Healthy Treats

 

With nationwide adult obesity levels at record highs and childhood obesity continuing to climb, turning to healthy treats and healthy kids treats is more important than ever. Eating healthier is starting to be a priority for many, yet individuals and families often need to improve in three areas:

 

Education about food

Ever get confused by labels when trying to figure out if something is a healthy treat or not? Not sure what “natural flavoring” means? Do you feel like you need a PhD in math just to calculate portion size and calories? We know how difficult it can be to navigate the nutritional jungle out there. That’s why Dr. Laura has produced a series of YouTube videos to help you with deciphering labels, figure portion control, create tasty healthy kids treats, and more. Go to YouTube and take a peek at DrLauraTV to view this informative and fun series. (Pssst. Sometimes the term “natural flavorings” is a way to hide MSG!)

 

Making time for healthy eating

Feel like it’s just too hard sometimes to eat healthy because there’s no time to prepare a healthy treat for a snack? Here are a couple of tips from Dr. Laura to help you get started:

The “not in my house” rule. Keep it simple. Dr. Laura’s philosophy is this: “If I’m not allowed to binge on it, I don’t bring it in the house. For example, there is no cheese popcorn in my house, because I know I’m not disciplined enough not to binge.”

Stock your house carefully. You have control over what comes into your house. Unless you’re very disciplined, you or your family are going to over indulge in those fattening treats you brought home. Try making a rule that you can only have healthy treats like fruit in the house, and limit the unhealthy stuff to dining out. Dr. Laura says: “When I was a kid, we didn’t keep soda in the house, and my parents had a rule that if we wanted soda at a restaurant we had to buy it with our own money. This taught me to think carefully about choices.”

 

Making better choices easily accessible

Healthy treats don’t have to take a lot of time to make and don’t have to be complicated. For a convenient healthy treat, try baked tortilla chips or a handful of nuts. For a sweet healthy treat, grab a couple of Laura’s WJF bite-lettes ®. When buying pre-made goodies in the store, make sure you can pronounce the ingredients so you’re not getting highly processed food, which is often loaded with unhealthy things like trans-fats. When making healthy treats, try using raw honey or maple syrup in place of refined sugar. Dr. Laura’s DrLauraTV YouTube videos feature how to make healthy kids treats like FunFudge and popsicles. For another healthy treat option, place sugar snap peas or snapped green beans into a tightly sealed bag. Easy to carry fruits like bananas, apples, and oranges are also great healthy treats.

For more healthy treat recipes, see Dr. Laura’s fantastic cookbook, The Wholesome Junk Food Cookbook.

 
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The Wholesome Junk Food Cookbook