A colorful array of healthy summer treats

August 2010
Dr. Susan S. Bartell

The bright, warm days of summer are the perfect time to introduce (or re-introduce) your child – and your entire family – to healthy eating habits. Summer makes healthy eating easier with an array of colorful and tasty summer fruits and veggies that are tempting for even the pickiest of eaters. It’s also a chance to eat picnic style – on the grass or at the beach – increasing your child’s activity level (no TV and more running around).

Summer is also a time for the frozen novelties/ice-cream truck to come around frequently, and for more eating in restaurants. So it’s important to make sure that as part of your summer, you include healthy – and fun – treats. Remember, as parents, we’re role models. If you want your kids to eat healthy, nutritious foods, you get to do the same! Below are a few ideas to get you started. I’m confident that once you get creative, you’ll come up with many of your own as well!

• Ice pops or Italian ices make for a cool treat as does low-fat and no-fat dairy treats
• Watermelon cut into shapes with cookie cutters (this makes a great kid project too!)
• Fruit kebabs of melon balls, berries, pineapple, nectarine chunks on a wooden stick
• Reduced fat peanut butter on whole-grain bread or crackers is a tasty and handy snack you can throw in a bag
• Homemade orange juice pops (but make sure your child drinks lots of water this summer, not juice or sports drinks!)
• Frozen grapes, blueberries or peeled banana chunks
• Summer is a great time to teach kids where their food comes from. Visit a farm! Plant a garden!

---

 

A supporter of Action for Healthy Kids, Susan Bartell is a nationally recognized psychologist and award-winning author who seeks to help people recognize that they can have greater control over their emotional health and physical well-being, and can improve the quality of their lives. She facilitates healthy lifestyle seminars on topics that include teaching parents how to raise children with healthy relationships with food and eating, and how to care for themselves through physical activity and exercise. She is the author of Dr. Susan's Fit and Fun Family Action Plan: 301 Things You Can Do Today.

Dr. Bartell writes a monthly feature for Action for Healthy Kids’ Family Corner.

Archives
Jump start a healthy school year (August 2010)
The Healthiest Summer Vacation (June 2010)
Get Moving (May 2010)
Turn It Off! (April 2010)
A Healthy Breakfast is as Easy as 1-2-3 (March 2010)