Children love snacks and tend to turn up their noses when it comes to healthy snacks. After they’ve stuffed their stomachs with greasy, salty chips or chocolate, you’re lucky if they eat a nutritious meal. Eating unhealthy snacks is a habit that can be broken, but the kids actually need some help with it. They need to be provided with healthy children’s snacks as an alternative to chewing foods that have no nutritional value or are harmful to their health.
Some children are mature enough to be educated about healthy eating, and they will adapt quickly if they really want to take control of their health. However, most kids don’t really care about health, especially when it comes to snacking. Here are some ideas to introduce nutritious snacks to your kids:
Keep fresh fruit handy and easily accessible.
Most kids can’t resist a bowl of fresh fruit. Offer a variety of fruits, some of which they have never tasted. A variety of fruits will appeal to even the pickiest of eaters. Take the kids on a shopping spree to choose fruit that they find interesting. For special treats, you could help the kids make chocolate-dipped fruit or banana popsicles.
Children love milkshakes.
Smoothies are a great alternative to milkshakes and are actually healthy snacks that kids love. You can use yogurt, fresh fruit and low-fat milk and whip up a smoothie in the blender in seconds. Many kids will enjoy making their own smoothies, so getting them involved might be a good idea.
Help your kids grow a garden full of vegetables.
Believe it or not, kids are more likely to eat vegetables if they grow them themselves. Gardening is an excellent adventure and a great way to spend time with your kids. At harvest time, prepare a snack bowl with veggies and low-fat dip. You can even try making celery with peanut butter as a snack.
Replace the chips with a healthy snack mix.
Grain and granola cereals and whole grain crackers are much healthier than other snack foods suitable for children. Mix these cereals with nuts, raisins, or other dried fruits for a healthy kids’ snack they can nibble on.
Juice it.
When your kids refuse to eat fruit and vegetables as a snack, you can always pass it off as juice to ensure your kids get the nourishment they desperately need. You can run fresh fruit and vegetables through a juicer and create a homemade juice that’s sure to turn heads. You can even try making a slush out of the juice by running it through a blender filled with ice. You can also make popsicles from freshly made fruit and vegetable juice.
Tempting a child with healthy snacks can be challenging when they’re set on snacking on junk food. You’re better off starting from scratch and developing good eating habits from an early age, but it’s never too late to teach kids to eat healthy.
Thanks to Lynn Chavarria