Teaching your child to read food labels builds a foundation for better choices as they mature and start grazing the hot lunch line, a friend's pantry or the corner store. I'm not saying kids need to shout out calories and fat before ripping open a granola bar, but label awareness can foster a healthier perspective.

Here's one example: I've been teaching my son to pay attention to 'grams of sugar per serving' on food labels for over a year now. A first grader, his reading skills are taking off and I'm seeing the payoff. Earlier this week he came home and, unsolicited, informed me his carton of white milk has 12 grams of sugar.

Since he's now an all-day schoolkid, we made a deal he brown-bags-it and grabs white milk four days a week, then splurges on hot lunch with chocolate milk the remaining day. Two days ago, after his hot lunch day (pizza, of course), I asked him how many grams of sugar were in the chocolate milk. He was quick to report it had 27 grams of sugar -- yech. He's now looking at chocolate versus white milk through a nutrition-focused filter, putting more value on white milk than he ever did before. Moving along at a first-grade pace, I think the next lesson will be reasonable calorie totals in a snack or a meal, then we'll start chatting about the benefits of fiber. Check out these nutrition education tips for preschool, K-3rd and 4-6th grade, the Nutrition Cafe for kid-friendly nutritional games and the USDA's MyPyramid games 'n tools for 6-11 year olds.