n.d.) Retrieved from https://www.choosemyplate.gov/browse-by-audience/view-all-audiences
Welcome to MyPlate Kitchen. (n.d.) Retrieved from https://www.choosemyplate.gov/myplatekitchen
Behavioral Milestones. (n.d.) Retrieved from https://choosemyplate-prod.azureedge.net/sites/default/files/audiences/behavioral-milestones.pdf
Robertson, C. (2016). Safety, Nutrition and Health in Early Education. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
[Untitled picture of a “Sparky”,]. [IMAGE] Retrieved October 5, 2019 from https://eoss.asu.edu/getinvolved/traditions
© SAM LOPAZE - SUN DEVIL SAM - STUDENT AT ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY
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