Snack Attack
When was the last time you heard someone say “Don't snack now, it'll spoil your dinner”? (Probably when your mom reprimanded you!) While we ate one snack daily in the '70s, modern kids eat three. And it's not all carrots and celery. A study from the University of North Carolina found that high-sugar and high-fat processed snacks (like cookies, chips, and crackers) account for 28 percent of 2- to 6-year-olds' diets and 35 percent of 7- to 12-year-olds'. “Forty or 50 years ago, kids snacked on strawberries,” says David Ludwig, M.D., director of the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center at Children's Hospital Boston and a professor at the Harvard Medical School. “Now they eat fruit candy.”
What YOU Can Do
Limit snacks to just one or two daily. Offer healthy choices, such as edamame, celery with peanut butter, a cheese stick, plain yogurt mixed with cut-up fruit, or even a bean soup like minestrone or lentil, suggests Field. Kids don't need more if they're eating nutritious, filling meals (whole grains, protein, healthy fats, and vegetables). “Parents complain to me that their kids are ‘picky eaters,’” says Field. “In reality, the kids may be too full from snacks to eat the healthy foods offered to them at mealtime.”
