(Provided photo)

Parents have recently been serving up lots of questions regarding their child’s nutrition based on more fiction than facts.

This week I thought I would do some myth-busting of some common nutritional myths.

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Popular myths

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Is taking a daily multivitamin giving your child all the nutrients they need? The answer is no. While multivitamins can supplement a balanced diet, they are not a substitute. Children need nutrients such as vitamin C and potassium not usually found in a multivitamin but easily found in fruits, vegetables, proteins, and starches or carbohydrates. A good reminder is the more colorful the food, the more nutrients it contains.

If children eat non-fat foods, they won’t become overweight, right? Well, that’s not true either. Young children need fat to help their brains develop and to protect organs in our body. Fat intake also makes you feel satisfied or filled up after a meal so if a child does not get enough fat in their diet, they may make up for it by eating less nutritional foods that are high in sugar and salt which could actually lead to excessive weight gain.

Consider foods that contain unsaturated fats for your child such as those that contain nuts, olive oil, or fats found in lean meats.

Remember that some fat in your child’s diet is better than no-fat when it comes to keeping them healthy, and your child’s health care professional or a nutritionist can give you more suggestions of just how much fat intake to consider.

If a child eats a great lunch or dinner, breakfast is not that important.

Your child needs three meals a day, especially the mix of protein, fruit, and carbohydrates they can get at breakfast that will give them the energy needed for the school day and for sports later in the day.

Even giving your child a hard-boiled egg or low-fat yogurt to pair with whole grain toast and a piece of fruit or juice as they run out the door is better than not having breakfast at all.

Hopefully, tips like these will be easy ones to digest when it comes to separating the facts from the fiction regarding your child’s nutritional health.

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Lewis First, MD, is Chief of Pediatrics at The University of Vermont Children’s Hospital and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Vermont’s Larner College of Medicine. You can also catch “First with Kids” weekly on WOKO 98.9FM and NBC5.