Kids’ Snacks
Rosemary looked at snack foods promoted for kids, and found that most of them are of concern from a nutritional point of view. The information provided on the labels of some of these products is also a problem. Rosemary thinks it would be a good idea for parents to write to food manufacturers and tell them snack foods for children need some urgent attention.
Not recommended as everyday snacks
Crisps – very high in fat, and most of them are high in salt. The same goes for corn chips, soy crisps, vegie crisps and products labelled as ‘Light’ crisps.
Alphabet biscuits – made with organic flour, but high in sugar and fat. The label on a strawberry with yoghurt biscuit carries the impossible claim that it’s 100% wheat flour and also 100% yoghurt.
Instant noodles – you don’t even have to add water to the latest noodle snacks. The ‘flavour’ probably comes from the salt, fat and monosodium glutamate (MSG).
Breakfast bars – a combination of breakfast cereal and sugary syrups, chewy marshmallow or chocolate. They are a dental hazard, and they contain fat that is not in the original cereals (eg, a rice bubble bar has 8.9% fat compared with rice bubbles with 0.4% fat).
Vitamin-enriched fruit bars – these contain 45% added sugar, so they are a dental hazard. Each bar also has half an adult’s daily recommended dietary intake (RDI) of vitamin A, one-third of the RDI for iodine and 95% of the RDI for niacin. All these nutrients can be hazardous in excess (so don’t let your kids eat half the pack).
Chocolate spread – this product makes claims about containing calcium, iron and vitamins, but there’s no mention of these nutrients in the ingredients panel. However, the ingredients panel does tell us that the product is high in fat.
Not bad
Crackers and dips are a mixed bag nutritionally. The individually wrapped snack packs have four crackers plus peanut butter, Vegemite, cheddar cheese spread or a cream cheese spread. The crackers are standard, with saturated fat and salt. Both cheese spreads contain calcium, along with salt, additives, preservatives and emulsifiers. The Vegemite snack pack contains as much Vegemite as you’d normally spread on three slices of bread, and although Vegemite is a great source of B vitamins that’s far too much salt in one go for a child. Peanut butter is considered a healthy food, and so the peanut butter snack pack is the best choice.
Good
Processed cheese has about twice as much salt as regular cheese but it’s also a good source of calcium, and cheese is positively good for kids’ teeth. Rosemary rates this as a good snack for children.
Highly recommended
Fresh fruit – on any day 40% of kids eat no fruit, often because they’re eating junk snack foods instead. So if you really want to do your kids a favour, keep most of the snack foods for occasional use only, and offer them fresh fruit instead.