Food nutrition and food portion size will play a large role in your child's healthy life.  When they play with pretend foods, they will learn about the food groups and about healthy and nutritious foods.  Let them be creative with life-like plastic meat, vegetables, dairy food, and fruit.  Encourage them to make you dinner with a salad and fruit for dessert.  Help them to plan a dinner party for several guests or pretend guests.  This dinner could include a salad, an appetizer, an entree with a vegetable, and a dessert.  Food can be a fun thing for your child to play with, they could pretend to eat what they want.