It’s easy to fall into the processed food pitfall with snacks. I mean how MUCH easier to pick up a box of teddy grahams or goldfish than make snacks packed with phytonutrients? I used to think that way, until I realized with a bit of planning and prep each week, it’s just as easy to feed my girls REAL food snacks.

Set Yourself a Snack Goal - less sugar, more phytonutrients, no more processed flour, what's yours?

My goal at snack time is to avoid any processed flour products. This would include most breads, crackers, cereals and yes, teddy grahams. All these choices are void of phytonutrients that help your child's cells communicate effectively. Worse yet, they are often filled with fake ingredients like partially hydrogenated oils that prevent your cells from communicating effectively and create disease.

Why do I focus on phytonutrients?  Phyto means "plant" - so phytonutrients are plant nutrients - the plant’s [healing] chemicals - found specifically in plant food. These phytonutrients are critical for health, shown to reduce the risk of cancer, decrease inflammation (linked with most chronic disease, including asthma), and have anti-viral/anti-bacterial properties.  New classes of phytonutrients are being discovered everyday, and scientists are still learning the healing power of these natural chemicals. In order to give our body the healing messages from these phytonutrients, we must eat REAL whole unprocessed plant food.  

There’s no label that will tell you how rich a food is in phytonutrients [how loaded or void it is of healing plant nutrients]. Remember to keep it simple.  As Mark Hyman, MD mentions in his book UltraMetabolism “...consider the total amount, orphytonutrient load, of your diet.  Just think of plants in the unadulterated state - fresh, whole, and unprocessed - vegetables, fruits, nuts, beans, seeds, whole grains, and think color and variety. Almost all refined oils, refined sugars, refined grains, potato products, hard liquors, and animal products - regrettably, the chief sources of calories in the typical Western diets - have no phytonutrients.” 

Most children today are eating this S.A.D. Standard American Diet, with little to no phytonutrients. So on your next trip to the grocery store, aim to pick up more colorful plant food, like tomatoes, broccoli, and sweet potatoes. Eventually, your cart at check-out will be loaded with color and variety from the healing plants of our amazing planet.