Eating Healthy Reading Comprehension Lesson

Why Healthy Eating Matters

Eating healthy is something you will think about a great deal as you get older. There are hundreds of good-tasting foods out there, and many of them taste delicious — but quite a few are not very good for you. If you eat the wrong foods or eat too much in a single sitting, you can become overweight and develop serious health problems over time. The good news is that you do not have to give up the foods you love. You just have to learn to balance them.

If you have started looking at the food on your plate and wondering whether it is good for you, you are already heading in the right direction. The single most important key to healthy eating is moderation. As tasty as French fries and pizza are, they can be hazardous to your health if you eat them every day. Healthy eating is not about saying no to everything you like. It is about making sure that most of what you eat helps your body grow and stay strong — with occasional treats sprinkled in.

The Food Pyramid is a guide that places food into different categories. The original pyramid had six categories: grains; vegetables; fruits; milk and dairy products; meats, beans, fish, and nuts; and oils. The pyramid was designed so that the foods at the bottom — like grains, vegetables, and fruits — should make up the largest portion of your diet, while the foods at the top should be eaten in smaller amounts. The Food Pyramid has been updated several times over the years as scientists learned more about nutrition.

Go, Slow, and Whoa

Today, in addition to the Food Pyramid, there is something called “Go, Slow, and Whoa.” The U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute created this program to help children think about which foods are healthiest. “Go” foods are the healthiest foods you can eat — foods like fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat milk, and lean meats. These are foods you should eat almost every day.

“Slow” foods are foods that are okay to eat sometimes but should not be the biggest part of your meal. They include things like white bread, pancakes, fruit canned in syrup, low-fat hot dogs, and 2% milk. These foods are not bad for you, but they are not as healthy as “Go” foods. “Whoa” foods are the foods you should eat only once in a while, as a treat. These include foods like deep-fried French fries, donuts, full-fat ice cream, candy, and sugary soda. They taste great, but they have lots of calories and very little nutrition.

Different people have different dietary needs. Men can usually eat more calories than women because they tend to have a higher metabolic rate. Active children and athletes need more calories than children who are less active. The great thing about being young is that you usually do not need to follow a strict diet. But the food choices you make now will affect your health for the rest of your life. If you build healthy eating habits as a child, those habits become easy to keep as an adult.

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