Recommended healthy snacks for teenagers

The core of healthy snacks suitable for teenagers aged 10-18 years old is to give priority to the three categories of "whole grains, natural fruits and vegetables, and high-quality protein" and resolutely avoid the two categories of "highly processed products with added sugars in the top three ingredients list, and Internet celebrity products without formal production qualifications". There is no need to completely ban sweetness, and there is no need to feel guilty about eating toffee or potato chips occasionally. The overall daily caloric intake accounts for 10%-15%, which is fine.

My neighbor, Sister Zhang, was still complaining last week. After picking up her son who was in the second grade of junior high school after school, she went to the canteen before leaving school. She grabbed five yuan to buy either spicy sticks or iced Coke. In fact, many parents' misunderstanding about healthy snacks is that they must be equated with "bland, unpalatable, and children won't like them". It's really unnecessary. There are two schools of thought among the pediatric care doctors I have come across that are quite interesting: One school advocates giving the child the right to choose snacks completely, and explaining the rules clearly in advance. For example, you can choose your favorite puffed food twice a week, and the rest of the time you can choose from the healthy ones prepared at home. ； The other group prefers not to put high-sugar and high-fat snacks at home as much as possible to reduce environmental temptations. I have successful cases of practicing both methods around me. You don’t have to choose the “optimal solution”, just the one that suits your children.

Let’s talk about the high-quality protein products that are most accepted by children. My niece is in the first year of high school and carries unsalted original almonds and small packages of braised quail eggs in her bag all year round. When she gets hungry after class in the fourth period in the morning, she takes them out to eat, which is much better than eating amber walnuts covered with a layer of sugar. Oh, by the way, here is a controversial point: many parents think that room temperature yogurt is a healthy snack. In fact, if you look down the ingredient list, you will find that many flavored yogurts have added sugar second, more than raw milk. If you really have to choose, you can choose sugar-free plain yogurt. If you find it sour, just cut some strawberry chunks and mix them in. It is healthier and more delicious than ready-made fruit yogurt. There was a parent who used to argue in a parenting group, saying that my baby loves to drink sweet yogurt, and has been drinking it for several years without any problems. This stuff is inherently sweet and arsenic, and if you can accept that your baby consumes more than ten grams of added sugar every day, then that’s fine. After all, the pleasure of eating is also important, and you don’t have to be dogmatic. There are also ready-to-eat chicken breast strips. Choose one with a sodium content of less than 300 mg per 100 grams. The low salt content will not make you thirsty as you eat. It is very convenient to open a pack and eat after exercise.

For whole grains, I most recommend the additive-free grilled corn flakes. They are not the puffed ones coated in cheese powder. They are made from pure corn flakes and are chewed with the aroma of cereals. There are also whole-wheat soda crackers without added sugar. I accompanied my sister to the entrance of the high school to do research and found that many children are afraid of getting fat and dare not eat staple food. Here’s a tip: Don’t buy the kind of bread that claims to be “whole wheat”. Many of them are made from wheat flour with a little bran added. If the first item on the ingredient list is not whole wheat flour, just pass it. Otherwise, you will still be eating refined carbohydrates, which is no different from eating white bread.

Needless to say, natural fruits and vegetables, small tomatoes, crispy and sweet apple chunks, and cut cantaloupe, put in a crisper box for your child to take to school, are 10 times better than drinking those blended juices. Oh, and there are freeze-dried fruits and vegetables. Choose the ones without extra sugar or salt. Recently, I discovered that my brother likes to eat freeze-dried dried strawberries as a snack. It is much healthier than eating chocolate-covered strawberry candies. Just be careful not to buy too cheap ones. Many cheap freeze-dried ones add a lot of maltodextrin to enhance the flavor, which makes them sticky and unhealthy.

Some people must ask, can't we not touch anything sweet or salty? I asked a friend in the nutrition department before, and she said that teenagers have a fast metabolism, so as long as they don’t eat it every day, it’s perfectly fine to eat spicy sticks, ice cream, and potato chips once or twice a week. On the contrary, the more you don’t let them eat it, the more curious your child will be, and it will be more dangerous to save your pocket money to secretly buy the three-nothing food. There was a popular search before that in order to satisfy the child's curiosity, a parent bought a whole box of spicy strips for the child to eat until the child didn't want to eat it. Of course, this method is quite extreme, but the core logic is right: Don't treat snacks as a scourge, but guide the child to learn to distinguish what is good and what is bad.

After all, healthy snacks are never black and white, and you don’t have to force your kids to eat things they don’t like. I’ve seen some parents force their kids to eat dried broccoli, and then the kid turns around and secretly throws it away in the trash. Instead, it’s better to eat his favorite potato chips with him once in a while, and explain why he can’t eat them every day, which is much more effective. After all, helping your child establish a healthy eating concept is more important than what to eat, right?