Make Snack Time Fresh Again

 More nutrients and lower calories with fruits and vegetables

When little tykes are hungry, you can bet tantrums will quickly follow!  A common solution is to have a snack basket where children can help themselves, but new research published in The International Journal of Obesity shows that having more options may lead to unintended over eating. 

Researchers worked with almost 1300 children and about just as many parents observing snack habits.  Parents and kids received a large or small snack box with either few or many snack items inside.  They snacked as they pleased over three and a half hours but had to return uneaten items at the end.  Researchers learned that the size of the box did not matter, however the more options that a child received, the more calories they ate. 

The problem with the snack basket approach is that there are usually a lot of prepackaged, high calorie options – in this study there were crackers, cheese, muesli bar, biscuits, canned fruit and chocolate.  Offering fruit and vegetable options adds nutrients and more often kids will eat more produce when they’re hungry!  Think about putting a bowl of cut fruit out while kids finish up homework before dinner – they’ll eat it because they’re hungry and other options are not within reach!   

Add these snacks to your repertoire to make snack time fresh again. 

• Banana with yogurt
• Plain yogurt with berries
• Sliced pears with a smear of peanut butter
• Cottage cheese with fresh pineapple
• Jicama spears
• Cucumber with hummus
• Carrot chips and string cheese
• Halloween Special:  Fruit Monsters

And if your fresh fruit looks like it needs to be eaten a.s.a.p., turn it into our Oven-Dried Fruit Leather either Berry-Pineapple or Apple-Blueberry.  Whichever you choose, they won’t last long! 

Published October 1st 2019