The recently-released Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2015-2020 highlights how many Americans need to shift their dietary patterns to include more vegetables, fruits, whole grains, dairy, seafood, and oils and eat fewer refined grains, added sugars, saturated fats, and sodium. Perhaps your family has also set some new year’s resolutions to try some new vegetables or whole grains or choose fruit as snacks.
To help your family embrace these small changes towards a healthier lifestyle, the Food and Nutrition Service provides a variety of recipes, tips, and materials for kids through its Team Nutrition initiative. Our latest resource is a collection of eight eBooks that teach young children about MyPlate and the types of foods found in each food group. It’s nutrition education that’s fun and easy to use right from your mobile device!
Team Nutrition’s free MyPlate eBooks make learning about new foods fun for kids, while also helping them learn to read. Each eBook includes narration that highlights the text as it’s read aloud and offers interactive activities that help build comprehension. Six of the books are designed for emergent readers and include common sight words learned in kindergarten. And all of the books include colorful characters that help encourage healthy choices in an entertaining way.
Team Nutrition MyPlate eBooks are available for free to download at http://www.fns.usda.gov/tn/myplate-ebooks. Families, schools, and libraries can download and view the books using an eReader on their tablets, cell phones, or computers. More information on how to open the ePUB3 files and make full use of their interactive features is available on the Team Nutrition Web site.