Choosing healthy snacks can be one of the most difficult tasks, especially for children. It often comes down to choosing fresh fruit over cookies, cakes and candies, a decision that is not easy to do. What if a child is with his friends? How many children are actually going to choose something healthy when their friends are encouraging them to have something that is unhealthy but tastes good? A child is not going to choose his friends because of the kinds of snacks they eat nor is he going to refuse to eat around his friends.
One of the best ways to teach your children how to choose healthy snacks is to begin serving them at home from the time they are old enough to eat regular foods. A child who does develop the habit of eating snacks that are packed full of empty calories will not have a difficult time choosing those snacks that are healthy. When you give your child an option instead of offering him only one of two things, you will have a much harder time getting him to agree to eat the snacks you want him to eat. For example, instead of offering only fresh fruit, give the child a choice between several things such as a fresh fruit bowl, low-fat yogurt with fresh fruit or even raw vegetables with your own drip of non-fat yogurt and packaged onion soup mix.
Some of the more difficult choices await your child when he goes out with friends or to school. For these reasons it is essential that you begin teaching your child at a very early age about healthy snacking. No one can ever survive on three meals daily, but learning how to eat healthier snacks can make a difference in not only your weight but also your energy level. Our bodies are unable to survive more than three or four hours without food, but we do not need to consume large amounts of food at each setting. In fact, our metabolism works much better when we provide four to six small meals daily rather than three large ones.
YoNaturals supports Healthy Student Vending in their efforts to provide healthy, natural vending products in their machines for students. Instead of candies, chips and other high-calorie products, vending machines in schools should be stocked with products that are healthy for our children such as natural juices, yogurt bars, raisins, fresh fruit and other products that will promote good health for our children instead of providing empty calories. If we don’t provide our children access to junk foods, they will learn to enjoy snacks that are good for them. However, neither the schools nor the parents can do it alone—they must both participate in the effort to provide healthy snacks for the children.
Author: Brenda Coxe
