As a nutritionist, the question I get asked most from parents (both friends and clients) is “what healthy snacks can I give my children?”.

A recent Public Health England campaign called ‘Change for Life’, said that the average 10-year-old has already consumed the maximum recommended sugar allowance for an 18-year-old. Much of this sugar is coming in the form of fizzy drinks, but a lot is from snacks. Too much sugar in the diet can lead to weight gain, and though there are no official statistics for weight in British Jewish children, NHS stats show that nearly 30% of children are overweight or obese when they leave primary school.

When kosher may not be quite so kosher:

As Jews, our culture celebrates food and our ethos is to ‘feed’, this can cause a difficult relationship around snacking. Many of our favourite snack foods are heavily processed and filled with unnatural ingredients. We all want the best for our children, and tackling the snacking issue can be a good place to start.

Children who are active, growing and learning have extra nutrient requirements that adults don’t, so snacks have an important part to play in their diet. However, if your kids are snacking too often, or consuming too much high sugar food in their snacks, this can create an issue.

To snack or not to snack? The five questions:

I always advise to ask yourself (or your child) the reason for the snack, before you decide whether and what to give. These questions can be useful.       

1.  Is my child genuinely hungry? (perhaps it’s been a long time since the last meal/ long time until their next meal)

2. Will this snack provide some extra nutrients to my child's diet? (i.e. increase their vitamins, protein, good fat quota etc)

3. Has my child already had a lot of sugar/ processed food in their diet today? 

4. Is my child just bored? 

5. Am I using this snack to keep them quiet (we've all been there!!)

There is definitely a place for delicious, sugar rich food – who doesn’t enjoy a cake, biscuit or chocolate bar? But the idea is to keep these to the special times and not  everyday. Try some of my top ten snacks (in the box to the top left of this page) instead. 

Laura Southern is a London based Nutritional Therapist. As well as seeing private clients she runs regular nutrition workshops including how to reduce sugar in children's diets.

Please email info@londonfoodtherapy.com for more details.