No More Pigging Out: Help Your Kids Make Healthy Snack Choices After School

Philadelphia, PA, Oct. 5, 2005– Have you found candy bar wrappers in your son’s book bag? Are you tired of afternoon snacks ruining your daughter’s dinner? A nutritionist at Albert Einstein Medical Center offers some suggestions for healthier after school snacking.

Flavia Herzog, MA, RD, conducts nutrition workshops for children and their parents in Philadelphia, as well as providing one-on-one nutrition counseling to patients at Albert Einstein Medical Center. She believes very early school lunch periods play a role in childhood obesity. “Children who eat lunch too early often wind up overeating after school,” she says. 

However, Herzog points out that children who eat lunch before noon can use the after school snack as a “mini-meal” that helps them meet their nutrient and calorie needs. The size of the mini-meal should depend on how long the child has to wait until dinner. “The shorter the time, the smaller the meal,” she says.

“Always encourage your child to have something for breakfast, even if it’s just a breakfast bar,” says Herzog, since eating breakfast can discourage overeating later. “Also give your child lower fat options for afternoon snacks.”

Herzog suggests that if dinner is in three hours, give your child a choice of:

• Sandwich
• Small plate of leftovers
• Ellio’s pizza or an English muffin or pita pizza
• Non-sugary cereal with low-fat milk
• Crackers with peanut butter or cheese
• Bagel with peanut butter

If dinner is in two hours, give your child these options:

• Yogurt with granola
• Pudding and graham crackers
• String cheese
• Veggies and dip
• Celery with peanut butter or cream cheese
• Fruit smoothie (fresh fruit and vanilla yogurt or low-fat milk in the blender)

If dinner is in an hour, give your child the following options:

• Fruit cup
• Soft pretzel
• Jello with fruit
• Granola bar
• Applesauce

Herzog recognizes that many children of working parents don’t have the benefit of having their snacking supervised. Often they visit fast food restaurants and convenience stores, where they make some very unhealthy choices. But, as Herzog notes, “Even fast food restaurants offer some reasonably healthy foods.”

Some better alternatives at fast food restaurants include:

• Fruit and yogurt parfait with or without granola (McDonald’s)
• Apple dippers (McDonald’s)
• Grilled chicken sandwich without mayonnaise
• Regular cheeseburger (not doubled and no special sauce)
• Salad with low-fat dressing
• Baked potato
• Kiddie meal; substitute water for soda or juice (a good “mini-meal” for a teen)
• Soft chicken tacos (limit to two)
• Low-fat Subway 6-inch sandwich: turkey, vegetable, ham, roast beef, club

If your child often visits convenience stores, encourage him or her to buy peanut butter or cheese crackers, a granola bar, a fruit cup, a bag of pretzels or trail mix. “Remember to buy healthy foods yourself,” says Herzog. “Children usually follow their parents’ example.”

Albert Einstein Healthcare Network, a member of the Jefferson Health System, provides healthcare services through Albert Einstein Medical Center, Germantown Community Health Services, Willow Terrace (a nursing home), Einstein at Elkins Park, MossRehab, Willowcrest (a center for subacute care), Belmont Behavioral Health and a number of outpatient and satellite locations.  Einstein also operates a primary care network, Einstein Neighborhood Healthcare.  For more information, visit www.einstein.edu or call 1-800-EINSTEIN.

Contact: Lisa DiMeo
Senior Marketing Communications Specialist
Albert Einstein Healthcare Network
215-456-6737 or dimeol@einstein.edu

Publish date: October 5, 2005