Snacking : The Healthy Way

Gone are those days of eating three square meals a day. In fact, today we have a habit of eating little and too frequently. The same applies for kids and the result is we end up writing pages on the latest snack attack. Eating snacks, in itself, is not bad. But unhealthy snacking is certainly undesirable. Unhealthy snacks are those that are high in fats, sugars and salt.  In fact in the UK, more than half of the kids suffer from tooth decay. Snacking on sweets, candies, fizzy drinks and artificial juices not only causes bad oral health but also cuts drastically the child’s appetite. Some studies have also shown that extra sugars in the body can make a child restless and hyperactive. But active and growing kids are hungry and need to snack frequently. So the best solution is to prepare or organize healthy treats for kids.

Some guidelines are as follow;

• Choosing snacks that are low in fats and sugars. These can be prepared t home or can from shopped but while shopping the ingredients should be carefully studied as many snacks claim to be healthy but are often high in fats and sugars. Try to incorporate more fruits and vegetables in the child’s treats.
• Combining proteins and carbohydrates along with a fruit juice or fruit smoothy in one meal should fulfil a lot of the calorie requirements keeping the kids full for longer thereby cutting on unnecessary snacking.
• Snacks are best between meal times and not during meal times. So if the child is hungry between lunch and dinner then a good idea would be to fill up the gap with fruits ,  cheese on toast, digestive biscuits or homemade milk shake
• Special care should be taken when the child has returned from a high calorie burning activity like swimming or football. If healthy food is not ready to offer, then it is most likely that the kid would munch on loads of unhealthy snacks and junk foods.
• Another very important part of healthy eating is that from early age, kids should not be given a lot of choices. They should understand that arguments or resistance to eating the snacks offered would not be entertained.

Now let me enumerate some of the healthy treats for kids;

• Making a bowl of fruit salad by mixing a variety of fruits like apples, melons, grapes, bananas, raisins and so on.
• Cheddar cheese on toast or roasted peppers and corn filled in whole wheat pita breads
• Making a salad bowl out of sprouts, boiled chickpeas, cucumber , carrots and tomatoes.
• Making fruit smoothies at home by blending fruits and ice.

The above are only a few examples of healthy treats for kids and by being a little creative with food, parents can bid farewell to unhealthy snacking without much effort.