Healthy Kids Expo

Archive for September, 2011

Kids love to have snacks and that is a part of life, but as a parent we want to offer them choices that are really good for them. Replacing some common foods in your home with organic ones that will be good for them means that you will feel better when they ask to have such items. Many parents worry that their children won’t like the taste of these organic snacks. Yet you can put your mind at ease with many of them as they offer a great taste that is very satisfying.

Potato chips are high in fat as well as calories. Replacing them with an organic snack called Chaos is a great alternative. This product contains a mixture of tortilla chips, pretzels, and carmel corn. Kids eat it up due to the mix of sweet with salty and they don’t see to care that they aren’t getting regular potato chips anymore. Newman’s Own also offers a similar type of mix that is new and that seems to be getting wonderful reviews.

Energy bars are very popular for adults, but many worry that they contain items that children shouldn’t have. Zbars by Clif though are made specifically for kids. They taste very good and they have a variety of vitamins and nutrients in them. Many children are active in sports these days and so such a snack can help them to have the additional boost of energy they need for practice or for a game.

Do you struggle to get your children to consume fresh fruit on a regular basis? Then they may be more open to fruit snacks. Now, you have seen lots of them offered but with plenty of sugar and other additives. X-Treme Fruit Bites offer you the chance to provide them with a great tasting fruit snack that is actually good for them. This way you won’t have to continue fighting with them to consume what you want them to.

Chocolate is a common snack that many kids want and that they even can crave. Healthy Valley brand offers some great options so that you don’t have to tell them no or give in to unhealthy eating. They have what is very similar to the very popular Pop Tart but in an organic form and with chocolate on the inside. This will definitely satisfy the desire that your child has for chocolate.

You should be able to find many of these organic snack foods at your local grocery store. If not, you can buy them online and have them delivered to your home. You need to be a very careful label reader too because many of the so called organic snacks out there really aren’t. Sure, they do contain some organic ingredients but they aren’t completely organic in nature. Understanding that difference is very important.

There are some other types of organic food snacks too that you can order from online companies including small pizzas. If your children are very picky about their snacks or just ready to try something new then this could be a great way for you to offer them. You don’t even have to tell your kids that what you offer them is very good for them. They will just be happy to be getting a snack and to find it to be a very delicious treat for them at the same time.

With the availability of delicious tasting organic snacks for kids, parents don’t have to be torn between offering their child something or not. They can feel good about the choices that are being made. It is also going to cut down on conflicts when your children do want snacks between meals or later in the evening after dinner.

Snack food marketers such as PepsiCo, Kraft, Kellogg, General Mills, and McDonald’s see offering healthier foods as good business strategy.

In their effort to capitalize on and direct the growing trend towards healthier foods, food makers are increasing their offering of natural and healthier products, and a lot of these new offerings are targeting kids.

Avoiding increased government regulations and law suits is also smart business strategy, and food makers are demonstrating that they can drive change in the industry without costly government interference.

According to Mintel’s Global New Products Database, 2006 product launches in the ‘food minus’ category which includes low or no trans-fat and gluten-free products showed “major increases” with low or no trans-fat product growing by nearly 120 percent.

While the better-for-you food category grew by double-digits, Nielsen LabelTrends reported that sales of snack foods rose only 3.4 percent, with sales of reduced fat, low fat and fat-free snacks falling 2.6 percent in the past year. This decrease could be due to snack makers’ failure to balance healthier ingredients and consumer taste. Alternatively, it could be attributed to the fact that, in general, adult consumers are snacking less, and when they do snack, they tend to choose their favorite snacks, but reduce their portions.

Most snack foods are consumed by children aged three to eleven, a 35.8 million demographic that makes up the market for kids’ foods and beverages in the United States. This share, which exceeded $15.1 billion in 2006, experienced a growth of 8.5 percent over 2005. Unfortunately, conventional snack foods are some of the least nutritious products on the market. Many parents, having given up control over what their children consume to television commercials; blame food marketers, and are apparently waiting for the government to punish food makers. As a result, government and non-profit groups are targeting makers and producers of children’s foods and marketing.

Food makers and marketers are demonstrating that they hear what consumers are saying and companies such as General Mills, Coca Cola, PepsiCo, Kraft, Kellogg and McDonald’s are among 11 companies that are working together to make it easier for consumers to choose healthier snacks and on-the-go foods and assist parents in regulating their children’s diet by offering healthier kids foods and beverages and carefully editing their advertising.

For example, at the 27th Natural Products Expo West, food makers introduced many new foods and beverages that are healthier and natural, and many are targeted at children. Most of these new products have lower sugar content than most traditional kids’ drinks, eliminated high fructose corn syrup and trans-fats, and are now fortified with nutrients identified by the USDA as deficient in children’s diets.

Disney and Nickelodeon instituted licensing initiatives that promoted a healthier diet for kids and challenged makers of kids’ foods to meet their nutritional guidelines, another great illustration of the private sector driving change without increased government regulations. The guidelines emphasized limits on calories, fat, saturated fat, and sugar, and inclusion of fruits and vegetables in child-size packaging.

Companies like Kellogg, Kraft and PepsiCo, who are offering healthier product lines, and designing programs and guidelines for marketing to children, are not driven by fear of law suits and increased regulations, but by business interests. As the Center for Science in the Public Interest, liberal nutritionists, the American media, and parents find that corporations are not doing enough to make it easy for consumers and parents to abdicate their responsibility they will demand that the government increase regulation. What they ignore is that greater government interference often results in higher production costs and price points.

