Kids Snacks Can Be a Weight and Health Hazard
July 30, 2009 by Karlynn Johnston
Filed under Featured, Super Eats 'n Treats
I have personally been boycotting prepackaged, highly processed children’s snacks for quite some time, with the rare exception of treats for beach trips and snacks for movie nights at home. But my son has never taken a packaged food for his snack at school, instead I followed what his school wanted us to bring and sent fresh fruits and veggies instead. I realized one day, as I picked up some BearsPaws cookies at the store, that I was buying into the “healthier” version of what basically was junkie cookies in a package. That’s not to say we don’t buy them for road trips, I am not trying to come across as a food purist, but when I realized that smart marketing was trying to convince me that these cookies were something that was ok to send everyday to school, I put them back and never looked back.
Its easy to get caught up in the healthier versions of kids snacks that are on display every time we go into the grocery store, and who has time to read the labels of everything we buy? This quote from the article Kids’ snacks a health hazard sums it up:
Leading nutritionist Dr Rosemary Stanton, and health advocacy group The Parents Jury, yesterday slammed foods companies for ‘spinning the truth about their products to make profit at the expense of our kids’ health’.
Dr Stanton said snacks such as Kellogg’s LCMs, Nature’s Way chocolate Kids Smart Bars, and Nestle’s MILO bars were amongst the worst offenders.
“This product (LCMs) should not be recommended as a regular lunch box food,” she said. “It has very little dietary fibre and contains a harmful level of saturated fat.”
Kids Smart Bars have more than 20 ingredients listed on the label, and Dr Stanton said this showed the company was trying to ‘make up for a fundamental lack of nutrition’.
Kids pre-packaged snacks are also more expensive than fresh fruit and veggies, the packaging is harder on our environment and without question unhealthy for our children. Here are a few snack ideas that are healthy and inexpensive for parents to send to school. All you need is a pack of 4 Rubbermaid reuseable containers to reduce your package waste, and some imagination! These are all so cheap compared to packaged snacks that anyone can afford them. One box of snacks is the same cost as 2 lbs of blueberries right now, and that 2 lbs will be a serving a day for 2 kids for a week!
Some very quick, (less than 5 minutes to prepare, anyone has time for that) cheaper than packaged snacks and very healthy snacks for kids:
- home-made trail mix – cheerios, shreddies, raisins or dried blueberries or any cereal combinations you can think of
- fresh blueberries w/chopped up strawberries for a fruit salad.
- fresh grapes
- cucumber slices
- hummus with whole wheat pita bread to rip apart and dip in it (hummus is easily homemade with a can of chickpeas and some garlic! cost of less than 1 dollar!)
- a pita full of lettuce, shredded carrots and cucumber slices with a bit of ranch on top. Crunchy, and fresh, plus my kids personal favorite.
- organic apples with a slice of cheese. Organic apples can now be found for $2.99 for a 3 lb bag, once again, same price as packaged junk!
Its easy to forget that just chopping up fresh crunchy veggies suffices as a great snack for kids and encourages them to enjoy them as a daily dish. Any other ideas for quick, cheap healthy snacks?
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