February 21, 2017
The 5 Worst Snacks You Can Put In Your Child’s Lunch
Hi! I’m Carole. Welcome to my corner of the internet! I’ve worked in the elementary school system for over 15 years as a ECE teacher in Junior and Senior Kindergarten setting. The thing that makes me cringe the most is not that your child picks his nose nor is it that he eats glue (don’t laugh this happens a lot in my world) it is what I see in your child’s lunch box.
This is Cooper one of my students.
Now, I know, as a parent, you want to provide your child with the best and healthy nutritious snacks aren’t always what’s on hand or even what they may be asking for. Sometimes, nutritious snacks aren’t always considered. Add to that, the fact that the family dynamics have changed especially in the last 10 years. Parents are struggling with having less and less time to breathe and take a moment to plan healthy snacks or lack the knowledge of what a healthy snack consists of.
Because of all the advertising it’s very confusing and hard to know what is healthy, so, I will do my best to share my knowledge with you. I have made a list of the worst snacks I’ve seen in my 15 years, and I’d like to mention the same items make my list year after year.
What I’ve also noticed is that the quality of ingredients is getting worse in these so-called nutritious snacks! The quality is what makes them unhealthy.
Did you know that ingredients such as fructose, glucose, high maltose corn syrup are all sugar and they’re all derived from GMOs (genetically modified organism). We’ll explore this topic more in another blog post “The quality of your food know what you’re eating!”
In 2017, these are my top 5 worst snacks to send to school
Granola bars
Almost every child in my class has a granola bar in their lunch box. And I get it. They are marketed as a health snack! They sometimes come covered in chocolate, with marshmallows, with chocolate chips and sometimes even candy coated chocolate chips. For starters they’re very high in sugar. In a 26g bar, there is 6g of sugar and 19g of carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates are converted by your digestive system into glucose (blood sugar). Excess blood sugar is stored as fat in the body. For growing and developing bodies this can cause a plethora of issues such as: tooth decay, poor nutrition, diabetes, ADHD, anxiety, lack of mental alertness, heart disease etc.
Yogurt tubes
Again considered a healthy snack these tubes are often loaded with sugar, thickening and stabilizing agents and dyes. There are 3 grams of naturally occurring sugar in an average 60-gram tube which is okay but these tubes are loaded with an added 7 grams of sugar which is almost half of a child’s daily intake.
It is recommended that children do not exceed more than 14 to 24 grams of added sugar per day. Many of these tubes also contain food dyes which can contribute to hyperactivity in some children. Yogurt is a healthy snack but, I must stress reading the ingredient label and buy organic to avoid all the extra unnecessary ingredients.
Crackers
These are handy little snacks that are very portable and are just the right size for young children. However, crackers contain colour, sugar, MSG, salt and highly processed canola and soybean (which are GMOs). What does this all mean? Well, they contain almost no nutritional value and are high in sodium and fat.
Fruit snacks
They are deceiving because they are also marketed as a healthy snack “Made with real fruit” or “Fat free!” Really?! Of course there is no fat, it is made mostly of sugar. They also contain corn syrup, modified corn starch (anything modified means highly processed), dyes, artificial flavours and many preservatives.
One of the biggest problems I have seen in all my years working in a school system is the tooth decay that is caused by the gelatin sticking between the teeth and causing cavities.
Sweetened Drinks
These drinks come in pouches, they are portable and require no refrigeration and have a long shelf life (first sign something is not healthy). They are made up of mostly sugar and high fructose corn syrup, dyes, artificial flavor and preservatives. In my opinion, these drinks are the equivalent of giving your child soda pop.
As a teacher, I’ve seen the benefits of good nutrition. This is reflected in the behaviour, concentration, immunity, physical and mental development of your child. What most parents may not realize is that what they feed their children will impact their future health.
Ingesting these foods day in day out will cause your child to not only be overweight but also plagued with health problems such as allergies, asthma, hives, digestive issues to name a few.
My recommendations are: read the labels avoid all the nasty ingredients mentioned in my post, buy organic or make it yourself whenever possible. Your children’s health is worth the extra effort!
One last thing, as a consumer you have more power than you know. If you stop buying these items or demand that the ingredients be of the highest quality the manufactures will respond to consumer demand.
Sources:
The Huffington Post Nov. 6 2013
NutraPhoria Foundations of a Good Diet
