<h1>Nutrition & Exercise</h1>

Nutrition and Diet

The Word of Wisdom contains the Lord’s outline of the kinds of food that provide good nutrition.

Balanced nutrition includes drinking plenty of clean water and regularly eating foods from each of six food groups: grains, vegetables, fruits, milk products, meat and beans, and oils. These foods contain six kinds of nutrients: proteins, carbohydrates, fats, minerals, vitamins, and water. A person should regularly eat or drink enough of all of these nutrients to grow and remain healthy. (See Nutrition Calculations.) For infant nutrition, mother’s milk itself provides an ideal balance of nutrients, with the gradual introduction of solid foods after four to six months of age.

If a variety from all food groups is eaten regularly, it is not usually necessary to take supplements. Even carefully chosen vegetarian diets that include dairy products or eggs can be quite sufficient. But if little or no animal products are eaten, then grains must be eaten with legumes (beans, peas, peanuts, and lentils), nuts, and seeds to provide balanced protein.

http://www.providentliving.org/content/list/0,11664,9073-1,00.html 

What’s the difference between a portion and a serving?

A “portion” is how much food you choose to eat at one time, whether in a restaurant, from a package, or in your own kitchen. A “serving” size is the amount of food listed on a product’s Nutrition Facts. Sometimes, the portion size and serving size match; sometimes they do not. Keep in mind that the serving size on the Nutrition Facts is not a recommended amount of food to eat. It is a quick way of letting you know the calories and nutrients in a certain amount of food.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Nutrition Facts information is printed on most packaged foods. It tells you how many calories and how much fat, carbohydrate, sodium, and other nutrients are available in one serving of food. Most packaged foods contain more than a single serving. The serving sizes that appear on food labels are based on FDA-established lists of foods. (For more information, see www.cfsan.fda.gov.)

http://win.niddk.nih.gov/publications/just_enough.htm

Helping Your Overweight Child

Healthy eating and physical activity habits are key to your child’s well-being. Eating too much and exercising too little may lead to overweight and related health problems that may follow children into their adult years. You can take an active role to help your child—and your whole family—learn healthy eating and physical activity habits that last a lifetime.
http://win.niddk.nih.gov/publications/over_child.htm
Parents... Splash Into a Healthy Summer With These Ideas

Exercise and Fitness

Exercising physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual abilities is required to not only maintain but also improve them. Without exercise, these abilities diminish. Furthermore, fitness in one area can strongly influence fitness in another. For example, improving physical fitness enhances mental, emotional, and even spiritual acuity.

Specific exercises are designed to improve strength, flexibility, balance, and aerobic capacity. But every exercise must be tailored to meet a person’s individual requirements, such as age. Where weight bearing is a problem, water exercises are helpful. Chair and desk exercises are useful for those who spend long hours in a sitting position. There are many exercises and activities like these that are inexpensive and can fit the budget of almost anyone.

http://www.providentliving.org/content/list/0,11664,8949-1,00.html

Walking A Step in the Right Direction
Walking is one of the easiest ways to be physically active. You can do it almost anywhere and at any time. Walking is also inexpensive–all you need is a pair of shoes with sturdy heel support.
http://win.niddk.nih.gov/publications/walking.htm