The first thing to do is to get rid of all the unhealthy snack food in your home (or at least to store it in hard-to-reach places). Instead of candies and cakes, put bowls of fresh fruit in easily accessible places in your kitchen and living room. Stop buying sugar-filled cookies, greasy potato chips and ice cream and keep your fridge well supplied with healthier snack choices like fruit cups and frozen yogurt. Your children will have no choice but to try these new snacks, and they are sure to love some of them.
Another sure fire method to make certain your children will eat healthier snacks is to make snacks at home – and involve your children in the process. Children love to spend time making things with their moms or dads, and you could set aside just one day a week for this project. Many tasty nutritious snacks are easy to make. Sugar-free jellies (use a flavor your child likes and add pieces of fruit to the mix) and fruit salads are two examples. Give your children a choice of healthy snack ideas and ask them to decide which they would like to make; they are much more likely to like the taste of something they have chosen themselves.
Try sticking salt-free pretzels into cubes of low fat cheese to make a healthy snack children can munch on instead of potato chips as they do their homework or watch TV. Dried fruit, raisins and nuts are an excellent nibbling option as well. On warm days, freeze a can of natural fruit juice and slice the solid juice into a bowl then top with some fat free whipped cream, or put freshly washed grapes (in individual size bags) in the freezer.
On cooler days, prepare a snack of natural peanut butter spread on graham crackers, or warm up some applesauce flavored with cinnamon, raisins and nuts. If you are pressed for time, try using a crockpot to make delicious healthy snacks. Use a slow cooker recipe to make a snack mix out of a combination of healthy cereals, butter and nuts, for example. You can find hundreds of healthy, child-friendly snack recipes online as well.
As long as healthy snack choices are all your children can get at, they will have to make better choices. You and they both will soon know what their favorite nutritious snacks are, so you’ll be able to stock up on those. Obviously, if you are serious about your children’s health, you must not allow yourself to snack on junk food; setting a good example is essential if you are to succeed.
