5 Healthy Snacks for Kids – Guest Post

By Kenda - March, 7th 2012

Over the years our eating habits have evolved, not that we don’t ever have junk food or yummy sweets, we do, but we prefer to choose the healthier version instead. And organic is preferred where possible. In changing our eating habits, we have noticed that our children are less hyper, lest agitated and irritated…there is just something about food dyes and chemical laden ingredients that changed our nice children into monsters.

 

Here are 5 healthy snacks that our kids love:

 

1. Cheese. We eat a lot of cheese.  What am I talking about, we eat a lot of anything! Raw or unprocessed cheese would be better, but we have yet to find an affordable source for it so we still buy ours at the grocery store. Colby and mild cheddar are our favorites.
2. Nuts. Almonds, pecans, peanuts, cashews are among the nuts we enjoy. A handful of nuts provide fiber and protein making them more filling than a handful of chips or candy. We like to roast ours, toss them on salads, into our yogurt or mix them with raisins for a trail mix.
3. Yogurt. We buy plain yogurt unless we are traveling. We mix organic cane sugar and whatever fruit we have on hand.  This way we control what ingredients are in it. You can even slowly decrease the amount of sugar you put in so the children get use to it with less.
4. Fruit. Our children eat fruit by the boatload.  We try to buy fruit in season, which means during the winter months we eat citrus fruit when it is usually cheaper. Citrus fruit is high in vitamin C and help combat colds and flus.
5. Veggie Sticks. It may take time to cut up peppers (red, yellow, green or orange), but our children gobble them up in no time. Other veggies you can make into sticks are carrots, cucumbers or celery. Providing a dip like peanut butter or yogurt or a salad dressing makes dipping a part of the fun of eating veggie sticks.

 

Among our healthier alternatives to the regular chips and pop are organic tortilla chips, Pop Chips, Veggie Straws, Seltzer or carbonated juices for special occasions, like birthdays and holidays. We bake our own homemade sweet treats saving our bodies from the chemicals in packaged sweets. Just read the labels!

 

The key to healthier snacking is finding a substitute that tastes just as good but is better for you and your kids, otherwise changing habits is actually pretty painful, if  taste buds are not satisfied.  It is best to start out slowly by switching one old favorite to a new one to make the transition a wee bit easier on the family or else you may have WWIII on your hands!  ;-)

 

Enjoy!

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About the Author:

Theresa has been married for nearly 18 years and is a homeschooling mom to 8 beautiful children. She is also a WAHM (Work-At-Home Mom). In addition to blogging, she is a Virtual Assistant with her own company, as well as a subcontractor with Your USA VA. Her interests include: reading, writing, travel, education, being an entrepreneur, being self sufficient by growing her own food through farming and gardening. You may read more about her and her family at Faith and Family Reviews.