Do you have questions about healthy snacking? Ask PHE’s expert for a chance to win a £150 voucher NOW CLOSED

[JustineBMumsnet]

Making healthy choices when it comes to your children’s snacks (especially if you’re under the demands of pester power) can be difficult.

Change4Life is supporting you in making healthier snack choices, and they have Orla Hugueniot, Senior Nutritionist on board to help answer your questions on healthy snacking.

Here’s what Change4Life has to say: ‘The new Change4Life campaign aims to help families choose healthier snacks and cut back on sugar. The campaign reveals the surprising fact that children are getting half their sugar from snacks and sugary drinks between meals. To help parents take action Change4Life are introducing a simple new tip – ‘Look for 100 calorie snacks, two a day max’ - to help parents purchase healthier snacks and provide a suggestion for how to keep snacking in check each day. For lots of ideas for healthier snacking for kids and money-off vouchers, search Change4Life.’

Here’s some more information about Orla Hugueniot:
“Orla Hugueniot is the campaign nutritionist team lead at Public Health England (PHE). Since joining PHE in 2014, she has led the provision of expert nutrition advice for PHE Change4Life campaigns including Sugar Swaps (Jan 2015), Sugar Smart (2016) and Be Food Smart (Jan 2017) and Snack Smart (Jan 2018). Orla is a PHE spokesperson and has extensive experience with the media (both UK and Australian) including radio interviews and several TV appearances. She was previously a spokesperson for the FSA. She has worked with journalists in mainstream print media as well as the more specialised health press. Her previous experience includes working at the UK’s Food Standards Agency as a Senior Nutrition Scientific Officer, and as an independent nutritionist for public health nutrition campaigns in Australia. Her qualifications include an Hons BSc degree in Human Nutrition from King’s College London and a Diploma in Science Communication from Birkbeck University (University of London). Orla is a member of the UK and Australian Nutrition Societies.”

Ask Orla your questions about healthy snacking by 22nd January and we’ll select 10-15 questions for them to answer and post their responses as soon as possible. All who post a question below (whether it’s answered or not!) will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £150 voucher.

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

I would echo the previous posters who are concerned about the use of 100 calories. This presupposes quit a detailed knowledge of how many calories are in basic foods. It also puts the emphasis on counting calories rather than just eating healthy foods. I've just looked up calories in a boiled egg and it is 155, in a banana it is 89.

So I am seriously being told that its better to give my child two 85g pots of sugar packed petite filous in a day than have a boiled egg in the morning and a banana in the afternoon?

are some sugars better than others? A lot of processed foods say no added sugar but include sweeteners - is there any difference as far as nutrition is concerned?

What are sensible snacks for an 8 month old? He loves fruit but I am worried about the sugar content and struggle to think of vegetables he can snack on that require minimal preparation!

What is the purpose of snacking. When I was a child, I was told that eating between meals, would "spoil my appetite". Why do we need to snack at all nowadays?

I was very hungry between meals as a child, and often felt quite faint. DS2 gets very moody when his blood sugar drops between meals.

I love to see ideas for sharing food in families in 100kcal portions.

For example, what sized lump of cheese? how many biscuits? what sized banana? how many nuts? what sized piece of flapjack?compared with, say a mobile phone, for size.

I also share other posters concerns about the low-fat message, especially if the low-fat alternatives are sugary.

Just had an email from school asking to send a healthy snack with DD to an indoor Athletics event. What would you recommend?

I've heard you are never supposed to eat between meals

I can never keep to this, as I much stuff like crazy as I work at my desk.

If I could give up the snacks could I become super slim?

Is it true that snacks at night are the worst thing you can do? (Surely your body is metabolising all the time anyway, even when you're asleep)

I quite like carrots and celery as a snack. Mind you, I once binged on celery and I'm sure that was what led to a very uncomfortable few days when I had constipation.

Is there a simple list of snacking dos and don'ts?

My son is a nightmare as far as fruit and vegetables are concerned and flatly refuses to eat them. Have you any advice as to what I could give him as a healthy snack and also how I might start introducing fruit and vegetables into his diet?

I agree with a previous poster regarding the 100 calories only being able to be measured by packaged food would it be possible to produce a visual chart for unpackaged food such a spoon of natural yogurt and so many crackers for dipping. Or two crackers and spread. etc

I don't understand why you are highlighting snacks.

