Why Kids Should Eat Healthy and Exercise

It's important for kids to eat healthy because then you're going to be your best at school, you're going to be able to concentrate and not fall asleep doing your homework, your body is going to grow up to be tall and strong. It's going to keep your bones and muscles strong. The my plate icon shows the 5 food groups, which are vegetables, fruits, grains, protein foods, and dairy. Foods from all 5 food groups help to give your body the vitamins, energy, and minerals that it needs to be its best. What we like to say is that there's sometimes foods and then there's any time foods. Sometimes foods are things like cakes, cookies, ice cream, chips. Those things are treats. So you want to have them every once in a while. But then anytime foods are your fruits, your vegetables, your whole grains, your protein, low fat dairy, and fat free dairy. It's not just important to think about what you eat, but what you drink too. And often sodas, energy drinks, fruit punch, sports drinks, have a lot of sugar. So good choices for beverages are water. Low fat or fat free milk and a 100% juice. Kids need 60 minutes of activity every day. It's important to find ways to be active that you enjoy, riding a bike, skateboarding, swimming, running around at recess, playing sports, dancing, running around with your dog or chasing your older brother, those are always that we can be active. We have one game that's called the my plate blasts off. And when you play my plate blasts off, you have to fuel your rocket ship with fruits, vegetables, foods from all 5 food groups, as well as physical activity, and then your rocket ship has enough energy to blast off to planet power. Find recipes, games, and activities at choose my plate dot gov. Learn more about being active and exercising at, let's move dot gov. And for more information on exercise and eating healthy, visit kids dot gov.