According to CDC, most US youth :
- Do not meet the recommendations for eating 2½ cups to 6½ cups of fruits and vegetables each day.
- Do not eat the minimum recommended amounts of whole grains (2–3 ounces each day).
- Eat more than the recommended maximum daily intake of sodium (1,500–2,300 mg each day).
- Empty calories from added sugars and solid fats contribute to 40% of daily calories for children and adolescents aged 2–18 years, affecting the overall quality of their diets. Approximately half of these empty calories come from six sources: soda, fruit drinks, dairy desserts, grain desserts, pizza, and whole milk
(Source: http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/nutrition/facts.htm)
Healthy snacks are food that have fruit, vegetables, whole grains, low fat dairy and protein food as their main ingredients. Besides encouraging your kids to choose water over sugary drinks, here are 5 ideas for healthy snacks that you can easily make at home to help your kids reach their daily nutritional recommendation. :
1. Low-fat yogurt:
Whip up yogurt parfait with granola and berries or make a homemade yogurt fruity pop.
2. Smoothie:
Use low-fat yogurt, 100% orange juice and banana as the smoothie's base and experiment with a variety of fresh and frozen fruit. You can also add vegetables like spinach and carrot.
3. Snack Mix:
Toss together nuts, whole grain cereals, banana chips, raisin, popcorn for healthy portable snack mix.
4.Oatmeal cookies:
Oatmeal cookies are a good replacement for the high-sugar, high-fat cookies from the store. Oatmeal is a great source of fiber and minerals. The best part is that you can add dried fruit such as raisin, dried apricots, cranberries to boost the nutritional value and taste
5. Fruit tortilla
Spread peanut butter on a tortilla and wrap around any fruit that you have around the house. You can use strawberry, banana, cranberry, canned peach.This snack option is healthy, filling and convenient to grab on the go.
