Every Tuesday, KidGlue presents “Healthy Pick/Makes Me Sick” where Sarah Matheny takes a popular restaurant’s menu and uncovers the most healthy and least healthy items on the menu. This week: Your Supermarket.
We’ve all done it. You’ve run by the store to pick up a few things, but it’s almost your kids’ lunchtime. You could rush home, unload your groceries, put them away and then make lunch, hoping that your kids don’t eat each other before then, or you could just spare yourself the mess and hassle and grab something for the kids to chow on while you shop. I admit, I used to plan my shopping trips around lunchtime just so I wouldn’t have to make yet another meal because having the kids busy with lunch is just another way to make my shopping trips that much easier. I now realize, though, that just because I wasn’t buying them corndogs out of the deli, that didn’t mean I was making a healthy choice. Here’s where I’ve seen the light.
Makes Me Sick: Oscar Meyer Lunchables Mini Tacos
It took my husband saying, “Isn’t that everything that you are against in a package?” for me to realize that I needed to quit buying these colorful, plastic encased salt licks for my kids. The Mini Tacos have 450 calories and almost half of the sodium your kids need in a day, with 960 milligrams. In my defense, I only ever bought the Turkey and Cheese variety, but their stats aren’t much better. I knew that by giving my kids the cookies inside, I could get them to eat the “healthy” part of the meal. Turns out I should have just let them eat the cookies.
Healthy Pick: Whole wheat bagel/Lowfat cream cheese/Banana
You’ll save your kids a whopping 600 milligrams of sodium if you just go pick up a bagel and reduced fat shmear and a banana from the produce section. If the kids are still clamoring for a cookie, and you want to give them a treat, most supermarket bakeries give them out for free. If you split it between the kids, they’ll still get their sweet, but you’ll feel better about your choice and maybe your kids won’t be retaining water until Christmas.
Comments
No comments.