What a crazy time of year August can be! Even though our little guy is just 2 years old, we deal with the back to school rush every year because my hubby is a high school teacher and I teach at the University level. It's always a shock to our physical systems as we are thrown right into the football season as well.
Saturday I appeared on Good Morning Jacksonville for my monthly segment and I was so excited to share some tips and ideas on finding low sugar lunch and snack options for your kiddos. I seem to get asked a lot about sugar and I've been meaning to do a TV segment on the topic. Back to school seemed like the perfect time! Click here to see the full segment.
There are no specific sugar recommendations for children. MyPlate gives recommendations for children for "empty" calories that you can translate into grams of sugar. If you were to use all the empty calories alotted on added sugar, then it would equal about 30 grams or 7.5 teaspoons a day. In reality, about half of that should be added sugars at 15 grams or a little over 4 teaspoons a day. Remember that added sugars are exactly that, added during processing, not the ones that are naturally found in fruit and dairy sources.
In preparation for this segment, I spent quite some time in my local grocery store looking for no-sugar-added and low sugar foods that your (and my) kids would actually like. I think I came up with some good ideas for you.
Since it's sort of a given, I'm not going to list all the delicious kinds of fruits you could be enjoying as your sweet treat or snack. Fruit is packed with nutrients and has nature's natural sweetness, which is the perfect combination. Recently, I discovered Midnight Beauty grapes. These might be the most delicous, sweet grapes I have ever had! They are in season now until the end of September and you should definitely pick some up! My other favorite super-sweet fruit are mangos, which I'm hoping to plant in my backyard "grove" next summer. I love them chopped in up and mixed with cold cottage cheese. It's the perfect snack mix of sweet and savory and it's packed with vitamins and protein.
Now back to the list. If you have a low-sugar snack idea to share, please post it to the comments section and I'll add it on. I appreicate reader input.
Snacks with No Added Sugar - There are no sugars listed in the ingredients list. All sweetness is naturally found in the fruits included.
- Fruit
- Unsweetened applesauce - It's actually a nice sweetness so don't think it's going to be bland. Add your own flavorings like cinnamon. You can even make your own with my Easy Fall Applesauce.
- Fruit Leather - I like Stretch Island.
- Dried fruit - Look for ones that don't add any sugar like raisins and apricots.
- Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk - It can be tough to find a flavored drink for lunches without added sugar of some kind. Almond Breeze has a great option at only 30 calories and zero grams of sugar. Pour this in a thermos and pack with an ice pack for a delicious low calorie drink.
Snacks that are Low in Added Sugars and/or Use 'Natural' Sweeteners - My goal was to find snacks with 12 grams of sugar per serving or less.
- Somersault Snack Co. Cinnamon Crunch Someraults - 7 g sugar
- Kashi Chewy Granola Bars Cherry Dark Chocolate - 8 g sugar
- Kind Bar Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate + Protein - 10 g sugar
- Clif Kid Z Bar Peanut Butter - 10 g sugar
- Chobani Champions Banana Honey yogurt - 10 g sugar
- Apple & Eve Waterfruits box drinks - 10 g sugar
- Quaker Chocolate Crunch Rice Cakes - 4 g sugar
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