Good Eating A Brite Star Health & Nutrition Copyright © 2023 by The Brite Star Foundation, Inc., a 501 (c)3 All rights reserved. Published by The Brite Star Foundation, Inc. 11411 Southern Highlands Parkway Suite 338 Las Vegas, Nevada 89141 Vincent W. Goett, Publisher ISBN Paperback
979-8-89750-298-1
Digital
979-8-89750-299-8
No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher.
The Brite Star kids get excited about lunchtime every day! That’s because they love the great food Chef Lou makes. At lunch time the kids line up and Ms. Betty walks them down to the cafeteria. They sit at the same table every day.
Today everything happened the same as usual. But then, Ms. Betty said, “Class we have a special treat today. Ms. Griggs and Chef Lou are going to come talk with us about good nutrition.” The kids were excited to have a personal talkwith Chef Lou and Ms. Griggs!
The kids loved Chef Lou. He wore big, funny looking glasses and a chef’s outfit complete with a big white hat. Chef Lou was from France so he spoke in his beautiful French accent, “Today I am going to teach you about proper nutrition, just like my mother taught me in France.”
“Class, do you know what nutritionmeans?” asked Ms. Griggs. “Well,” said Alexander, “Mr. Emerson says nutrition is a bag filled with burgers and fries!He “nutritions” those every day!” Everyonelaughed.
“That’s not exactly the right answer, Alexander,” Ms. Griggs said as she smiled at him. “It is alright to have that kind of food once in a while —maybe as a special treat. We call it fast food or junk food,” Chef Lousaid. “Sure doesn’t taste like junk,” saidMiles.
13
Chef Lou pointed at a picture on his big tablet. “This is called a Food Pyramid. It shows healthy foods that should be eaten everyday.” “Foods are divided into five groups that provide important nutrition for your body,” Ms. Griggs said. “It’s important that you have at least one portion from each group everyday.”
“Let’s start with the green level showing grains. It has first place on the Food Pyramid for kids because grains contain good nutrients to give your body protein, which builds muscle and helps with proper functioning of your stomach. Cereals have grain, but be careful not to choose cereals with lots of sugar in them,” Ms. Griggs said. “Start your day off right by choosing good grains from good cereal and breads for breakfast,” Chef Lou added.
“My favoritefoods are next,” Chef Lou said. “My mother grew fresh fruit in our garden in France.” “Fruit is the second most important food because of the high amount of vitamins and minerals your body gets from fruit. You should eat at least one fruit each day,” Ms. Griggssaid. “Is that why Miles brings an apple to Ms. Betty every day?” asked Alexander. Miles blushedand everyone giggled.
19
“Next we have vegetables,” Ms. Griggs continued. “You should have a salad or some fresh or cooked vegetables every day.” “Yuck,” said Jeremy. “I don’t likevegetables.” “No kid likes vegetables,” said Miles. Lots of kids agreed. “If you want to grow up strong and healthy like your parents you should eat at least one kind of vegetable each day.” Chef Lou pointed to the vegetable picture as he spoke, “ One kind grows under ground, such as carrots. Thesecond kind has green leaves such as lettuce. The third kind belongs to a group of fruits. It’s things like tomatoes or cucumbers.”
“The food group of milk and dairy products are important because they help your bones grow strong,” said Chef Lou. “I see some of you are drinking milk with lunch. That’s good!” “I get lots of dairy because I love pizza and pizza has cheese on it,” said Leo. Everyone agreed that they liked pizza. “The last group is meat, fish and eggs,” said Ms. Griggs. “Your body gets protein from them so that’s an important group,too.”
23
Everyone enjoyed their lunch of foods from each food group. “I hope you all learned a lot from Ms. Griggs and Chef Lou,” said Ms. Betty. “Next week Coach Murph is going to teach us about fitness and exercise. That goes right along with good nutrition,” said Ms. Betty. The kids loved Coach Murph so they lookedforward to that lesson, too!
Think AboutIt 1. What is the FoodPyramid? 2. What are some of the food groups on the Pyramid? 3. What do grains give your body? 4. What are the three kinds of vegetables? 5. Why are dairy products important?
Let’s Work Together! It is important to eat food from all the food groups. Is that hard for you? Is
there one group you don’t like very much? Is there one you like a lot?
I will. .. • Eat food from each foodgroup every day. • At least try new foods so I can learn to like them. • Cut back on eating junkfood.
It’s fun to eat only what you like but if you aren’t willing to try new foods then you’ll never learn to like them. It’s important to take care of your body and feed it healthy foods so it stays healthy and strong!