Balancing healthy, fun and delicious snacks for your kids can be challenging, especially when they reach a certain age. Nowadays, kids are bombarded with candy and sweets on television and at school. They are no longer convinced that an apple is better tasting than candy.
My son is now in preschool and has been exposed to candy and sweets sparingly by me, but now there are birthday cupcake celebrations and Valentine’s Day candy and so on. I was dismayed when my son just flat out asked me for some candy!
Fruit snacks seemed like the perfect balance. They are wonderfully sweet and come in fun shapes or strips and best of all the kids love them. I’ve bought and sampled many different brands with characters my kids recognize and felt confident that they were eating something that contained fruit and a little sugar.
I was surprised to discover that some of them contain more sugar than anything else. Fruit snacks are not all the same and I dare say some of them shouldn’t even be called fruit snacks but sugar snacks. I now only buy fruit snacks that contain more fruit without the junk. Here are three healthy, delicious alternatives to regular fruit snacks that you and your kids will love:
The Clif Bar company has a fun version of the fruit snack with the Clif Kid Organic Twisted Fruit treats. Each twisted fruit snack is considered one fruit serving for the day and that is impressive for a treat.
Nutritional Facts: Fat free, no saturated or trans fats, 5 mg Sodium, 240 mg Potassium, 16 g carbohydrates, 1 g fiber, 9g sugar, and 70 calories. No cholesterol, no added sugar, preservatives, flavors or colors.
The nutritional facts alone convinced me to give these a try and the rich fruity taste had my family asking for more. The twisted stick of fruit makes it easy to handle for toddlers and avoid the little pieces of fruit snacks falling on the floor.
Stretch Island Fruit Company has been around since 1976 with Stretch Island Fruit Company Original Fruit Leathers. Recently the company created Fruitabu geared towards children but both of these are great healthy fruit snack alternatives.
Nutritional Facts: Fat Free, no saturated or trans fat, 120 mg potassium, 12 g carbohydrates, 9 grams of sugar and 1 gram of dietary fiber. Sodium and cholesterol free with only 45 calories!
Stretch Island Fruit Company Fruit Leathers are chewy in texture and taste like eating the actual fruit. It comes in ten different fruit flavors like grape and strawberry or deliciously exotic flavors like Mango Sunrise or Pineapple Coconut Surprise. Each strip equals one half of a fruit serving.
Fruitabu Organic Smooshed Fruit also made by Stretch Island Fruit Company comes in two different varieties of twirls and flats. The twirls resemble the rolled up fruit snacks that kids love and the flats are rectangular in shape.
Nutritional Facts for the twirls: 1.5 grams of fat, 0.5 grams of saturated fat, no trans fat, 40 mg Sodium, 90 mg potassium, 16 grams of carbohydrate, 14 grams of sugar found naturally in the fruit. No artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives and both the twirls and flats consist of 90% real fruit juice. Each twirl equals one serving of fruit.
Nutritional Facts for the flats: Fat free, no saturated or trans fats, 90 mg potassium, 10 g carbohydrates, and only 8 grams of sugar. No sodium or cholesterol. Each flat equals one half of a fruit serving.
There are five flavor options between the twirls and the flats. These taste a little sweeter than the Original Fruit leathers and come in attractive packaging that will interest your kids. The super fruity taste is delicious and the twirls are fun for your kids to unroll as they eat.
Choosing any of these healthy fruit snack alternatives will ensure that your children are getting a quality product without all the extra junk, like high fructose corn syrup, artificial colors and flavors. There is no substitute for eating real fruit but sometimes kids get bored with the usual fare and want something else or worse yet- sweets. These fruit snacks are a great way to get in a fruit serving and still be seen as a yummy treat for your child or for yourself!
Resources:
www.clifbar.com
www.stretchislandfruit.com
www.fruitabu.com
