Let s talk about Smart Snacking

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Let’s talk about

Smart Snacking

How to create a healthy snack

Snacks can be a great component of a healthy, balanced diet when chosen wisely!

Snacking has many benefits for us. Smart snacking boosts brain power- it helps our brain to be alert and awake by fueling your body and brain.

Snacking in a balanced way helps to prevent overeating at meals. Having a healthy, balanced snack can help to reduce cravings for food.

Now, let’s learn how to create a great snack that will accomplish all of these goals.

A balanced snack should have protein, carbohydrate, and fat. A balanced snack gives us energy and keeps us satisfied for hours. Combining carbohydrate with a fat or protein helps us to prevent blood sugar spikes and will increase satiety between meals. Satiety is the feeling of fullness that we feel after a meal that makes us aware that we do not have to eat again for a while.

Some common sources of protein include beans, eggs, plain Greek yogurt, sunflower seeds, peanut butter or other nut butters, canned tuna, chicken salad, meat, tofu, cottage cheese, protein powder and so much more!

When trying to combine carbohydrates- try fruit, granola, whole grain bread, crackers, oats, etc. Finally, let’s learn about some common fat sources, they include cheese, avocados, chia seeds and nuts!

So let’s review the formula for Successful Smart Snacking:

Carbohydrate + Fat or Protein= a well-balanced, satisfying snack!

Examples of Smart Snacking:

a. Apple (carbohydrate) + peanut butter (fat AND protein) b. Crackers (carbohydrates) + cheese (fat AND protein)

c. Whole grain bread (carbohydrates) + canned tuna (protein) d. Fresh berries (carbohydrates) + plain Greek yogurt (protein)

e. Whole grain English muffin (carbohydrates) + avocado (healthy fat) f. Granola (carbohydrates) + mixed nuts (fat)

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Activity: Grocery Store Bingo

Next time you are at the store, take this bingo sheet with you and see how many items you can find from each food group! Being able to identify the various food groups easily and confidently at the store will allow you to create the best snacks possible.

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Smart Snacking Strategies

Now that we have Successful Smart Snacked, it is important to know how to fit these snacks into our lives in the best way possible!

Between school, homework, tests, sports, other activities, a social life and chores, it is easy to feel overwhelmed and assume that there is no time to eat healthy. This is why we often reach for a bag of potato chips or cheese puffs when we are short on time and feeling hungry.

Here are some smart snacking strategies:

1. Make Smart Snacking convenient: Prepare your snacks in advance. Wash fresh fruits and veggies and place them in individual serving containers at the beginning of the week. 2. Make your own trail mix by adding granola, nuts, and dried fruit

3. Keep healthy snacks with you wherever you go, weather you are at the school, on the playground, working on a project or at a friend’s house. Try keeping an apple or pack of whole grain in your backpack at all times.

4. Make your Smart Snack fun and exciting. A good way to do this is to always have a variety of sauces or dips on hand for fruits and veggies.

5. Always read the food label on all snack packaging. This will make sure that you are eating the correct serving size. Portion control is crucial to prevent overeating in snacking.

Activity

Now that we learned some helpful hints on how to include healthy snacks in our lives with ease, let’s review what food group (fruit, veggie, dairy, grain or protein) some healthy snacks belong to! On the second page of the activity, you can try a new healthy snack and do a taste test with friends or family! Enjoy!

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Parents

School meals now have more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. They are

also healthier with less saturated and

trans fats and sodium. Join your child for lunch one day and see the changes.

Welcome to School Lunch!

Eating with friends and trying new foods can be fun.

There are many choices from each of the five food groups.

Draw a line from each lunch food to the correct food group friend.

(Answers on back.)

May 2014 • FNS-471A • USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.

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A Color Adventure!

It’s fun to find new favorite foods. Choose a new fruit or

vegetable of each color to try. Then, hold a family taste test. Write how your family felt about the new food below.

