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It seems that in many situations, snacks are used as a guaranteed time to keep the kids happy and pass a few minutes - something that can be easily incorporated into almost any activity - like church, Girl Scouts, sports games and playgroups. Unfortunately, providing snacks is often unnecessary and often interferes with children's ability to eat balanced meals at mealtimes. Snacks can also create an unhealthy emotional relationship with food. If an adult associates junk food with happy times in childhood, he or she may use the same unhealthy foods to try to restore themselves emotionally or reconnect with happy times. What to do?
If you're a parent facing a similar struggle, here are some ideas:
1. Advocacy.Suggest that the group or team develop a policy that snacks are healthy. On that note, you can also make sure that when it's your turn to bring the snacks, you bring a very healthy (but tasty) snack to set an example. If the other parents see that the kids love the healthy snack, some of them might do the same.
2. Teach the signs of hunger and fullness.Help your children learn how to recognize signs of hunger and fullness, and remind them to eat when they are hungry and stop when they are full. If that means they aren't hungry at snack time, they should know that it's okay not to eat.
3. Let it go.If you feel that the fight is not worth fighting in certain situations, you can simply let it go. Ultimately, parents cannot possibly protect their children from all potentially “harmful” influences. They probably wouldn't want to anyway, since highly controlling and restrictive parents tend to have children who rebel against their parents' best wishes anyway. At the end of the day, an unnecessary snack here and there isn't going to make much of a difference (although it might if many different organizations do this on a regular basis).
Health-conscious parents should continue to do what they are already doing - creating an environment at home (where children spend most of their time) that supports a healthy, balanced diet.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
American Council on Exercise
Health advocates in action
Great school
United States Department of Agriculture