Health Snacks for Kids in Classrooms

Some schools offer snack time for kids. If that is your case then you might want to ask your child to avoid cookies, cupcakes and doughnuts and instead send them to school with their own healthy snacks.

One healthy choice is fruit kabobs. You can make these out of chunks of strawberries, pineapple, apples, melon and grapes. Your child can help you assemble them on the sticks at home (with adult supervision). The trick to having them keep overnight is to smear a bit of lemon juice on the finished kabobs. This stops the fruit from turning brown. To add excitement to the snack you can also add some strawberry or vanilla yogurt for dipping. To really zap it up you can also add a marshmallow to the kabob for a treat.

You can also send your kid to school with healthy mini muffins. You can bake your muffin in mini-tins. Portion control helps prevent your kid from gaining weight. Great flavors are zucchini, banana, blueberry and carrot. You can also whip together a quick cream cheese frosting for a sweet treat.

Another nice idea is to make cinnamon tortillas with fruit salsa. Simply brush whole wheat flour tortillas with melted butter and then sprinkle liberally with cinnamon sugar. You can then bake them for ten minutes on a cookie sheet until crisp. You can then make a salsa out of any fruit you like by dicing it and mixing g it with sugar and lime juice. Good fruits to use for salsa include blackberries, pineapple, kiwis, strawberries and apples. Serve the salsa in little cups or bowls with the tortilla chips on the side.

Another healthy treat is sweet and salty! You can make your own chocolate-dipped pretzel. Simply buy your favorite pretzels and then melt a bag of dark chocolate chips over a double boiler. Dip the pretzels in the chocolate and then let the dry on wax paper. You can decorate these with sprinkles if you want too.
You can make a portable berries and whipped cream dessert for your children quite easily. Simply take clear plastic glasses and fill them up with any kind of berry. Top with freshly whipped cream and a sprinkling of mini chocolate chips. You can also add chunks of angel cake if you like as well. If you like you could mix a bit of yogurt in with the whipped cream as well.

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Get Rid of Gluten

If your kids have energy problems, stomach aches or other physical problems then consider getting rid of the gluten in their diet. Gluten can also make an otherwise healthy kid obese.

Gluten is also not great for moms either. It can cause cravings, colitis and belly blot Gluten is, in fact the source of most ongoing digestive problems causing everything from gas to bloating to irritable bowel syndrome. Just cutting out gluten has been known to make the body healthier within days.

Gluten is the key component in most types of bread, and it’s found in a number of grains—namely wheat, rye, and barley. It is part protein, part starch or carbohydrate.

We generally think of gluten as being only in bread and pasta, but in fact it is now widely used in processed foods, with negative consequences to many people’s overall health. It’s important to check labels and read ingredients carefully.

Other names for gluten include: modified food starch (though this sometimes refers to corn on a food label), hydrolyzed vegetable protein, hydrolyzed wheat protein, textured vegetable protein, and, of course, wheat.

The rule of thumb is that the more highly processed a food is, the more likely it is that these ingredients will show up on the labels.

Gluten is often present in:
• Bagels
• Beer
• Bread and bread rolls
• Cake
• Cookies
• Couscous
• Crackers
• Deli meats (which are heavily processed)
• Flour, including wheat, spelt, semolina, and rye
• Muffins
• Noodles
• Pancakes
• Pasta
• Pizza Sauces (often thickened with flour)

There are gluten-free versions of these products available made from beans, rice, corn, nuts, soy, and potatoes.

Gluten is not a naturally occurring protein in the human body. In fact, some researchers call gluten protein a toxin.

How could something that we eat so much of be classified as a toxin? Some studies suggest that gluten damages the small intestine and allows food proteins to be released into the body, and the immune system then interprets these proteins as invasive and goes into high gear to defend itself.

In other words, you get an overblown immune response. This kind of immune response can possibly contribute to or mimic diseases like lupus, arthritis, and multiple sclerosis.

Problems with digesting gluten can also cause headaches, asthma, skin rashes and hives, weight gain and/or loss, bloating, fatigue, and behavioral problems such as depression.

At the most harmful end of the spectrum is celiac disease. Commonly thought of as an allergy, it is actually an immune-system response to gluten.

Gluten can be hard to avoid. Just do the best you can!

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