Healthy Food For Kids | Simple Healthy Snack Ideas

As the link between food and behaviour emerges in children many people are starting to look for healthy foods for kids to enjoy. I’m talking about avoiding artificial colours, artificial sweeteners, preservatives, genetically modified foods and e-numbers that can cause ADHD and other issues that are far beyond what we currently know. If you don’t want your child having diabetes or cancer by the time they are teenagers it’s important to start avoiding artificial sweeteners, colours and really most packaged foods.

Understanding What Healthy Means – A Paradigm Shift in Nutrition

Many ‘health foods’ have great marketing on the front of the pack, but then you turn to look at the back and see something quite different in the ingredients list.

I once had a woman approach me after one of my presentations seeking help for her daughter who was unwell despite a ‘healthy diet’. I asked more about the food she gave her daughter, like what she had for breakfast, “Oh she had fruit”. I asked her, “What kind of fruit? An apple or an orange?” she replied, “No, she had fruit loops”.

Fruit loops is sugar, artificial colours and crap. No wonder this child was having massive issues. Many people have just not had education around what healthy food is. Really what it comes down to is simplicity. Let’s get rid of all the mess of needing a certain vitamin supplement to make sure your child is healthy. Nature is very simple it says here’s some papaya, here’s some mango, here’s some orange. If we just take what nature gives us it becomes easy to stay healthy. As well as food, make sure your kids are enjoying themselves out in the sun, getting exercise as they play and drinking enough water to stay hydrated. I can see that a massive paradigm shift needs to take place to raise people’s education in what is truly healthy.

How To Make Healthy Foods For Kids To Enjoy

With children it’s also about making food fun and accessible. When my daughter was 18 months old she could take a little bite out of a whole apple but then would put it down and walk away. Now if I cut the apple up into little pieces and sat and offered it to her then she would eat a whole lot more and enjoy it. You can also get kitchen gadets that can turn an apple into a slinky which makes the apple fun!

Kids love getting involved as well. If they don’t like greens, then the perfect solution is to make a green smoothie with them. Get them up on the counter with you, helping or watching you chopping up the fruits like cucumber, apple and avocado. Then get them to add a fist full of spinach and greens, a stick of celery and throw in a couple of dates into the blender. Before you know it you have a big fat green smoothie and you’ve had some quality time together making it.

The best way to get your kids to be healthy is to lead by example. If a child sees you’re doing something they’re going to copy. Don’t force them to have a green juice whilst you drink a coca cola. If you want to be healthy and you want to set that beautiful example maybe it’s time to make some changes in your own life first.

Healthy Snacks For Kids That Are Fun And Healthy

Kids often want to snack on things quickly, some cut up fruit is perfect for this. They can come and pick up a piece as they feel then go and play. It’s nice to let them be in flow and have a little choice rather than forcing them to sit if they don’t want to.

Apples are great, they have pectin and fibre that clean the body out and encourage movement through the digestive system. They contain life force, and add so many minerals and nutrients that you can’t even imagine. You don’t need to know all that information about the nutrition. All you need to know is an apple is healthy, as are mangoes, papaya and oranges. Find out the fruits your kids like and feed them as much as they want. Dates are also good for digestion and provide lasting energy to help kids play all day long. Dates also help get rid of pathogens and parasites and contain lots of minerals. Nuts are a perfect snack option too as is baby carrots, cut up cucumber with some almond butter, cucumber with salt or some homemade crackers with a dip of avocado, red onion and salt, cashew butter in celery sticks with sultana’s (ants on logs). Seaenah and I have a favourite of Essene bread with almond butter, banana and raw honey.

Another great idea is our raw food product called Pulse which is an amazing mix of over 20 different ingredients such as dates, figs, almonds, pecans, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, quinoa, and millet. All these beautiful things put together are a great way to just get lots of nutrients into a child’s diet, and your diet too!

Keep it simple, keep it healthy, keep it fun, let your kids get out in the sun to play and have a beautiful life.

Cheers,