For more healthy eating advice please visit my website http://www.nutrition-coach.co.uk/

Recent evidence from the National Child Measurement Programme has confirmed that 1/3 of primary school children are overweight or obese.  This has major consequences for children as they enter in to adult hood, with a potential  increase in type 2 diabetes, some cancers, and heart and liver disease

So what can we do to ensure our children stay fit and healthy?  One thing is to make sure they eat healthily and that includes the snacks we give them.

Below are some examples of snack swaps.  Try them and see!

And please let me know if your children like them

• Fruit - try slicing the fruit to make it more appealing
• Dried fruit (raisins, dates, apricots, prunes etc)
• Dried fruit, nut and seed mix (for children over 5 with no history of nut/seed allergy)
• A bowl of wholegrain cereal
• Vegetable sticks (carrot, cucumber, peppers) with plain yogurt dip or hummus
• A yogurt or fromage frais – avoiding those with a high added sugar content.
• Fruit juice lolly or home made ice lolly
• A piece of toast, bread, crumpet, malt loaf etc
• Crackers, breadsticks or rice cakes
• A slice of cheese
• Try offering them some water or low fat milk (skimmed, semi-skimmed or 1%, as long as they are aged over 5), because they may be thirsty instead of hungry