Healthy Apps And Games For Kids Slideshow

In conjunction with the start of April, which is National Soy Foods Month, The Soyfoods Council and United Soybean Board released a free app aimed at teaching children how to make wise diet choices and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Players get to customize their own Soy Pal, then care for them , making sure to feed their pal when they get low on energy and give them their daily servings of fruits and vegetables. The players earn "Tofu Points" for maintaining healthy diet and exercise routines. Soy Pals is available for iPad, iPhone, and Android devices. 

In this online game created by Playnormous, players are asked to choose between the healthy and unhealthy lunch options cooked up by Chef Bleu, they also have to remove unhealthy side items from the lunch line and replace them with two fruits and vegetables before getting to Chef Bleu. 

This app from Kraft Foods is aimed at both parents and children. For parents, Big Fork Little Fork offers family-friendly recipes and tips for how to teach children about healthy eating; for kids, the app includes an outer space game that teaches players about the food pyramid, and one that lets them get behind the deli counter to learn about measuring ingredients and serving hungry customers. This app is available for free and compatible with iPad and iPhone devices.

Winner of an Honorable Mention in Michelle Obama's Apps for Healthy Kids competition, Smash Your Food teaches children to consider what's actually in their favorite junk foods in a fun and totally unique way. Players choose a food and guess how much sugar, salt, and oil it contains. Then, they smash it and see how much of each the food actually has. The developers filmed real food being smashed, so children get to watch the action in full high-definition glory. 

In coordination with the debut of the new-and-improved Happy Meal last month, McDonald's also revamped their Happy Meal web site to include a series of videos and games aimed at teaching children about the benefits of maintaining a healthy diet. New characters Jack and Janet help navigate players through Friend Planet, where they can participate in a number of games with nutritional messages and tips, and videos such as "I Crave My Fave" and "Fruit is Fun to Eat!" teach kids about why it's so important to eat fruits and vegetables. 

Nourish Interactive has an entire online arcade dedicated to games aimed at helping kids learn about food groups, balancing meals, nutrition vocabulary, and much more.