Snacks Attack Kids
Wednesday’s Vegan Kids: There’s a new cloud hanging over The Snack. A new study suggests that too many kids are eating too many snacks comprised of the wrong kinds of foods.
In our book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Vegan Eating for Kids we recommend that vegan kids eat healthy snacks often, especially after school or when they’re on the go in between sports and other events. Snacking isn’t necessarily bad for vegan kids whose daily food choices may be high in nutrients and fiber and potentially low on calories. But that doesn’t mean that all snacks are created equal or incessant snacking is healthy for kids, any kids — vegan, vegetarian or omnivorous. In fact, a recent UNC-Chapel Hill study found that kids today eat around three snacks per day on average, compared to fewer than two snacks per day in 1977. The study showed that in 1977, only 74 percent of kids ate snacks at all, while 98 percent of kids do today. And the obesity and overweight rates for children continue to climb. Today, 16.4 percent of kids ages 10-17 have a Body Mass Index in the 95th percentile or higher. That’s obese.
This is dangerous, and snacks may be part of the problem as “…our children are moving toward constant eating,” one researcher is quoted as saying. We know many common snack foods are not at all healthy. Children are eating more candy, drinking more sugary drinks and eating less fruit as snacks.
Clearly, snacking isn’t bad in and of itself. If a child is hungry at 10 am or 3 pm or 8 pm, we need to let him eat! We try to make sure our cabinets and fridge are stocked with healthy snacks, fruits, nuts, seeds, whole grain snack foods and non-dairy desserts. We have a snack drawer that all of our kids can reach on their own that’s stocked with only pre-approved foods that are okay for our kids to grab at any time, day or night. Vegan snacking for kids remains important eating, if done right. (Photo: iStockphoto.com)
