Healthy Snacks

In order to eat all the fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and proteins recommended on the Food Pyramid from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, it’s important to include healthy between-meal snacks in your child’s diet.

• Encourage healthy eating habits.
  Make sure there are healthful snack choices easily available at your home or in the lunches you pack for your child.
• Cut back on high-calorie sweets.
  Reduce the number of candies, cookies, and cakes available for your children. It's okay to enjoy these in moderation on special occasions. That way they will really be "treats."
• Eat well for healthy teeth.
  It's safer for children's teeth for them to eat sweets with a meal, not as a snack. In this way, the cavity-causing deposits of the foods are more readily cleared from the teeth. Limit between-meal snacks to more healthful foods.
• Model good eating habits.
  Most important, make healthful snacks part of your own healthy diet. Let your children learn by example that fresh vegetables, fruits, dairy foods, nuts, and whole grains are excellent between-meal snacks.

Family Activities: Let's Eat Healthy Snacks

Educator Activity: Building Blocks and Healthy Snacks

Quiz for Parents: Sweet Treats

Resources:

• "Tips for Parents—Ideas to Help Children Maintain a Healthy Weight" from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides a broad overview of ways to beat childhood obesity.
• The Food Pyramid from the U.S. Department of Agriculture makes it clear that refined sugars should be a very small part of a healthy child's diet.
• "Diet and Snacking" from the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry provides tips for cutting back on sweets and protecting children’s teeth.
• "Carbohydrates, Sugar, and Your Child" from KidsHealth explains why some sugars are better for children than others.
• "How to Cut Out Refined Sugar from Your Child’s Diet" from eHow provides lists of hidden sugars and the foods that contain them.