The Snack as Mini-Meal Mistake

Thinking about snacks as mini meals is a mistake.  A big one.  It teaches kids bad snacking habits.

Don’t get me wrong, the mini-meal ideal would be a wonderful thing.  It would provide a delicious and healthy snack. But honestly, who gives their kids snack mini-meals that look like this?  Half fruits and vegetables?  

For that matter, who gives their kids meals that look like this?  Maybe that's the problem.

Or maybe the problem is that when parents think about the snack as a mini-meal they draw from the wrong kinds of meals: pizza, bagels, cereal.

Or maybe the problem is that parents draw from the wrong meals, breakfast and lunch instead of dinner, even though dinner is where the veggies typically show up.

In fairness to nutritionists, their call for the mini-meal snack comes from their desire to move people away from truly crappy snacks.

(And it probably gets pretty boring repeating the mantra: Kids should snack primarily on fruits and vegetables!)

Right now, kids are most likely to snack on desserts and sugary beverages but according to research the fastest growing snack categories are salty snacks and candy.  Read Snacking and the Nutrition Zone Mentality.

Parents who try to do better often end up serving what I call "Do No Harm" Snacks.

And parents who go for the mini-meal often end up serving...pizza?  A slice from Pizza Hut delivers: 

• Roughly 200 calories (depending upon the size of the pie and the style of the crust).
• 8-10 grams of fat, much of it saturated (thanks to the cheese).
• More than 500 mg of sodium.
• 10 grams of protein.

Hardly a healthy snacking habit.

Even if you choose nutritious mini-meals you will still be fostering the wrong habits.

Because you will most likely reinforce (rather than expand) your children's food preferences, train their taste buds away from fruits and vegetables, serve your kids more calories than they need in between meals.

Check out the 20 Best Snacks for Kids from Parents.com. Recommendations include:

• Cheese
• Quesadillas
• Sweet Potatoes
• Noodles
• Whole Grain Cereal
• Hummus Sandwich
• Eggs
• Peanut Butter

Kids don't need more of these kinds of foods in their diets.  They already eat enough of them. More importantly, most of these mini-meals pack too much of a punch.  Did you know that a Kids Meal Cheese Quesadilla from Qdoba has 400 calories and more than 22 grams of saturated fat? As a snack?

You don't need fancy recipes or elaborate ideas to keep your kids snacking right.

You just need to think about developing your kids' habits.

If you continually rotate (and constantly rotating is the key) through a selection of fruits, vegetables, cheese and processed snack foods like crackers and cereal bars in proportion to their healthful benefits – fruits/veggies most often, sandwiches, noodles and other mini-meals less often, and processed snacks least often – not only will you improve the overall quality of your children’s diets, but you will also see loads of other benefits.  Read 10 Ways Improving Your Kids' Snacking Will Improve YOUR Life!

Don't just think of a healthy snack as a healthy stand-in between meals.  Used correctly, snacks can actually teach your kids to eat right.  It's all about teaching habits.

~ Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~

"Do No Harm" Snacking

Before you start searching for healthy snack ideas, answer the following question.

What is a healthy snack?  Is it primarily defined by:

A) The presence of “good” nutrients?

B) The absence of “bad” nutrients?

If my experiences and observations are anything to go on, most parents would (rightfully) say the answer is A, but act as if the answer is B.  How else can we account for the frequency with which Goldfish Crackers, Cheez-Its, Animal Crackers, baked chips and Booty show up in the snacking lineup?

I think of these items as “Do No Harm” Snacking.  Parents buy these snack foods because they seem to stack up pretty well against potato chips because they have less fat—a pretty low standard if you ask me.  But let’s be honest: these snack foods don’t add any nutritional value to your kids’ diets.

The quality of your kids' snacking matters a lot.  Research shows that kids now get 27% of their daily calories from snacks, and they're not the good kind.  Desserts and sweetened beverages top the list of snacks.

Read The Snack Attack and  Snacking and the Nutrition Zone Mentality.

If kids had stellar diets, “Do No Harm” Snacking would be no big deal.

I’m a big proponent of the idea that there’s a place in the diet for everything—the good, the bad, and yes, even the ugly.  I don’t think that every bite has to pack a nutritional punch.

But “Do No Harm” snacking actually does some harm because of the way it influences habits. 

"Do No Harm" Snacking drives kids' taste buds away from fruits and vegetables and towards junk.

Take crackers for instance.  Regular cracker-eating teaches kids that snacks are salty, crunchy things. (Good luck getting them to snack on an apple after that!)

