Healthy diet for children: Tracking calories with the Calorie King

Keeping a food diary is a great tool for keeping the weight off, whether your child is obese, underweight or you simply want your family to stay in the healthy zone.

Another tool you can use, together with the diary, is a calorie counter. Keep track of exactly how much calories your child is consuming. It’s easy to count calories when you’re looking at a juice box, or a pack of cookies. But how about the milk shake your child wanted at the mall, or the kids’ meal in the restaurant? How does one count calories?

I use a tool and a book called the Calorie King. Online, the Calorie King®Calorie, Fat & Carbohydrate Counter has a 50,000 food-item database of different food and their nutrient information that you can use. Just type in what your family had for dinner, and it counts the calories, fat and carbohydrates for you. There is a fee for joining (update below!), but it gets you access to the database online or through your mobile device. There is also a weight-management community to help your family along.

It’s the same with the travel size book that I have. The Calorie King 2008 edition has the same information as the website. The index of food is easy to use so you can write the calories on your diet diary as you list the food. It has a protein and iron guide, a fat and carbohydrate guide and even a fiber guide for counting how much of each nutrient is found in common foods. The Calorie King book is not as updated as the website might be. The common fastfood are all there, but I would like to see more restaurant choices and menu, and especially children’s meal options.

But for what’s in the book right now, it’s already extremely helpful. Recently we went to Ruby Tuesday and I was eyeing the classic burger. 1015 calories! OY! Never mind… Change that to Asian Glazed Salmon, and no dessert please. My daughter, being allergic to multiple food, usually only eats fries. It was still 360 calories, so I split it with another child and ordered broccoli on the side.

Somehow I feel better knowing I can keep track of my family’s eating habits this way. My daughter is a little underweight so I want her to have more calories but also coming from the right kind of food, which means low salt, more fiber, higher carbs and lower fat. I’m gaining undesired weight, but I’m also still breastfeeding so I can’t cut back too much. Knowing I’m eating enough portions and calories within bounds is great to my long-term goal of slimming down by the end of the year.

Clarifications: The CalorieKing searchable database (www.calorieking.com) and CalorieKing Mobile are tools that are free for everyone. The only thing from CalorieKing that has a fee is the CalorieKing Club (which has the additional tools available – weight management community, food dairy access, etc.)