“Hey mom, can I have a snack?”
Sound familiar? That is likely the first question your child asks the minute they come home from a full day at school. With so many choices and confusing messages these days, it’s hard to know if you’re providing healthy snacks that promote healthy habits.
According to Tracy Lockwood Beckerman, MS, RD, CDN, and Nutrition Consultant for Kate’s Real Food, below are the top five things you should look for and think about when shopping for and choosing healthy snacks for the back-to-school season.
Choose Healthy Snacks with A Whole Grain Carbohydrate or Complex Carbohydrate
Ingredients are typically listed by weight on packaging, so if you see oats listed as the first ingredient, it means they make up the majority of the product, indicating you’re reaching for a wholesome choice. Whether it be fruit, dried fruit, healthy beef sticks, or oats, you want to make sure that your child is getting a slow drip of sustainable energy in their snack. That way, they can have a natural jolt of power to hang out with friends on the playground, get their homework completed, help out around the kitchen or even tidy up their room (wishful thinking). Carbohydrates are the brain’s preferred source of energy, so you’ll be powering their brain with every bite.
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Integrate Healthy Fats
Examples of healthy fats include nuts like almonds, walnuts, or pistachios, tree nuts like peanut nuts, nut butters like almond or peanut butter, seeds like pumpkin, flax or chia seeds or avocado. These healthy fats provide essential vitamins to the brain, muscles and body such as vitamin A, D, E, and K. With these nutrients, the body is able to perform necessary functions like heal a skinned-knee, maintain and develop strong bones, keep vision and eye health strong, or even fight off a nasty bug going around your kid’s classroom.
Incorporate Protein
Healthy snacks that contain protein – peanut butter or almond butter, beef jerky, and nuts, for example – will help keep your child full longer. Reaching for healthy snacks that are rich in protein and low in sugar will keep your child going until dinner without a sugar crash.
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Look for Organic Snacks with Real Ingredients
Heavily processed foods often include unhealthy levels of added sugar, sodium, and fat. These ingredients make the food we eat taste better, but too much of them can lead to serious health issues like obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and more. Plus, they are often lacking in nutritional value. Instead, look for USDA-certified organic snacks that are made with real ingredients, real food, and are sweetened naturally with honey.
Involve Your Children in Snack Choices
The best afternoon snacks are those that your child gets excited about and expresses an interest in. By shopping at the grocery store together, you can sample a variety of options for healthy snacks, read nutrition labels, and let your child express their opinions in what they want to eat.
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Snack Suggestions
If you choose healthy snacks that check all five of these boxes, you can rest assured that you are building healthy snacking habits into your child’s day. Beckerman’s favorite after school snack ideas include:
- Snack Boards: Generously spread a store-bought nut butter like almond or peanut butter with no added sugar onto a cutting board and allow kids to dip their favorite foods, like fresh fruit such as strawberries or clementines, or dried fruits, like apricots or dates. You can also include some dark chocolate chips and it will easily become one of their favorite afterschool snacks.
- Organic Granola Bars: There are many advantages to buying store-bought snacks. You have a ton of variety, flavor profiles, and textures to choose from. Becerkman suggests an organic granola bar like Kate’s Real Food as her go-to healthy after-school snack. USDA-certified organic, gluten-free, and non-GMO, Kate’s Real Food granola snack bars are made with dried fruit, oats, chocolate, nut butter and more – there is so much wholesome goodness in every bite. The Variety Packs let kids sample a variety of flavors, exposing them to different tastes and the new Mini Snack Bars are a quick, on-the-go option for the busy back-to-school season.
Purchase your own Kate’s Real Food mini snack bars for the back-to-school snacking season and SAVE 20% using code DAILYMOM20 at checkout through 9/8/23. For more information, visit katesrealfood.com.
Photo Credits: Kate’s Real Food
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