But regular cracker-eating also influences how your kids eat throughout the day.  Research shows that the more frequently your kids eat foods that are high in sugar, salt and/or fat—basically everything in the snack food aisle of the grocery store—the less likely they will be to eat and enjoy fresh, natural foods.   Maybe that’s why kids like French fries way more than they like broccoli.

Don't believe me? Check this out: Goldfish Crackers have more sodium than Cape Cod Kettle Cooked Potato Chips.  

• Sodium in Goldfish Crackers: 250mg
• Sodium in Cape Cod Chips: 110mg

And just a tad fewer grams of fat.

• Fat in Godfish Crackers: 5g
• Fat in Cape Cod Chips: 8g

Of course the comparisons come out a little differently with other crackers and chips, but I'm sure you get my point. If not, read Polly Want a Cracker? 

What's the take away? Use snacks wisely.

Instead of searching for the most nutritious snack, think about using snacks to shape your kids' eating habits.  Develop a snacking plan.

If your children eat 2 snacks per day, we're talking 14 snack attacks per week.  Use these times to teach your kids about proportion—eating foods in ratio to their healthful benefits.  Because proportion is one of the 3 principles that translates nutrition into behavior (variety and moderation are the other two), it's one of the most important things you can teach your kids about eating.

Here's how to put the principle of proportion to work with regard to snacking:

• Decide on a number of times during the week (I suggest 2-3) when snacks come from the "Do No Harm" agenda.  You know, the snack food aisle.
• Decide on a number of times during the week (I suggest 1-2) when snacks come from the junk food aisle.
• Allocate everything else for fruits and vegetables.

If that seems like a lot of fruits and vegetables, it's not. You've just been well-trained by the food industry. Fight the power. It's circular logic, but the more fruits and vegetables  you serve, the more fruits and vegetables your kids will eat.  It's all about their habits.

~Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~

For more information on snacking check out the Better School Food Healthy Snack List.

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Source: Sources: Health Affairs. 2010. “Food Marketing and Distribution's Role in the Fight Against Childhood Obesity.” Child Obesity Policy Brief.  www.healthaffairs.com. Accessed May, 2010; Cornwell, T. B. and A. R. McAlister. 2011. “Alternative Thinking About Starting Points in Obesity. Development of Child Taste Preferences.” Appetite 56: 428-39.

Cookies and the Cycle of Guilty Eating

Everything that is wrong with the nutrition mindset can be summed up in two words: WhoNu? cookies. 

When did everything we eat have to be nutritious?  And why can't cookies just be cookies?  The answer has got to be when we started feeling guilty about the way we eat.  The problem is, that instead of making things better, cookies that are souped-up on steroids only make things worse.

Give your kids cookies with added nutrients because you worry they aren't getting the nutrition they need from "real" foods and you'll train their taste buds away from "real" foods—the first ingredient in the chocolate cookies is sugar. Then you'll have to give your kids cookies with added nutrients to make sure they get the right nutrition.  It's a vicious cycle.  (Never mind the fact that adding nutrients is a form of  Manufacturing Magic and it doesn't make a food nutritious.)

Just as importantly, give your kids cookies with added nutrients and you won't be teaching your kids to enjoy their treats guilt-free.

As far as I can tell, there is only one reason to serve kids these cookies: guilt.

1. We feel guilty that our kids don't eat enough healthy food to get the nutrients they need.
2. We feel guilty that our kids eat too many cookies —and other sweets and treats.

In fact, the manufacturer plays to parental guilt, "Our cookies are intended to replace other cookies or indulgent snacks that offer no nutritional value..."  

I, for one, believe we should teach kids to eat indulgent snacks, to enjoy them, to savor them, to revel in them! That's what treats are for.  And really, no matter what you do to a cookie, it's still a cookie.

Remember, it doesn't matter what your kids eat. What matters is how often they eat it.

Ironically, it's easier to teach kids to eat right when you give them indulgent treats.

When you blur the boundaries between healthy food and treats, it's hard to:

• Convince your kids to limit their intake of treats.  
• Teach your kids the importance of eating healthy foods.

After all, when the cookies deliver as much iron as a cup of spinach, why should your kids eat the actual spinach? Give your kids Oreo cookies, however, and the difference is clear.

(Of course, the nutrition in WhoNu? cookies isn't all it's cracked up to be. Read why Fooducate gives WhoNu? cookies a C-.)

Eating cookies for their nutritional value promotes the idea that there are "good" foods and there are "bad" foods and teaches your kids to feel guilty when they eat the "wrong" things.

You'd be better off teaching your kids: 

• To eat foods in proportion to their healthful benefits 
• That adding nutrients to a food doesn't make it nutritious
• That indulging in treats is a good thing—as long as it's done in moderation.

~Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~