Do the majority of school aged children need snacks on a regular basis?

I appreciate toddlers do, but I'm not sure about older children.

This seems to play into the food industry. Presumably a plain digestive/fruit /vegetables /cheese will do the trick.

Hi,

My children are not big fans of fresh fruit so I try and compensate for this by giving them dried fruit such as raisins. I know these are not as good as fresh fruit but are they an ok snack for daily consumption?

I have serious reservations about this campaign.

surely it should be about a child's intake over the whole day, or week even. So two sugar laden snacks won't suddenly make a child healthy. Even if the snacks are under 100 calories.

I find it quite patronizing why not just say make snacks plant based, or don't give snacks?

My question; who is your target audience?

I have pre-teen/teenage children, and would like to know (a) what the maximum daily sugar intake ought to be for their age, and (b) advice on how to encourage healthy snacking and good portion control. I often feel that they increasingly see their friends eating large bags of crisps, or those pouch bags of chocolates, and see those as an 'individual' snack - and my reminders about healthy eating and good choices are often perceived by them I suspect as nagging and/or comments about their weight.

100 kcal is a half slice of bread with butter.
I don't think that's gonna do much for my 13yr.

DC snacks probably tend to be... 200-300kcal each? My kids aren't fat. Empirical experience is not in support of PHE advice.

What age does this apply to though? I have a 6’3” 15 year old boy. If I tried to limit him to 2 x 100 calorie snacks before lunch let alone all day, he’d be on the phone to Social Services to report me for starving him to death.

Not all low calorie options are low in sugar.. This is what a lot of adults struggle with when they're on diets and go for the 'low calorie' cereal bars... I mean yes its only 95 calories but that 11g sugar isn't going to do you any good.

Im confused as to what you'd suggest to some one who has the option of eating either a 90 calorie packet of mini snack biscuits but has 9g of sugar in.... or a 150 calorie savoury snack with 3g sugar in? If the amount of sugar people are consuming is your biggest worry....

I feel like I do pretty well at giving healthy snacks at home - it struggle when we're out. It's much easier to put a cereal bar, biscuit etc. in your bag than fresh stuff.

I'm looking for ideas for things that are quick and easy and don't go off / get squashed in your bag when you're running about after 2 small people.

Also, I realised that 2 x 100 calorie snacks per day sounds like quite a lot to me. I think I'd be more likely to go for one snack per day for my kids, but they are both small (1 and 5).

I know keeping it simple is important, and I'll certainly remember the 100 cal guideline but I don't know how achievable it really is when you're in a rush, unless you stick up on a load of processed packet stuff.

Our aim at home is to only offer one processed snack a day max, but then as much cheese / fruit / veg / plain yoghurt snacks as necessary. I like the 'eat a rainbow' message to try and maximise variety, and try and be mindful of fruit intake which is super sugary (especially now DD has discovered raisins!).

I've spent most of my life yo-yo dieting and have a really poor body image and relationship with food, even though I'm currently a size 8. I really don't want my child feeling like some foods are 'bad' or worse, 'banned' and I worry that some parents might take the advice too literally and say things like "no you can't have that banana because it's 160 calories". We've chucked the scales in our house and have banned discussions about 'fat', though we talk about food being tasty, and how it makes us feel more energised, or more comforted and sleepy (on the occasional fish and chip fridays!). Everything is in moderation, but nobody should feel personally 'let down' because they have eaten an extra banana, which is something I still genuinely struggle with aged 30.

What advice would you give to make sure our children have a good, healthy relationship with food, and their bodies?

We watched s log of fruit and my kids snack on fruit throughout the day- I know it’s natural sugar so I’m guessing this is ok, but other than fruit what can I offer them? One is on a gluten free diet too.

So that should say, we eat a lot of fruit!

On the basis that each snack should be no more than 100kcal, roughly how many calories should each meal be? Because my daughter eats so much veg in her meals that they're quite low calorie, but her snacks tend to sit around the 150kcal mark.

Shouldn't we be focusing on sugars, salt and fat, rather than just calories. I don't feel comfortable counting calories with my daughters (who are both a healthy size) as I think watching calories too closely can come a bit obsessive too.

Also, are drinks like smoothies included as snacks?

Does the guideline of 2-3 100 cal snacks a day exclude fruit and vegetables? Surely the latter should not be restricted and kids should be encouraged to choose these above any snacks.