Snazzy snack
At my daycare I provide a healthy morning and afternoon snack as well as lunch. A typical snack plate can be seen here on this blogpost. I am sort of like a dog with a bone when it comes to kids and healthy eating, obesity and fitness, healthy snacks for kids, etc. Each snack is accompanied by water or a 100% juice drink…not punches, cocktails or sugar added juices. Snack almost always begins with the fruit component. This example also has a couple of veggie sticks and a dab of roasted eggplant dip. There is usually a whole grain of some sort. It may be a small muffin or cookie for the treat portion. It may be a Triscuit cracker with a small piece of cheese or a graham cracker with a bit of peanut butter. I aim for every snack to somehow include, fruit, whole grain, fat and protein. Most treats are home made such as muffins, cookies or my secret recipe granola bars. Do the kids get sugar? Yes. It is difficult to have baked goods made in the average kitchen without sugar, but I always reduce the amount of sugar and fat in recipes. The point is I fill the kids up with whole foods and the bit of refined sugar they get is in the treat at the end. As I mentioned before, I make my own granola bars but if I were to buy them I would buy Kashi bars or something like that. I’m not a fan of most of the granola bars you find in the grocery store. Most of them are just glorified cookies with various marketing and packaging ploys to make you feel like you are getting something healthy. Have you ever noticed that they are close to the cookies in the store? Is it any wonder we have a childhood obesity epidemic around the world?
Fit Kids and Food 