7 Healthy Snacks for Kids: Snack Alternatives for Overweight Children
Snacking is often what creates an obesity problem for kids. Swap poor choices for healthy snack alternatives to help them lose weight.
It’s no secret that kids like to eat. They love to eat junk food and they look forward to their next snack like we look forward to our next paycheck. As a parent, you can help your child make healthy snack choices and gain valuable nutrition skills to develop healthy habits that will last a lifetime.
The best part is, snacks are a good thing and you don’t have to cut them out of your child’s diet completely. It’s important for kids to eat something every few hours to keep up their energy and fire up their metabolism to keep them at a healthy weight. Sometimes all it takes to eat better is a simple food swap that your kids will never notice.
7 Healthy Snack Tips for Kids
1. Kids love to dip things. Take advantage of this by offering carrots with ranch dip, celery with peanut butter or fruit with yogurt dip. Hummus is another healthy dip that can be used for crackers, vegetables or whole grain breads.
2. Use reduced-fat, fat-free and light versions of products you already use. This works especially well with prepackaged food on the run like pudding, Jell-O and applesauce cups.
3. Look for 100-calorie snack packs. These are also good choices for days when you are on the go. It’s an easy way to minimize the damage done by overdoing it on snack calories. While these convenient packs tend to cost more, it’s easy to buy the larger bags and divide them into single serving baggies right away.
4. Watch portion sizes. Read how many servings are in a bag of chips; your child may be eating 2-3 portions without even realizing it. Weigh out and measure foods for a while and you’ll likely be surprised by how big your portions havegotten.
5. Read labels carefully. A healthy snack should have fewer than 3 grams of fat per 100 calories. Teach your child to look at the labels and determine if foods are healthy options or not.
6. Offer fresh foods verses prepackaged foods whenever possible to get more vitamins and minerals and avoid taking in unnecessary ingredients, fats and toxins.
7. Allow your child access to healthy foods and give them the power to choose.
Snacking is not all or nothing. Simply swap poor choices for better ones to see weight loss benefits. Differentiate between snacks and treats and allow the occasional treat.
Snack Alternatives for Kids: Swap This for That
Snacking is often what creates an obesity problem for kids. Swap poor choices for healthy snack alternatives to help them lose weight.
It’s no secret that kids like to eat. They love to eat junk food and they look forward to their next snack like we look forward to our next paycheck. As a parent, you can help your child make healthy snack choices and gain valuable nutrition skills to develop healthy habits that will last a lifetime.
The best part is, snacks are a good thing and you don’t have to cut them out of your child’s diet completely. It’s important for kids to eat something every few hours to keep up their energy and fire up their metabolism to keep them at a healthy weight. Sometimes all it takes to eat better is a simple food swap that your kids will never notice.
7 Healthy Snack Tips for Kids
1. Kids love to dip things. Take advantage of this by offering carrots with ranch dip, celery with peanut butter or fruit with yogurt dip. Hummus is another healthy dip that can be used for crackers, vegetables or whole grain breads.
2. Use reduced-fat, fat-free and light versions of products you already use. This works especially well with prepackaged food on the run like pudding, Jell-O and applesauce cups.
3. Look for 100-calorie snack packs. These are also good choices for days when you are on the go. It’s an easy way to minimize the damage done by overdoing it on snack calories. While these convenient packs tend to cost more, it’s easy to buy the larger bags and divide them into single serving baggies right away.
4. Watch portion sizes. Read how many servings are in a bag of chips; your child may be eating 2-3 portions without even realizing it. Weigh out and measure foods for a while and you’ll likely be surprised by how big your portions havegotten.
5. Read labels carefully. A healthy snack should have fewer than 3 grams of fat per 100 calories. Teach your child to look at the labels and determine if foods are healthy options or not.
6. Offer fresh foods verses prepackaged foods whenever possible to get more vitamins and minerals and avoid taking in unnecessary ingredients, fats and toxins.
7. Allow your child access to healthy foods and give them the power to choose.
Snacking is not all or nothing. Simply swap poor choices for better ones to see weight loss benefits. Differentiate between snacks and treats and allow the occasional treat.
Snack Alternatives for Kids: Swap This for That
- Graham crackers with peanut butter for cookies.
- Frozen graham cracker and Cool Whip sandwiches for an ice cream sandwich.
- Granola bar with chocolate chips for a candy bar.
- Cheerios for sugar cereals.
- Yellow corn chips and salsa for chips and dip.
- No-sugar-added frozen fudge pop for a Popsicle.
- Fresh grapes for fruit snacks.