Good snacks for kids or glorified junkfood?

Momma is on fire today! Yesterday my son went to the pediatrician for his 4 year checkup. Like all checkups, we were sent home with a packet of handouts. Last night I was casually browsing through the handouts and was shocked at what I found. Before I tell you what got me fired up, I have a question for you to consider. Let's say I was your nutritional counselor, personal trainer, lifestyle coach, teacher or maybe even your doctor. Say I gave you the following list as 9 examples of GOOD snack choices. Read the list carefully and let me know if you'd want to keep paying me or if the words "you're fired!" come to mind:

Good snack examples:

• Apple + peanut butter or cheese
• Snickers bar
• Cookies and whole milk
• Celery + peanut butter with raisins
• Yogurt and granola
• Peanut butter and jelly sandwich
• EZ Mac with bacon bits
• Peanut butter crackers
• Trail mix

Hopefully you'd fire me and I would deserve it. Now add the words "for children with teeth" after "Good snack examples" {See photo at end of post}. That is what the "nutrition guidelines" sheet showed in my take home packet.

Maybe you are confused as to why a Snickers bar is not a good choice. Let's take a closer look. Per Snickers "nutritional" info page, here is the list of ingredients: MILK CHOCOLATE (SUGAR, COCOA BUTTER, CHOCOLATE, SKIM MILK, LACTOSE, MILKFAT, SOY LECITHIN, ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR), PEANUTS, CORN SYRUP, SUGAR, PALM OIL, SKIM MILK, LACTOSE, PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED SOYBEAN OIL, SALT, EGG WHITES, ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR.

What I see here is sugar, lots of artificial flavors (toxins), soy lechithin (no bueno), corn syrup (gmo, not a high quality sugar to say the least), Partial hydrogenation (an industrial process used to make a perfectly good oil, such as soybean oil, into a perfectly bad oil. The process is used to make an oil more solid; provide longer shelf-life in baked products; provide longer fry-life for cooking oils, and provide a certain kind of texture or "mouthfeel." The big problem is that partially hydrogenated oil is laden with lethal trans fat.), more sugar, etc. The peanuts are good - hey, I'm giving credit where credit is due. I'm sure the eggs don't come from free range chickens, but I'm trying to bring my crunchiness down a notch for general sake.

Let's check out those "nutritional" facts. The snickers bar contains 4.5g of Saturated and 27 grams of sugar. Besides a little sodium (levels not a problem in this bar) and some other fats, this bar contain no other nutritional components. According to The American Heart Association (AHA), a 4 year old male should consume about 1200-1400 calories per day. This one snack is 1/5 of his total daily calories, which probably isn't a problem, but what are those calories made up of is the big question. Not all calories are created equal.

Saturated fat: According to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, no more than 10 percent of your child's daily calories should come from saturated fat, regardless of age or gender. In a 1,300-calorie diet, that's 14 or fewer grams of saturated fat. That means this one "snack" is 1/3 of his saturated fat total income limit.

Sugar: Per the AHA, children ages 4-8 with a daily caloric intake of 1,600 calories should consume no more than about 3 teaspoons a day. One teaspoon of granulated sugar equals 4 grams of sugar. Therefore 12 grams of sugar in a product is equal to 3 teaspoons of granulated sugar. This ONE snack has 27 grams of sugar, which equals 6.75 teaspoons of sugar. I don't think I need to explain this point any further. According to the American Heart Association, the average 1 to 3 year old consumes about 12 teaspoons of sugar each day, and the average 4 to 8 year old takes in 21 teaspoons.

Only 2 items on this list I would call a GOOD snack choice. 2 items I found questionable depending on the source of the ingredients. I've seen some pretty healthy trail mix and I've seen some mixed junk, masquerading as trail mix. Again the yogurt and granola depends on how much sugar (or worse artificial sugar) and junk it contains. 5 of the 9 were totally unacceptable as good snack choices in my opinion. I won't dissect the other unhealthy snack choices, but I HAVE to comment on the EZ Mac with bacon bits. Are you kidding me? I can't even comment on this one. If we honestly believe as a society that EZ mac with bacon bits (btw, I'm sure they are ok with the imitation bacon bits since not clarified), is a good source of food or nutrition, then we have a long way to go in our thinking. We really need to education and empower ourselves as a society to learn the difference between real "food" and "food like" substances. Our kids deserve better than this. We are failing our kids and failing ourselves if we think this is 9 examples of GOOD snack choices. With 1 out of 3 American kids now considered overweight or obese, our thinking has to change. With the number of issues our kids face today, ranging from spectrum disorders to diabetes, we owe it to them to evaluate our toxic society and get back to the core of the problem. Toxins (from our enviroment or from food) is a major issue that MUST be addressed. We can no longer sit back in denial and say 'I have no clue why our kids are fat or face the health issues they face today." WAKE UP America! Wake up!

To add two quick notes, I have contacted the doctor to discuss the list. Hopefully I can get the practice to reconsider this handout or make revisions. On the second note, there are ways to make some of the ones on the list good options. Had 'peanut butter and jelly' said 'All natural sugar and salt free peanut butter and homemade no sugar organic fruit preserves on a brown rice cake or sprouted Ezekiel bread', I'd have agreed this was a good option, but I somehow doubt that is what they meant.

