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.

Calories Count...Even For Kids

Want to give your kids the greatest gift this holiday season?

Stop teaching your kids to overeat.  Forestall their future as dieters. Then, teach your kids that even though calories count, that they don’t have to actually count calories (more on this later).

It’s tempting to think that calories don’t count for kids.

But they do.

According to the USDA, 2-3 year olds need 1000-1400 calories per day, but it's incredibly easy to reach the upper limit midway through the day.  Especially if you rely on "kid-friendly" foods. Read The Truth About “Kid-Friendly” Foods.

Most processed foods have a ridiculous number of calories, especially when compared to fresh, natural foods. For instance:

• An apple has 50-75 calories.
• One ounce (about 12 chips) of Good Health Natural Foods Apple Chips has 140 calories.  

Read Potato Chips Win Again! to learn about veggie chips; they're not nutritional winners either.

Even though calories count, you don’t have to count calories.  

All you have to do is shift your children away from processed foods and towards fresh, natural foods, especially around snacks. Weight Watchers may never forgive you for teaching your kids not to fill up on high calorie foods, but your adults kids will be happy you did. Read Feeding Future Adults.

In fact, Weight Watchers has recently highlighted the economy of eating lots of fruits and vegetables. According to a recent New York Times article, Weight Watchers has revamped their famous points system and now fruits and vegetables are free. You should follow their lead and dole these goodies out as often as you can.

I know, you would teach your kids to eat fruits and vegetables if you could. 

But here’s the cruel truth about these foods: you can’t teach your kids to eat them by plopping some peas on a plate once a day.  You have to make fruits and vegetables your "go-to" food.  Read Salad Days

Your kids learn to favor the flavors—and textures— of foods they eat most often. Food preferences are really just a matter of math. Read The Variety Masquerade and Pizza and Peas: The Untold Story.

Not convinced how easy it is for toddlers to gobble up 1000-1400 calories?

Breakfast: (Total Calories=380)

• Cup of Reduced Fat Milk=120 calories                                          
• ½ Cinnamon Raisin Bagel=160 calories
• 1 ounce Cream Cheese=100 calories

Daily Calories So Far=380

Snack: (Total Calories=480)

• 8 ounces Apple Juice=120
• 2 ounces (1 small box) Goldfish Crackers=280
• 1 Polly-O String Cheese=80

Daily Calories So Far=860

Lunch: (Total Calories=310)

• Grilled Cheese Sandwich=300
• 2 Carrot Sticks=10
• glass of water

Daily Calories So Far=1170

Snack: (Calories=205)

• ½ Apple=25
• YoBaby Banana Organic Drinkable Yogurt=180

Daily Calories So Far=1375

Dinner: (Calories:=425)

• Cup of Reduced Fat Milk=120
• 5 Chicken Nuggets=270
• 1/4 cup of Peas=35

Total Daily Calories=1800 ... And this doesn't even include cookies.

Sure, you can dicker with the numbers—subtract 100 calories if you serve Quaker Oats Maple & Brown Sugar Instant Oatmeal for breakfast, add 100 calories if you serve PB&J for lunch—but unless you switch to a diet made up mostly from fruits and vegetables, your numbers will stay about the same.  You have to change the overall game.

~ Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits. ~