✓ Snacks to take to school and to the office, healthy and practical ideas

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Snacks to take to school

Whether it's a fruit or a jam sandwich, it makes no difference. The important thing is for both adults and children never skip the snack. In fact, mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks help fight obesity, allow you to arrive less hungry at lunchtime and dinner and stimulate greater energy consumption. Green light, therefore, for fruit, yogurt, pizzas and, in moderation, even packaged snacks. But let us remember that the snack should not exceed 5-10% of calories taken throughout the day and that choosing a different snack every day promotes correct and balanced eating habits. Here are some ideas for snacks to take to school, but also in the office.

Nursery snacks

From kindergarten we must try to vary the diet of our children. "You have to get them used to eating different things and preferring fruit," explains the researcher from Crea, Research Center for Food and Nutrition, Laura Gennaro. "The packaged snack is more convenient, but it is not the best choice".

We can therefore start the week with a homemade dessert or a chocolate snack. The next day though we offer our child some fruit. “Let's not assume that he doesn't like her and therefore he won't eat her. We must not tire of proposing it again: the repeated offer makes him want to try new things ».

Other popular snacks could be there dried fruit, rich in nutrients important for growth, and the yogurt, that cannot be missing in the diet of the little ones. We always pay attention to the hidden salt and sugar: «Even in the breakfast cereals there is salt. Parents must learn to read labels without demonizing any food ».

Read also: Healthy snacks for children: 5 recipes

Snack for children aged 6 to 12

During the entire school period of the child, from elementary to middle school, the snack should be chosen according to his lifestyle: if he carries out intense physical activity, during the snack can take 10% of the calories of the day; if, on the other hand, after a snack he starts doing his homework, then it is better not to exceed 5%. He can eat when he goes swimming or dancing bread and jam or a pizza, reaching 270 kilocalories. Better not to exceed 250 kilocalories for more sedentary children. In any case, let us remember not to overdo the quantities: «The big rossetta or the Milanese michetta are exaggerated portions for a snack. Snacks must not make the child get too hungry for lunch or dinner, but they must not be a meal ».

High school snacks

When our kids start high school, it's harder to control what they eat. They have developed tastes and can choose to buy one chocolate snacks at the bar or a snack at the automatic machines. However, there are no wrong snacks. If included in a reasonable way in your daily diet, not even packaged ones are fattening. Tarts or filled sponge cakes contain on average 140-160 calories, that is 7-8% of those consumed during the day (2.000 kcal) by a child.

The perfect snack for teens could be bread and cheese or ham containing an average of 250 kcal, a piece of tart (166 kcal), perhaps homemade, and once a week even a chocolate dessert that is certainly good for the mood.

Healthy snacks for adults

The same rules also apply to adults: never skip the snack, vary and customize it according to your lifestyle. The risk very often for those who work is that of not eating mid-morning and mid-afternoon, ending up exaggerating at lunch and dinner. Nothing could be more wrong: 20% of the calories should be taken at breakfast, 30% at lunch and dinner and 10% during snacks.

Snacks versus large meals lower cholesterol e improve glucose tolerance, stimulate thermogenesis, i.e. a higher energy consumption by the body. They also help maintain a constant level of attention, improving performance at work. In addition to fresh or dried fruit, which must always be present in our diet, an excellent office snack is the cereal bars, the cracker, the yogurt, for an small sandwich stuffed with spreadable cheese or tuna and, in cases of severe stress, dark chocolate.

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