Live well, my friends!

Best healthy lunch choice or not?

Today we ate lunch at Chick-fil-A, our go-to fast food joint. If you know anything about me and my family, we eat at Chick-fil-A quite a bit. The team members at Chick-fil-A have become like our family. I love Chick-fil-A, but let's just review what a healthy lunch would look like at Chick-fil-A. Let's not nick-pick this apart or read too much into it. Try your hardest to live by the 80/20 rule (80% healthy, 20% other), but sometimes, life finds you at a fast food restaurant. Just try to make the best choices where ever you are eating. Today, this photo was on our table, so I thought I'd pick it apart for you and make my observations.

At first glace, this indeed looks like a very healthy lunch. You have grilled chicken, some nice leafy greens and non-calorie drink. AND only 280 calories. This is a diet jackpot! Or is it? Let's break it apart. First let's start with the protein portion of the meal. Protein is essential for your body and a must-have at every meal. At Chick-fil-A you have the choice of two proteins: grilled chicken breast or fried chicken breast. Obviously grilled is a better choice over the fried chicken. But be aware of your ingredients.

Per the Chick-fil-A website, ingredients are: Grilled chicken (whole breast filet, seasoning [water, apple cider vinegar, soybean oil, yeast extract, salt, modified corn starch, palm oil, dehydrated garlic, dehydrated onion, corn maltodextrin, sea salt, flavor, sugar, chicken stock, cane molasses, chicken fat, spice, natural flavor {including smoke}, dextrose, lemon peel, citric acid, red bell pepper, orange juice concentrate, grape juice concentrate, natural flavor, paprika, vinegar, xanthan gum, ascorbic acid, and spices]).

Do you see what I see? Lots of GMO items, soybean oil, corn maltodextrin, just to name a few. You can google any you don't recognize, but just be aware of all the additives and hidden ingredients in your innocent grilled chicken breast/nuggets. The fried version has very similar ingredients including some extras for the breading, including milk products, etc. Another hidden element here is the sodium. 8 grilled nuggets have 530mg of sodium. Per the FDA, the daily value for sodium is less than 2,400 milligrams (mg) per day. 8 fried nuggets contain 1060mg. Grilled chicken breast at home prepared with healthy ingredients would be best, but if you have to eat out, this would be a better choice over the fried.

Now let's examine the new Superfood Side. It is very pretty and taste yummy. Kale + walnuts + "flavorful dried sour cherries" = heaven, so let's move on.... right? Not so fast! Let's take a look at the ingredients on this one:

Broccolini®, kale, maple vinaigrette dressing (maple syrup, soybean oil, water, brown sugar, onion ([including dehydrated], distilled vinegar, apple cider vinegar, soy sauce [water, soybeans, salt, alcohol], balsamic vinegar, salt, spice, xanthan gum, potassium sorbate and sodium benzoate added as preservatives, maltodextrin, dextrose, canola oil, yeast extract, natural flavor, calcium disodium EDTA to protect flavor), dried cherries (cherries, sugar, sunflower oil), roasted nut blend (glazed walnuts [walnuts, sugar, natural flavor, canola oil], roasted almonds, glazed pecans [pecans, sugar, natural flavor, canola oil]).

Again, do you see what I see? Soy sauce (gmo, gluten), soybean oil (no bueno!), Sodium benzoate (a preservative that promotes cancer and kills healthy cells), canola oil (gmo, first used as an insect repellent, one to avoid), just to name a few. Personally I would skip this side at all cost. Instead opt for the side salad, preferably with no cheese and no dressing or bring your own dressing with you. The dressings will have similar ingredients to those listed above. Pair that with a fruit cup or top the side salad with the fruit to add flavor.

Lastly we have the unassuming diet beverage. I will not go into my lengthy lecture on the dangers of diet drinks, I will just say this: STAY AWAY FROM THE DIET DRINK! I don't want to hear your excuses that you can't have sugar, therefore you are opting for the chemical drink. Don't go there and don't lie to yourself. Diet drinks do way more harm than most of the crap you can get into your body. Drink water with your meal instead. See, I just saved you $2! In reality, for optimal digestion, it is wise to NOT drink ANYTHING while you eat. You chew your food until liquid, then swallow. Drink a glass of water after you leave. If you can't bare to drink water, opt for a medium tea. If you HAVE to have some "sugar" in it, then order it 1/4 sweet and 3/4 unsweet. This will bring the calories down from 130 to 32.5 and the total sugars from 32 down to 8 grams. Not the best, but a BETTER choice. Tip for drinking unsweetened tea: Start off by ordering 3/4 sweet-1/4 unsweet. Once you get used to that, move the ratio to 2/3-1/3, then 1/2-1/2, etc. until you get down to the 1/4-3/4 or full unsweet tea. You will adjust to the taste, I promise! After that, if you try and order a full sweet tea, it will be so super sweet, you won't want to drink it.

On a side note: I totally was eating a spicy chicken sandwich, large fries and 1/4 sweet tea while taking this picture. It is not about being perfect 100% of the time. It is about making healthier choices whenever you can and knowing what you are putting into your body.