General Eating Guidelines

The Dietary Guidelines for Children and Adolescents states that children need sufficient nutritious foods to grow and develop normally. For optimal health they should be encouraged to:

• Enjoy a variety of nutritious foods

• Eat plenty of vegetables, legumes and fruit

• Eat plenty of cereals (breads, rice, pasta, noodles), especially wholegrain varieties

• Include lean meat, fish, poultry and / or alternatives (eggs, legumes)

• Include milk, yoghurt, cheese and / or alternatives (reduced fat varieties are not suitable for children under 2 years, because of their high energy needs, and should only be encouraged in older children and adolescents when the diet has diversified)

• Choose water as a drink

Care should be taken to

• Limit saturated fat and moderate total fat intake (low fat diets are not suitable for infants)

• Choose foods low in salt

• Consume only moderate amounts of sugars and foods containing added sugars