Fat in Healthy Snacks for Kids

We keep talking about healthy snacks for kids and how overweight kids are. I want to talk about FAT in kid's food today. Parents should know that fat is not bad for kids. Or let me re-phrase it, not all fat is bad. You will be surprised, but kids need fat every day.

Why do Kids need fat?

Fat helps kids to absorb vitamins and develop brain and the nervous system. It makes them feel full faster so they don't eat as much other food.

How much fat do kids need per day?

If you children are older than 2 they should get around 30% of their daily calories in fat. So if your child getting 1,500 calories a day around 280 should come from fat. You should not worry about your kids getting fat, because kids burn fat much faster than adults.

You hear a lot of overweight kids and that fat is bad for cholesterol and your heart. It's all true. Here is the thing, you can give your kids food that contains fat but doesn't drive their cholesterol through the roof. How can you do that? Simple.

Are there different types of fat?

This is very important. Here are the 3 main types of fat:

Unsaturated Fats: Good for your kids. It can be found in a lot of plants and fish. This kind of fat will help your kids to grow and helps heart health. When I give you healthy snack recipes with some fat, I always make sure it's unsaturated fats that are good for your kids. Great snack is a tuna salad sandwich. But don't worry we'll take about great healthy snacks that have good fat later.

Note: When you are cooking try to use olive oil or canola oil because they have unsaturated fats.

Let's talk about bad fats now:

Saturated fats: It increases your cholesterol levels and has negative effect on your child's heart. It can be found in animal foods, butter, mayonnaise has a lot of saturated fats, milk, cheese. You can check the label to see how much saturated fat the product has. If you are not sure how to tell the difference, don't worry we'll have post for you on how to read the label.

Trans tats: The worst fat you can give to your kids. It increases cholesterol levels in the blood and is bad for the heart health. Try to avoid it.

Your kids need fat to grow and develop their little bodies. Our job is to make sure they are getting right amounts of the right fat. I'll help you to come up with great healthy snack ideas for kids that have vitamins and nutritions that kids need.