Draw a picture of the new fruit or vegetable in each box.

Parents

Got colors? Try red beans, orange cantaloupe, yellow squash, green kale,

blueberries, or purple cabbage. Check the school lunch menu for other ideas.

Red Fruit/Vegetable Yellow Fruit/Vegetable Blue Fruit/Vegetable Orange Fruit/Vegetable Green Fruit/Vegetable Purple Fruit/Vegetable How We Felt About the Food

How We Felt About the Food

Answ ers: FRUITS: oran ge, b anan a, grapes, stra

wberries. s, yello een bean occoli, gr S: tomatoes, br TABLE VEGE w squa

sh. TEIN FOOD ogurt, milk. PRO AIRY: y d, pasta. D GRAINS: brea

S: e bout th ore a o learn m ger. T ambur en leg, h sh, chick tuna fi food gr oups, vi sit http:/ /www .choos emypl ate.go v.

Celebrate with a trip to the park or playground.

Try something

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How do I know

when I should snack?

Snacking can also lead to overeating and weight gain if we do not listen to our body cues! The right time to snack is when we are truly feeling hungry and not when we are bored or tired.

If we are feeling tired or think we might be hungry, we should try drinking a glass of water first. We sometimes experience sugar cravings when our body is are getting dehydrated. Drinking some water will help reduce cravings if we are truly not hungry yet.

Being well-hydrated will also help us to feel more alert and awake.

If we still feel hungry after drinking some water and a small snack, do not immediately reach for more snack! It takes our body some time to process the food before we feel satisfied and our feeling of hunger go away. If you still feel hungry after a small snack, wait 30 minutes or drink another glass of water before reaching for more snack foods. It is likely that we may not need to eat more to feel full and it is probably that our body is just taking time to process.

Activity

Now that we know how to time a snack, let’s try a fun new snack!

Try a new food or recipe and play the role of a food critic by rating the new food on different characteristics!

United States Department of Agriculture

Kids Food Critic ACTIVITY

Let kids select a new fruit, vegetable, or recipe to sample. Have them taste the food and rate it based on visual appeal, smell, taste, and texture using a scale of 1 to 5 where 5 is the best.

Dr aw Foo d Here! Visual Appeal Smell Taste Texture Total Score Serve it again? YES NO

For extra fun:

• Have kids choose and prepare foods and have friends, siblings, or parents sample and rate them.

• Present 3 new recipes to sample and compare them.

August 2016 USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer. 1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5 Total:

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How to help yourself make

the smartest snacking

decisions possible:

Today is all about fun snack ideas that you and your loved ones can create together to help set you up for snacking success throughout the week! Let’s dive into these yummy ideas. Create a delicious yogurt parfait by layering 6 ounces of fat-free Greek yogurt with ½ cup fresh or frozen fruit, then sprinkle ¼ cup (or less) low-fat granola on top (add some honey, cinnamon or dried fruit for extra flavor)

• Create veggie skewers with cherry tomatoes, cubes of low-fat cheese, and lean lunch meat.

• Whip up a quesadilla in the microwave using a whole wheat tortilla, ¼ cup black beans, 1-2 tablespoons low-fat cheese and 1 ounce of salsa.

• Roast chickpeas (or garbanzo beans) and season with spices- try different spices each time in order to provide flavor variety.

• In the mood for a cold treat? Try mixing equal amounts of fat-free plain yogurt with 100% fruit juice, then pour into paper cups and freeze.

• Make a dip using low-fat cottage cheese or Greek yogurt for raw vegetables so that eating veggies remains exciting, even if you eat the same few most days of the week. Now that we have talked about many snacking ideas, learned how to create healthy snacks and discussed how to time our snacks by listening to our body’s hunger cues- it is time for you to create your own snacks! Enjoy!

Activity

Our last activity is an online interactive activity that will be a perfect wrap up to learning about healthy snacking this week! Thanks for taking the time to learn with us.