The Importance of Choosing Healthy Snacks for Kids

by Cliff Smith

Many parents don’t realize that something as simple as choosing healthy snacks for kids when they’re young can make an incredible impact on the rest of those youngsters’ lives.  There are the obvious advantages of getting better nutrition on a daily basis, but the benefits extend beyond current physical development and well into adulthood.  Recognizing the importance of healthy snacks for kids today creates a foundation upon which long-term eating habits are built.

Immediate Benefits

There is no doubt that choosing healthy snacks for our kids can make important differences in their lives.  Children who get a good balance of nutrients instead of an overabundance of sugar and empty calories have many advantages.  For example, their bodies are better equipped to grow and develop properly.  The same is true of their brains, and eating balanced meals and healthy snacks provides the right fuel for the development of this most important organ.  The brain is also affected in other ways by the foods our kids eat.  Those who don’t get proper nutrition are more easily distracted and have a harder time learning.

No modern conversation about nutrition would be complete without addressing the topic of obesity.  This disease has become an epidemic, with children suffering greatly.  Just by making better food choices, including healthy snacks for kids, adults can help steer the next generation in a healthier direction.  Diseases such as diabetes are running rampant among children, and evidence points squarely at poor nutrition and lack of exercise.  Making the switch to healthy snacks early on can help completely avoid much of the emotional, physical, and financial trauma that accompanies obesity-related illnesses.

Long-Term Advantages to Choosing Healthy Snacks Now

As adults, much of our job is to guide children in the right direction for their own lives.  Unfortunately, many grown-ups are completely missing the mark when it comes to nutrition.  By making simple alterations to the daily menu now, we can teach kids to make healthier choices.  In fact, by simply modeling the appropriate behavior, parents aren’t teaching blatant lessons so much as they are laying the groundwork for an overall healthy lifestyle.

It seems like there often has to be a choice between preservative-filled, sodium-laden snacks and a healthier option, but that doesn’t have to be the case.  Parents who only offer healthy snacks for kids are doing their children a great service.  The kids have little or no idea what they’re “missing,” and when it comes time to make their own choices, they will already be conditioned to go for the healthy snack option.

The costs of obesity and obesity-related illnesses are astronomical.  Not only is there an immense financial burden placed on both families and societies, but the emotional damage cannot be justified.  Parents are outliving their children.  Children are suffering from diseases that kids didn’t used to get.  Self-esteem issues and eating disorders run rampant in our schools. 

Adults have the ability to stop so much of this, but it takes commitment and resolve.  A simple way to start is to replace the junk in one’s house with healthy snacks for kids.  This alone can cut daily caloric intake drastically.  From there, other lifestyle changes can follow.

Author Profile - Cliff Smith is one of  the owners of this online health food store that supplies pre-packaged healthy snacks that are not available in typical supermarkets or health food stores. The whole food formulas he recommends are convenient, tasty and provide healthy snacks for kids. Cliff and his wife, Jane, freely offer nutrition coaching and valuable tips for active people who visit their Internet health food store.