Choose MyPlate: 10 Tips to a Great Plate

Making healthy food choices can be easy. Just follow these 10 tips! They will help you balance your calories (the energy in food), pick good foods to eat often, and eat less of the not-so-good foods.

1. Balance your calories
Find out how many calories you need each day. This helps you keep a healthy weight. Go to www.ChooseMyPlate.gov to learn your number. Moving your body also helps balance calories.

2. Enjoy your food, but eat less
Take your time and really enjoy your food. Eating too fast, or not paying attention, can make you eat too much. Notice when you feel hungry and when you feel full. This helps you know when to eat and when to stop.

3. Don't eat too much at once
Use a smaller plate, bowl, and glass. Put your food on your plate before you eat, instead of taking more later. When you eat at a restaurant, pick a smaller size, share your food, or take some home.

4. Eat these foods more often
Eat more vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and fat-free or low-fat milk. These foods have things your body needs, like potassium, calcium, vitamin D, and fiber. Make them a big part of your meals and snacks.

5. Make half your plate fruits and vegetables
Pick red, orange, and dark-green veggies, like tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and broccoli. Add fruit to meals too — in the main dish, on the side, or as dessert.

6. Switch to fat-free or low-fat milk
Low-fat milk has the same calcium and good stuff as whole milk, but less fat and fewer calories.

7. Make half your grains whole grains
Swap white bread for whole-wheat bread. Swap white rice for brown rice. This means eating more whole grains instead of refined (processed) grains.

8. Eat these foods less often
Cut back on foods with lots of solid fat, added sugar, and salt. This means cakes, cookies, ice cream, candy, sugary drinks, pizza, and fatty meats like ribs, sausage, bacon, and hot dogs. Save these for special treats, not everyday food.

9. Compare the salt (sodium) in foods
Look at the Nutrition Facts label to find foods with less salt, like soup, bread, and frozen meals. Pick cans that say "low sodium," "reduced sodium," or "no salt added."

10. Drink water instead of sugary drinks
Drink water or unsweetened drinks to cut calories. Soda, energy drinks, and sports drinks add a lot of sugar and calories to what we eat.

---

Add More Vegetables to Your Day: 10 Tips

Eating vegetables is easy! Vegetables give you vitamins and minerals, and most have very few calories. Here are 10 simple ways to eat more veggies.

1. Try fast cooking
Cook fresh or frozen veggies in the microwave for a quick side dish. Try steaming green beans, carrots, or broccoli in a bowl with a little water.

2. Get ready ahead of time
Cut up bell peppers, carrots, or broccoli early. Keep them ready for busy days. Eat them on a salad, with hummus, or in a wrap.

3. Choose colorful vegetables
Pick veggies that are red, orange, or dark green, like squash, cherry tomatoes, sweet potatoes, or collard greens. They are full of vitamins and taste great too.

4. Check the frozen food aisle
Frozen vegetables are quick, easy, and just as healthy as fresh ones. Try frozen corn, peas, green beans, or spinach in your favorite meals.

5. Keep some in your pantry
Canned vegetables are great too — try canned tomatoes, beans, mushrooms, and beets. Pick ones labeled "reduced sodium," "low sodium," or "no salt added."

6. Make your salad colorful
Add black beans, red bell peppers, shredded radishes, red cabbage, or watercress to your salad. It will look good and taste good!

7. Try vegetable soup
Warm up some tomato, squash, or garden vegetable soup. Look for soups with less salt.

8. Order veggies when eating out
Ask for extra vegetables or a side salad instead of fries or other fried sides.

9. Enjoy vegetables in season
Buy vegetables when they are in season — they taste best and cost less. Check store sales or visit a farmer's market.

10. Try something new
Pick a vegetable you've never tried. Add it to a recipe or look up how to cook it.

---

Focus on Fruits: 10 Tips

Eating fruit is good for you! Fruits have important nutrients like potassium, fiber, vitamin C, and folate (a vitamin that helps your body grow). Most fruits are low in fat, salt, and calories, and have no cholesterol. Fruit can be fresh, canned, frozen, or dried — and whole, cut up, or mashed.

1. Keep fruit where you can see it
Put a bowl of fruit on the table, counter, or in the fridge.

2. Think about taste
Buy fresh fruit when it's in season — it tastes best and costs less. Add fruit to recipes to make them sweeter.

3. Try different kinds
Buy fruit that's dried, frozen, and canned (in water or juice), along with fresh fruit. This way you always have some ready.

4. Don't forget the fiber
Eat whole or cut-up fruit more than fruit juice. Whole fruit has more fiber, which is good for you.

5. Be a good example
Eat fruit every day with meals or snacks — kids learn by watching you!

6. Add fruit to breakfast
Top cereal with bananas, peaches, or strawberries. Add blueberries to pancakes. Drink 100% orange or grapefruit juice. Or mix fruit with low-fat yogurt.

7. Add fruit to lunch
Pack a tangerine, banana, or grapes. Or grab fruit from a salad bar. Small containers of fruit are easy too.

8. Add fruit to dinner
Add crushed pineapple to coleslaw. Add orange pieces, dried cranberries, or grapes to a salad.

9. Snack on fruit
Dried fruit makes a great snack. It's easy to carry and lasts a long time.

10. Keep fruit safe to eat
Rinse fruit under clean running water before eating. Rub it gently to clean off dirt. Dry it with a clean towel.

---

Make Half Your Grains Whole: 10 Tips

Any food made from wheat, rice, oats, corn, barley, or other grains is a grain food. Bread, pasta, oatmeal, cereal, and tortillas are all examples. There are two kinds: whole grains and refined grains. Whole grains keep the whole grain kernel — all its parts. Eating whole grains as part of a healthy diet can help keep you healthy.

1. Make simple swaps
Choose whole-grain bread instead of white bread. Choose brown rice instead of white rice.

2. Snack on whole grains
Popcorn is a whole grain! Make it with little or no butter or salt. Whole-wheat or rye crackers are good too.

3. Save time by cooking extra
Cook extra barley or bulgur (a type of wheat) when you have time. Freeze half to use later as a quick side dish.

4. Mix whole grains into meals
Add barley to soups and stews. Add bulgur to casseroles or stir-fries. Try quinoa in a salad.

5. Try whole-wheat versions
Use brown rice or whole-wheat pasta instead of the regular kind.

6. Bake with whole grains
Swap some of the flour in pancakes or muffins for buckwheat, millet, or oat flour.

7. Be a good example
Serve and eat whole grains every day so kids learn to do the same.

8. Check the label for fiber
Look at the Nutrition Facts label. Foods with 10–19% of the Daily Value for fiber are good sources. Foods with 20% or more are excellent sources.

9. Read the ingredients list
Look for words like "whole wheat," "brown rice," "oatmeal," or "wild rice" listed first. This means the food is mostly whole grain.

10. Shop smart
A food's color doesn't tell you if it's whole grain. Words like "multi-grain," "wheat," or "bran" don't always mean it's 100% whole grain.

---

Got Your Dairy Today?

The Dairy Group includes milk, yogurt, cheese, and fortified soymilk (soymilk with extra nutrients added). These foods give you calcium, vitamin D, potassium, protein, and other things your body needs to stay healthy. Pick low-fat or fat-free choices to cut down on fat and calories.