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Sarah sat on the sidelines watching her preschool class climb the monkey bars. "Come on Sarah," her friend coaxed. But Sarah sat on the bench frozen. One of the kids called her "the fat girl," and she was embarrassed.

Every day overweight kids like Sarah deal with an unsympathetic culture that tells them to supersize and have it their way without concern for their health or emotional lives. As a parent, you can establish an environment that encourages success. Small changes made today will make a big difference tomorrow.

Here are 10 easy changes that you can implement to encourage better eating and keep the pounds from building up:

1. Buy and eat more fresh fruits and vegetables. This means shopping more often in order to buy and use fresh produce, but the extra effort is well worth your family's health. Fruits and vegetables make up the second layer of the food pyramid, yet these are the least eaten of all the food groups for many kids.

2. Avoid soft drinks and other sugary drinks. Snacking on soda or sugary juice is a hefty addition to the recommended daily caloric intake. The average soda has 160 calories and 40 grams of sugar—and zero nutrition. These beverages actually do harm because of the sugar and caffeine involved. If you don't have soda in the house, kids will drink more milk and water instead.

3. Go low-fat on dairy and cooking oils. Low-fat is good when it comes to choosing dairy products if your kids are over age 2. Children under age 2 need the fat from whole milk for brain development. Use low-fat dressings on salads and buy low-fat cheeses and milk for children older than age 2. Keep in mind that low-fat doesn't necessarily mean low-calorie. A product can be low-fat yet still have lots of sugar in it. Read labels.

When cooking, look for ways to cut out the fat. The average American eats the equivalent of one whole stick of butter a day. If you grew up in a tradition in which everything was fried or covered with rich sauces, make changes in the way you cook. Poach, boil and broil more often. Cooking sprays also can cut down on the fat.

4. Eliminate as much trans fat in your child's diet as you can. Trans fat occurs naturally in some foods, but most trans fat is added to improve texture and longevity of foods. This fat is produced by the partial hydrogenation of oils. You will see it listed on products as "partially hydrogenated," "shortening," "partially hydrogenated vegetable oil" or "hydrogenated vegetable oil." If you want to really improve your family's health, avoid buying products with this food ingredient. These "bad fats" contribute to heart disease and childhood diabetes.

5. Goodbye, fast food! If you can't say goodbye, at least cut back on the number of fast food meals a week and go for something like a healthy sub sandwich. Along the same line, say no to super-sizing. Pull out your crock pot and prepare a meal in the morning that can simmer all day and be ready for dinner. Or cook on the weekends and freeze individual dinners for busy weekdays.

6. Increase fiber in your child's diet. The American Heart Association suggests that for children ages 2 and above, a "5+ age" guideline for fiber intake be used. To follow this guideline means you take the age of your child in addition to 5 extra grams of fiber in order to find how much fiber is right for your child. A good source for fiber is fruits and vegetables and whole-grain cereals, which are all found on the bottom two tiers of the food pyramid!

7. Use less salt. You may want to remove the salt shaker from the table because the more salt kids pile on their food, the more they want to add it. Preschoolers should have a low salt intake and school age kids should not have more than 4 grams per day. If you look at the salt levels of fast food, you will see that popular items like pizza and burgers have about half the daily recommendation.

8. Don't forget the calcium. Calcium is important for the development of strong bones and can be found in milk, fortified juices, broccoli, mustard greens, kale, collard greens, northern beans, navy and baked beans, low-fat cheeses, yogurt and non-fat ice cream. The recommendation is that preschoolers get between 500-800 milligrams (mg) of calcium a day; school age children need around 800 mg; and adolescents should have around 1200-1500 mg. If you think your child isn't getting enough calcium a day, you may want to supplement with a popular calcium chew. If your child has a milk allergy, check to see if the calcium chew has milk in it.

9. Cut down on sugar. The average person in North America consumes 20-33 teaspoons of sugar a day, which means we have some work to do. While much of our sugar intake comes from soft drinks, sugar is the leading additive in foods. It's in all kinds of foods you wouldn't suspect, such as soups, yogurts, canned vegetables and more. Candy, of course, is full of sugar. If it's available, kids will eat it. On holidays, it's especially plentiful, but parents can choose not to keep it in their homes, which will help limit how much candy their children will eat.

10. Drink more water. Most of us don't get enough water each day. Children need six to eight glasses of water a day, just like adults. Don't hesitate to serve water with meals or as a thirst quencher during the day. The more water they drink, the less soda/juice they'll consume, and the healthier they'll be. Drink water at meals, and if you want some zing, add a wedge of lemon.

In summary, follow these guidelines:

By making these dietary changes, the extra calories that contribute to weight gain above and beyond what is normally expected for a child will be minimized. In fact, if you eliminate only 10 calories a day, you'll eliminate a pound of weight gain a year. That's means only saying NO to a stick of gum each day! And if your child passes on that can of soda every day, in a year's time, you'll prevent a 10-pound weight gain! Developing healthier eating habits will eliminate extra calories without having to count them. In the end, making small changes adds up to big differences. You can do it!

Excerpt adapted from Overweight Kids by Dr. Linda Mintle. Copyright May 2005, Integrity Publishers. Used with permission.

Dr. Linda specializes in eating disorders and the treatment of food and weight problems. She is co-author of the bestseller, Lose It for Life (Integrity, 2004) and author of the new book, Overweight Kids (Integrity, 2005), written to help parents deal with the current epidemic of childhood obesity. Dr. Linda also is the resident expert for ABC Family's "Living the Life" television show.

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