It will surprise you what’s in the foods your kids eat

It will surprise you what’s in the foods your kids eat!

Some of these items may be in your pantry right now…

Going down one of the aisles at the grocery store, trying to get to the meats in the back of the store, my daughter grabs a box off the shelves and throws it into the cart exclaiming it is a snack for her school lunches. Now many parents wouldn’t second guess it by the pretty packaging and the specific language meant to entice parents, “Perfect Nutrition Bars” as well as the person specific, “Kidz.” But do we really read into what we are buying our kids? Or do we just trust the Food Companies?

Well, if you are like me, you are a bit paranoid in your thinking that maybe Big Food Companies aren’t really looking out for your best interest nor your kid’s. You would be absolutely right! They are a for-profit business meant to please their shareholders and keep their business in the green. It is more important now than ever, that we take a proactive stance in learning what is good and bad nutrition for ourselves and our children.

According to American Heart Association, “Today, about one in three American kids and teens is overweight or obese.” We can blame big food companies for marketing this junk all we want, but until we get smart and start taking actions to improve the choices we make in our own families lives, we have no one to blame but ourselves.

These “Perfect Nutrition Bars” that my daughter placed in the shopping cart are fudge brownie, but take a closer look at the ingredients. I remember making brownies from scratch as a kid with my mom, and I do not recall the recipe we used requiring such a lengthy ingredients list; more than half of which I cannot pronounce or wouldn’t be able to tell you what it was, and I would like to think I am fairly knowledgeable about Nutrition.

First, we need to understand that these companies spent an incredible amount in advertising; “$1.6 billion marketing their products to children in 2006,” according to a Federal Trade Commission report on food marketing to children. The packaging of the bright colors to grab your kids attention, the pictures of those healthy kids riding a bike, playing soccer, and jumping rope, down to the height of the shelf that it will be placed on to make it an easy pick up for your child. So be well prepared to say no to those prepackaged items that don’t fall into the “healthy” guidelines we will discus in a second. Some kids my throw a fit, but you are doing them a favor, and trust me when I tell you, your children will outgrow their tantrums, they won’t outgrow Diabetes.

Second, we need to educate ourselves and have guidelines for what we will allow and what we wont. My personal guidelines are as follows:

1. If it can be grown out of the ground, its and ok snack. (fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds…)

2. If the ingredients surpass more than 5 products above the expected amount then I pass. (peanut butter: Peanuts)
    

3. If I can’t pronounce the ingredients or don’t know what they are then we skip it.

4. If there is a fresher alternative to the same product, we go with the fresher one. (real Fruit vs Fruit cups)

5. If it’s meant to expire and the Shelf Life or Expiration Date  states it will outlive me, I pass. (My rule of thumb is 2 months, but I use my best judgement when allowing exceptions. [bottled water, packaged nuts,])

When it comes to our children, we hope that they will make the right decisions when growing up, but they model us. If we aren’t taking the steps to be proactive about our health as well teaching them, then we can’t expect them to be prepared to make those good decisions on their own. The next time you are in the grocery store, avoid the aisles as much as possible because that is where the marketing traps are set. Try to pick fresh, healthy snacks for your kids and stick to the guidelines we talked about.

I have provided a FREE “Health Grocery List” on my Tools & Downloads page to make it as simple as possible for you as the parent. The fruits and vegetables listed are lower on the glycemic index (lower in sugars) which makes them an even healthier snack for kids and adults.

I hope you found this information useful and that you put this into practice today and I ask that you please use the links below to share this on facebook and twitter so that other parents can benefit from this knowledge; together we can make a difference. Thank you!