The popular idea that snack food makers are trying to seduce parents with promises that they are doing better is ludicrous. Soft drink makers operate profit-making businesses and spend time and money to obtain market intelligence that drives what they develop and bring to market. Offering low-, no-calorie beverages, teas, energy drinks, flavored and fortified water, vegetable and fruit juices are all business decisions.

The key to capitalizing on the $10.39 billion-a-year snack foods industry is to continuously develop new products with the right mix of healthier ingredients that meet parental (and governmental) approval – foods that are high in nutrition, convenient and easy to consume, while appealing to children.

Consumers, including children who control their parents, will decide if the food maker achieved the right balance or not, because consumers will choose to buy what they like, regardless of what the health industry and watchdog groups say or do.

There are lingering weight tips and myths that seem to defy experts’ attempts at explaining them away. The American Dietetic Association’s Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo that took place in Chicago last month made yet another attempt to de-bunk some of these popular myths.

Here are ten of the most enduring and most mistaken diet and nutrition myths out there. The ones that get repeated all the time. Experts at the ADA conference busted these myths wide open giving you the scoop, once and for all, on these often repeated misconceptions.

Myth 1: Eating at night is bad for you.

According to Christine Rosenbloom, PhD, RD, CSSD of Georgia State University this is completely false. This misconception very likely came from an assumption made based on the positive effect on BMI when you eat breakfast. But that doesn’t mean eating later on during the day is bad. In the end, the number of calories you take in per day, whether first thing in the morning or late at night, is all that counts.

Myth 2: You should avoid foods with a high glycemic index.

Sure being aware of the glycemic index is a good thing… knowledge always is. The trouble comes when you use this index as the measure of everything you eat. It shouldn’t be your sole strategy for controlling blood sugar or trying to lose those extra pounds. At most, it will help you fine-tune your food choices. Eating a variety of healthy, natural foods is best… looking to one value alone is dangerously short sighted.

Myth 3: High fructose corn syrup causes weight gain.

This diet myth came about in 2003 when experts noticed that obesity was rising along with the increased use of high fructose corn syrup. Attempts were made to link the two together and it took a while to find the answer. The American Medical Association has just concluded that high fructose corn syrup does not contribute to obesity, beyond the calories in the food itself.

Myth 4: Caffeine is bad for you.

According to Rosenbloom, there is some evidence that caffeine, besides giving you a shot of alertness, might also have a positive effect on conditions like gout and Parkinson’s disease. And contrary to popular belief, caffeine doesn’t dehydrate you. What you do want to watch for is the hidden caffeine in products, and the number of high caffeine energy drinks your children may be taking in during the day… kids gulp these down without realizing what’s inside.

Myth 5: The less fat you eat, the better.

Counting fat grams isn’t everything and those with heart disease, diabetes and metabolic syndrome might actually benefit from adding a little healthy fat to their diet. Healthy fat is the monounsaturated kind and should be substituted, whenever possible, for saturated fats. Again casting one component of a diet as the “bad guy” is misleading, moderation in all things is your best bet.

Myth 6: To eat less sodium, avoid salty foods and use sea salt instead.

Gourmet salts like sea salt aren’t any healthier than regular, unglamorous table salt. You use less sea salt only because this type of salt is coarser, so fewer grains fit into a standard teaspoon. If you really want to impact your sodium intake, check the labels of processed foods you choose as these tend to have high sodium contents that are a good idea to avoid.

Myth 7: Drinking more water each day will help you lose weight.

There is no evidence that water helps you shed pounds, though foods with lots of water, like soup, do fill you up. Carrying around a huge water bottle and sipping regularly may quench your thirst, but it won’t affect your appetite or have you burning any more calories. According to Rosenbloom, “Our thirst mechanism and our hunger mechanism are two different things.”

Myth 8: Whole grains are always better than refined grains.

While whole grains are a great tasting, healthy option, you don’t have to ditch refined grains altogether. In fact, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s “My Pyramid” guidelines suggest getting just half your grains from whole grain sources. Rather than putting a ban on breads, look for enriched grains – refined grains with some nutrients (like folic acid and others) can have health benefits too. A well balanced diet includes both sources of grains.

Myth 9: Sugar causes behavior problems in kids.

This is one myth where you need to look hard at your own expectations. What do you expect your child (or any child for that matter) to do after eating candy and then there’s the “sugar high” everyone talks about. Surprisingly, studies show that when parents think kids have been given sugar, they rate the child’s behavior as more hyper, though in fact no sugar had been eaten. Rather than blaming sugar, think about expectation and the excitement of the event at hand as a source for your child’s excitable behavior.

Myth 10: Protein is the key nutrient for athletes.

Of course athletes do need more protein than the rest of us, but they don’t need nearly as much as they’ve been led to believe. Supplements probably aren’t necessary as athletes, body and health conscious, as they tend to be, are usually getting plenty of protein from their food. If you’re weight training, eating protein after a workout, about 8 grams (what you’ll find in a small carton of low fat chocolate milk), will help your muscle tissue rebuild. Multiple scoops of whey powder as part of a special drink is probably going overboard.

These weight tips and myths are not the only ones that have little grounding in reasonable research but this article should outline some of the major myths circulating.