Hey kids! Test your food IQ!

Bet you know a lot about healthy foods, right? Well, here’s your chance to show off. Try this quiz to see how much you really do know.

1. Breakfast is not important!
   True or false?
2. What you eat today won’t bother you when you are 30! 
   True or false?
3. Drinking one can of regular pop has less sugar than eating 55 small jellybeans.
   True or false?
4. Snacking between meals is not OK.
   True or false?

Here are the answers: 

1. False – Are you kidding? After not eating for 12 whole hours (after dinner to when you wake up), your body needs fuel! Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It starts your day off right and can help you stay sharp and help you feel good all day. If you’re a breakfast eater – great! If you’re not, then you might want to start off slowly. Include a grain (cereal, bread, muffin or cracker), a protein (milk, cheese, eggs, ham or beans) and a fruit (apple, orange, banana, cherries, grapes, melon or whatever!)
2. False – No matter what age you are, what you eat today has a huge effect on your health when you get older. So if you eat a lot of junk food, your body won’t work as well over the years. It’s like putting cheap gasoline in a car’s tank – do you think it will work well after a while? No! That’s why it’s important to eat good foods such as carrots and cucumbers and blueberries and peaches! What you eat today is good for your heart tomorrow.
3. False – In fact, one regular sized can of pop has 42 grams of sugar, which is the same amount of sugar you would get from eating 55 small jellybeans – that is like eating 10 teaspoons of sugar all at once! Soda pop, sports drinks and fruit flavoured beverages contain a lot of calories with very little nutrition. They are often so high in sugar that they are sometimes called liquid candy – wow! If you like drinking pop, that’s OK, just try having one every once in a while – maybe once a week. Try to choose milk, water or 100% fruit juices more often. If you like that bubbly taste, you can try pouring some 100% fruit juice in a half glass of soda or sparkling water.
4. False – Healthy snacking is a great way for you to get all the energy and nutrients your body needs in day. Kids have smaller stomachs than adults do and sometimes smaller appetites, too. As long as the foods you are munching on are nutritious and the timing is right, for example not too close to dinnertime, it’s perfectly OK to snack. What's not healthy is snacking so much that you're never hungry at mealtimes. So go ahead and snack on that bag of baby carrots and dip them in ranch dressing or dish out a bowl of air-popped plain popcorn or unsalted pretzels. However, remember to eat when you're hungry not just because you're bored or watching TV.

Kids! How’s your food IQ? How many answers did you get right? Remember, you can try this quiz on your friends, too.

And you might want to try making these kid-friendly recipes. Just make sure your mom, dad or another adult is present in the kitchen with you.

Breakfast for mummies

Blueberry lemon yogurt popsicles

Farmer in the dell lunch

Look for the Heart&Stroke Health Check™ symbol on food products when shopping and on menus when dining out. It is the only food information program in Canada based on Canada’s Food Guide and approved by the Foundation’s dietitians. It’s one important way the Foundation is helping Canadians eat well. Read more about the Heart&Stroke Health Check program here.

Posted August 2008