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You can still offer a variety of foods and decrease the serving sizes if they don't eat a lot during this stage.

Grain group servings include 1 slice of bread, 1/2 cup of cooked rice or pasta, 1/2 cup of cooked cereal, and 1 ounce of ready to eat cereal. Children should eat 6 servings from this group per day.

Vegetable group servings include 1/2 cup of chopped or raw vegetables, or 1 cup of raw leafy vegetables. The child should eat 3 servings from this group per day.

Fruit group servings include 1 piece of fruit or melon wedge, 3/4 cup of 100% fruit juice, 1/2 cup of canned fruit, or 1/4 cup of dried fruit. Children should eat 2 servings from this group per day.

Milk group servings include 1 cup of milk or yogurt or 2 ounces of cheese. They should eat 2 servings from this group per day.

Meat group servings include 2 to 3 ounces of cooked lean meat, poultry or fish, 1/2 cup of cooked dry beans. You can substitute 2 tablespoons of peanut butter or 1 egg for 1 ounce of meat. Two servings from this group should be eaten each day.

Fats, oils and sweets
No more than 30% of the diet should come from fats. For a 1600 calorie diet, that would equal 53g of fat each day, with most preschool children requiring even less. The type of fat eaten is also important. Saturated fats in foods such as meats, dairy products, coconut, palm and palm kernel oil, raise cholesterol more than unsaturated fats, which are found in olive, peanut, and canola oils, or polyunsaturated fats in safflower, sunflower, corn, soybean and cottonseed oils. Limit saturated fats to no more than 10% of daily calories.
Sugars supply a large amount of calories, with little nutritional value. They include white sugar, brown sugar, corn syrup, honey and molasses and foods like candy, soft drinks, jams, and jellies.

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Selection tips:

• Use lean meats and skim or low fat dairy products
• Use unsaturated vegetable oils and margarines that list a liquid vegetable oil as the first ingredient on the label. Read the nutrition label on foods to check for the amount and type of fat it includes
• Limit foods that contain a large amount of saturated fats
• Limit foods high in sugar and avoid adding extra sugar to your foods