Snacking has become a feature in the routine of most families every day. Due to the fact that finding time for a healthy meal is a difficult task, snacking has become a major feature in most of our diets. It is essential to keep on top of snacking, however, and make sure that what we do consume between regular mealtimes is healthy and good for our bodies. Of course, this is also true when it comes to our children, and ensuring their health and well being can be an even trickier task. Kids bodies need sources of energy to keep them active, and to help them grow and develop into adolescence and adulthood. Additionally, with the increasing problem of obesity in children, it is essential to ensure you child has only the best of healthy snacks throughout the day.
The first consideration to take into account is your child's happiness. Achieving a balance between healthy living and a happy child is something many parents adopting the gung-ho 'my way or no way' approach fail to reach. Not only is this antiquated parenting, but it is also a sure-fire way to turn your child off healthy living. Don't completely ban treats, but keep them to a minimum. Think of everything in balance and moderation as the best way to achieve a healthy diet.
A good place to start is with introducing fruit and vegetables. Experts tell us that we should consume a minimum of five portions daily, and this might at first seem like a high hurdle to meet. However, by introducing vegetables into every meal, and promoting fruit as the alternative choice between times, you can sneak in those added portions, and they really do add up. It's also a good idea to maintain an open mind yourself, and to experiment with other fruits and vegetables until you find something appealing to your child's taste-buds. After a while, fruit and vegetables will become an engrained part of daily life, and will be something your children crave at every opportunity. Until that point however, it is best to take a sensible approach to your child's healthy eating plan.
Healthy eating is a scary phrase for most adults, and for children, it can be even more daunting. It's up to you as the parent to enforce healthy eating through making sensible life choices, and it's also important to ensure your child understands the need for a healthy balances lifestyle.
Why are healthy snacks important? Let's be honest, they don't taste as good. Bottom line, nothing will taste as good at that exact moment as a chocolate bar, ice cream, cinnamon roll, cheese Danish...get the idea? But that doesn't obviously mean that's what kids and people in general, should eat. On the contrary, healthy snacks should be encouraged for the multiple positive effects they'll have.
1. Encourage Discipline Don't laugh. Eating healthy, or healthier is all about discipline. You'd rather have ice cream, but instead opt for pretzels. You'd rather have a chocolate bar, but instead opt for chex mix. It's not easy, but can be done. If done once, it develops discipline, and gets easier in the future. This discipline will make other things, like waking up in the morning, completing school tasks, homework, studying, etc easier as well.
2. Establish a Long Term View Similar to the above item, Eating healthy snacks does establish a long term view of the situation in that the effect of choosing a healthy snack over candy is not always immediately apparent. The positive effects may take some time to manifest.
3. Reduced Problems With Overweight and Obesity Finding Healthy Solutions for your snacking will definitely promote weight management. A good rule of thumb is that the snacks be made up of less than 35% of calories from fat, less than 35% of calories from sugar, less than 10% of calories from saturated fat, and the item itself be less than 250 calories.
4. Better Brain Function Putting less sugar and fat into one's body, and doing more to meet basic nutrition needs will certainly allow one's brain to function at its highest capacity.
5. Potentially Protecting Against Type 2 Diabetes While the data isn't conclusive in this area, many believe that lowering sugar content and starch content in one's diet may prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes for those who are predisposed to it. Certainly we understand that when someone is diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes, they are immediately instructed to reduce sugar intake.
So the support for the idea that kids should eat healthy snacks is pretty overwhelming, or it would seem so. That said, the opposing view is represented by something pretty overwhelming on its side....the American Advertising Industry! Whether through TV, Radio, the internet, or countless other advertising mechanisms, unhealthy snacks are presented in enticing fashion by the some of the smartest advertising minds in the world. So what to do? Just keep doing what you can to encourage proper diet, present the facts and hope people make the right choice.
Both Jonathon Hardcastle & Alec Moreland are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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