Healthy snacks for children

Children tend to be attracted to the delicious, but not a very healthy snacks made of processed foods. And while they do not have to avoid them at all costs, it is recommended for them to have more healthy and natural snacks regularly, not only because they will provide them with nutritional values required to grow up and develop properly, but also because they will be quite useful to them in the long run, preserving them from dangerous conditions like heart diseases, cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity.

Recommended snacks for children

First and foremost, the snacks which bring most benefits to children’s health are fruits and vegetables and they are recommended to be consumed as frequently as possible. Also, the more various kinds of fruits and vegetables are introduced to the children’s diets, the more different vitamins will they obtain and their positive effects will help improve different bodily functions and strengthen the immune system in general. Finally, fruits and vegetables can be served in different forms. For example, fruit forms vary from fresh ones, or frozen, canned or dried fruits, and juices, while vegetables can also be consumed fresh, with dressings or in the form of salads.

Another healthy snack are healthy grains, which means that they are low on sugar and fats. They are best served whole, as that is the way they preserve most of their original fibers, vitamins and minerals. Whole grains are obtained in a variety of tasty snacks which children usually like and eat frequently, such as English muffins, breakfast cereal, rice cakes, both tortilla and tortilla chips, cereal bars, breadsticks. One thing to make sure of before buying these whole grains is that they have a low content of sugar and saturated fats, as that may not always be the case.

What children also love and consume daily are dairy foods. However, even though they are very healthy and always welcome in children’s diets, sometimes too much dairy foods can cause damage to their bones and heart. The way to deal with this issue is to make sure that all dairy foods the child consumes are low-fat. Foods like cheeses, yogurt and pudding should below-fat.

As for beverages, the best and the healthiest beverage of all for children is water. After water comes milk, which brings tremendous benefits to children’s health thanks to the amounts of calcium and vitamin D it contains, but parents should still make sure that they children drink low-fat or even fat-free milk because of the potential damage it can cause to theheart.