Thanksgiving Snacks Kids Will Crave Their Whole Lives

In the United States, November is a month of celebration and change. Sundays are filled with football. Plans for Thanksgiving preoccupy our minds. In Florida, we look forward to cooler temperatures. Break out the boots and sweaters!

In the spirit of these two themes (celebration and change), we’re offering a few dead-simple, good-for-you food switcheroos to help you celebrate!

Thanksgiving Snacks Set the Stage

When it comes to ingraining good habits early on, there’s hardly a better time than Thanksgiving!

After all, you’ve got a captive audience, your kids will be starving by the time they get to Grandma’s, and most times, they even have their own table!

Why not use this opportunity to slip in some healthy snacks and see what happens? Here are two super easy ideas to turn your kids onto healthy snacks:

Fresh fruit

You wouldn’t believe how quickly kids devour fruit when it’s all cut up into bitesized pieces.

For parents everywhere, half the struggle of getting kids to eat more fruit is overcoming the labor of all the cutting and peeling. If you find yourself in that boat, swing by the supermarket and pick up a fruit platter. Then watch it disappear at the kid’s table!

Thanksgiving doubles as game day for football fans, and with the family gathering around the TV before and after the meal, snacks are going to be in high demand.

Dips

Moms, dads, and kids all love feasting on de rigueur snacks like chips with ranch dip -- but there are so many substitutes that even the staunchest fans of creamy ranch will enjoy. Hummus, tzatziki, baba ghanoush, guacamole, salsa, and nut butters will all be received well, so try them on for size.

There are also a host of healthier chip options out there to keep many chip fans happy. Bean chips, taro chips, you name it – it’s all available. Even seaweed, which is so good for teeth and bones, might win a few folks over. Don’t forget Grandma’s favorite: fresh carrots and celery! Kids will love the crunch, and you’ll be providing their teeth with self-cleaning fiber that’ll keep ‘em healthy for many years to come.

Festive snacking doesn’t have to be a guilty indulgence in November, or any other time of the year. Getting your kids to snack healthy this month can help establish a great, healthy habit to last them a lifetime!

November is also National Diabetes Month. For more great information, please visit: https://www.hsph. harvard.edu/nutritionsource/disease-prevention/ diabetes-prevention/preventing-diabetes-full-story/

We wish you and your family a very Happy Thanksgiving!