What to give children for a snack

What is the main nutritional problem behind the rising obesity of the coming generations? Did you know that weakened immunity may be linked to children’s eating habits? What if changing the cereal-based approach could improve attention and motivation for more effective learning? So is a bread-based snack the right solution, or could it be done differently?

A child’s lifestyle has a direct influence on their moods, attention and ability to learn

After the topic of breastfeeding and finding out whether caffeine really passes into milk, we now move a little further in time and look at a problem that more than one parent is already dealing with.

Namely, what to give children for their mid-morning snack while being sure that it is healthy and that we are providing them with optimal nutrition, not only for health but also for performance.

The main reason for adjusting the diet should not be to keep the child from being obese. The most important thing is to think about how to provide them with comprehensive, effective nutrition that supports the brain first and foremost and ensures the right hormonal response.

Parents = the biggest problem in children’s nutrition?

You have certainly read plenty of articles about changing children’s eating habits and improving meals at schools. Many parents take an interest in what their child is given at school, and various initiatives have been launched (for example Zdravý dom).

On the other hand, in most schools and facilities food is still largely not addressed, so parents try to maximise the good things with a quality breakfast, mid-morning snack or afternoon snack.

Parents set an example for their children, in diet too

The latest research also confirms that mirror and imitation neurons are one of the strongest elements, so you will find it hard to persuade a child to have avocado or an egg for breakfast if you do not sit down with them and instead just throw in some coffee, cereal, or white defrosted and part-baked supermarket bread.

If you want your child to be healthy and successful, the whole family needs to be healthy and successful too. It is in the family that the first habits, awareness and convictions for future success and independence are built.

An effective lifestyle for a child and a family requires an investment

You need to take the reins into your own hands and be a leader in the family, bringing change based on clear scientific findings, which are available today thanks to the internet and a growing group of people who care about what they eat and how they live. What is essential?

1. Time and energy for study
Research, filtering information, critical thinking and perhaps also trial-and-error experimenting.

2. An adequate investment in buying quality ingredients

A few notional euros more spent on quality ingredients, which pay off in the long run. Not investing in foods that are clearly made at the very edge of production costs. Is that really sustainable, and which system do you want to help grow? Commerce, or integrity?

3. A personal interest in becoming a role model and a bearer of change

Specific inspiration for more nutritious snacks

We have picked out for you three possible alternatives, where the rule is no chemicals, no sugar, no additives, no bad fats, plenty of good fats and no gluten.

The quality of ingredients and food really does matter, even if it may not seem so in the short term.

What to avoid?

Sweet drinks, and also shop-bought fruit juices (freshly squeezed and diluted juices and smoothies are an option)
Cereals, shop-bought muesli bars, biscuits
Kaiser rolls, bread rolls and over-baked pastries
Low-quality cheeses, spreads, pâtés and sausages
Bars, crackers, crisps
Sweets, lollipops and candy, and branded children’s snack bars and drinks
Sweetened milks and so-called yoghurt drinks

1. The classic snack

With a classic bread-based snack, we focus on the choice of bread.

Super-dark, 9-grain and other “fit” breads are not the right choice. Far more important is the quality and type of flour, and then the production process. In this sense we ideally go for bread made from quality spelt, rye or durum wheat flour, which contain roughage and have not been processed into empty calories.

The second important thing is real sourdough, which has nowadays been replaced by fast-acting yeast for quick fermentation. Real sourdough breaks down a large part of the gluten, so the bread becomes much easier to digest and above all less demanding on the immune system.

It is best to add healthy fats and vegetables to the bread, so please let us forget about margarines and various shop-bought spreads, hams, salamis or ordinary pâtés.

Recommended options:

Proper organic cow’s butter,
Bryndza, soft goat’s/sheep’s cheese,
Avocado – the spread recipe is here.
Nut butters (almond, hazelnut, cashew) and a guide to using them here.
Your own homemade spreads (quark, egg, pork crackling)
And even proper homemade pâtés (game, goose, duck, liver)
Dry-cured salamis and hams without preservatives (mostly Italian or Spanish style, though local ones can be found now too)
Fresh vegetables: lettuce, tomato, cucumber, pepper

2. Homemade yoghurts/dairy snacks

If children do not want an extra snack and have a reasonably large breakfast, for example scrambled eggs, there is no need to force a snack on them. It can work well to make them a quality yoghurt or kefir shake flavoured with berries and quality cacao, chocolate, cinnamon or vanilla…

That way you make a great shake in the morning and the snack is sorted. As an extra bonus you can add chia seeds or a few chopped nuts and thicken the shake into a delicious pudding.

Recommended options:

Kefir + blackberries/blueberries/strawberries + vanilla
Greek yoghurt + currants + cinnamon
Sheep’s whey drink/ kefir / quality soured milk + banana + cacao
Greek/creamy yoghurt /sour cream + honey + cinnamon
Coconut/almond milk + almond butter + vanilla + honey
Banana + cacao + almond butter + coconut oil (pudding)
Homemade chocolate hazelnut spread

3. Other homemade recipes

The last option is making your own savoury or sweet cakes, muffins, cookies or bars, which you have full control over, giving your child a valuable, clever and practical snack.

Remember that if you want to give your own productivity, or your child’s productivity and mood, the best possible lift, then the less flour and fast sugar carbohydrates the better.

With children, though, the visual side of food often matters too, so I think gluten-free muffins or cookies made from well-tuned recipes could do the job.

It may seem like a lot, but if twice a week in the evening you knock together a cup-measure recipe or “all into the bowl” cookies, you are sorted.

When making homemade bars we rely mainly on a combination of nuts (nut butters), good fats such as coconut and butter, and binders such as honey, dates and figs. We flavour them with the classic magic trio of cinnamon, cacao and vanilla.

Recommended options

Sweet spelt muffins (honey, maple syrup, fruit and coconut sugar as sweeteners)
Fruit sponge bakes (not over-sweetened and made with the right flour)
Savoury egg muffins
Various clever cookies, ideally flour-free
Raw homemade nut and date bars
Tasty raw balls

There are countless options, from the simplest bread with butter and tomato to more complex muffins. In any case, it will always come down first and foremost to how you apply it and your ability to source quality ingredients.

Which direction this takes in Slovakia depends solely on us and our everyday decisions. Why could we not have as conscious a society as the Danes, Swedes, Norwegians, Swiss or Austrians, whose food quality we envy so much?

Bonus tip:

A quick and healthier solution can also be to pack our chocolate bars into the snack box. They contain 70 % or 90 % real bean-to-bar chocolate with a minimum of cane sugar.