By Melissa Grant
For many kids, snack time is junk time.
Children need to satisfy their hunger between meals, but the the sad reality is many are filling up on sugary and high calorie foods such as chips and biscuits.
While there is a lot of focus on preparing three nutritious meals a day and packing healthy lunchboxes, snacks are often overlooked.
Victorian mum and foodie Flip Shelton is passionate about making parents more mindful of what their kids are snacking on.
She has just released her third cookbook Smart Snacks, a collaboration with renowned adolescent and child psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg.
“We owe more to our kids than filling them up with rubbish,” Shelton said.
“They have little brains they have little bodies – we are custodians of their health and we really need to step up.”
Smart Snacks features more than 100 quick and nutritious recipes for kids, with advice from Dr Carr-Gregg.
His family have tried all the recipes in the book, which includes chapters on super sangas, balls, midnight munchies, and smart sweet things.
He says snacks are important for maintaining blood-sugar levels, with benefits for a child’s mood and concentration.
Research shows snacks have become larger and more regular parts of our diets.
As a mother of a nine-year-old boy, Shelton has seen countless children snacking on sugary and high-calorie snack foods.
“What I see is that the parents give them a slurpee for example, or a packet of BBQ Shapes and they say ‘it’s a treat’ or ‘they are doing their sport’,” she said.
“Yes that’s true they are active, but you need to set up the template for kids to make healthy choices. If you just hand them the BBQ Shapes then that’s their normal.
“Food is a really confrontational subject. The mum says ‘it’s just a snack, it’s a treat, he’s just done an hour of tennis’.
“I just quietly say ‘that’s 13 teaspoons of sugar you’ve just given your child in that slurpee’.”
As parents lead busy lives, Shelton has kept the recipes in Smart Snacks simple.
The cashew balls recipe, for example, only has two ingredients.
Shelton encourages parents to get their kids involved in the cooking and to make the freezable recipes in large batches.
As healthy foods are often expensive, she advises parents to buy in bulk, take advantage of specials and head down to farmers markets at the end of the day.
The recipes in Smart Snacks are vegetarian and full of protein, complex carbohydrates, essential fatty acids plus vitamins and minerals.
Shelton’s go-to recipe is the cacao balls.
“For my son and I, the thing we make every single week is the cacao balls mainly because he can make them.
“The other stuff we have on high rotation, including the smoothies.”
A sure way to ensure your child consumes healthy snacks, Shelton says, is to put a note on the fridge detailing what nutritious snack foods are inside.
“Kids are notoriously forgetful, especially when they’re hungry, and the power of suggestion is fantastic.”
Finally, it’s best to keep those naughty treats out of the fridge and cupboard.
“If your downfall is chocolate or chips, just don’t buy it!” Shelton said.
Smart Snacks, Penguin Life, RRP $24.99
