• Why are healthy snacks especially important for children?
• Ideas for healthy, wholesome snacks for school and work

Snacks, as long as they are healthy and nutritious, are an important part of a proper and balanced diet. Nutritionists believe they should make up around 10-15% of total daily energy intake, so not that little. It's recommended that both schoolchildren and adults eat five meals a day. This means snacking between breakfast, lunch, and dinner, which may seem challenging in today's world where the vast majority of us are on the go. Then it's worth preparing small, simple, and above all, healthy snacks in advance that provide us with nutrients and energy.

Why are healthy snacks especially important for children?

Valuable snacks are needed because they provide the body with additional and necessary nutrients and at the same time prevent overeating during the main meal, which could lead to weight gain, for example. Furthermore, they help maintain stable blood sugar levels, which prevents many lifestyle diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure. Our minds will also appreciate a healthy snack - it helps improve concentration, which is very important both at work and at school. And while we adults are aware that it's not just what we eat that matters, but more importantly what we eat, children see sweets (or possibly...

Children love snacks, but if they could choose for themselves, they would very often choose chocolate bars, gummy bears, candy, and chips. These are unhealthy, high-calorie products, devoid of valuable nutrients and high in sugar, sweeteners, artificial colors, and refined flour. While they may initially provide a quick energy boost, they eventually lead to poor concentration, fatigue, and drowsiness. Children who regularly eat these types of snacks often stop eating healthy meals that contain protein, fiber, and healthy fats, which are essential for proper development.

Ideas for healthy, wholesome snacks for school and work

When we prepare meals at home, especially sweet ones like oatmeal cookies, pancakes, waffles, or chocolate bars, we know 100% what our children and we ourselves are eating. We don't have to worry about poor ingredients, excess sugar, preservatives, colorings, and other fillers. If we want to prepare healthy sweet snacks, we can forget about ready-made chocolate bars, candies, and cookies. Studying and working require a fresh, rested mind, so it's worth eating something during your lunch break that provides an energy boost. Snacks for school and work can be sweet or savory, as long as they are wholesome, healthy, and filling. Nuts and seeds, for example, have a positive effect on concentration and brain function—as a standalone snack or as an ingredient in another dish. Here's a list of simple, delicious, and healthy ideas for a lunch box for work and school.

Sweet snacks:

• homemade breakfast biscuits - you can prepare them on the basis of oats, millet or cornflakes, as well as boiled millet groats,
• Carrot cake with the addition of walnuts - filling with spicy aroma,
• homemade waffles,
• banana pancakes,
• Whole-wheat muffins with fruit
• Whole-grain toast with peanut butter (e.g. almond),
• Dried fruit and nut bars based on nuts, dates, muesli, honey or maple syrup,
• banana bread,

Dry snacks:

• Spinach waffles - simply add 150 g of mixed leaves of fresh or frozen spinach to the traditional waffle batter (you can also make carrot waffles),
• Cheese and vegetable skewers,
• Wraps with vegetables or tortilla rolls, e.g. with salmon and salad,
• Muffins with vegetables, e.g. zucchini, beetroot,
• Zucchini pancakes with carrots,
• Salad with chicken, vegetables and couscous or quinoa,
  

In fact, when choosing snacks for a lunchbox, we are primarily limited by our imagination. Quick and easy spreads made from your favorite ingredients and hummus, which can be spread on whole-grain bread or eaten with sliced ​​vegetables like celery, bell peppers, fresh cucumbers, or carrots, are useful at work. Let's not forget our favorite vegetables: cherry tomatoes, pickled cucumbers, radishes, and sprouts. A good idea for something quick to satisfy a pang of hunger when we have a busy schedule and find it difficult to leave the computer can be a pureed juice made from 100% fruit and vegetables, a shake, a cocktail, or a smoothie. A healthy and filling drink provides us with vitamins. When preparing it, we can combine fruit and vegetables with yogurt or our favorite plant-based milk. To make cocktails more varied and healthier, we can also add:

• Chia seeds,
• fiber,
• Spirulina ,
• Goji berries or other superfoods,
• Bitter cocoa,
• Linseed,
• Coconut shrimp.

Eating a regular, healthy, and balanced diet, avoiding highly processed foods and foods containing artificial additives, has a positive impact on our health, well-being, performance, resistance to disease and stress, and in children, also on their growth and development. It improves memory and concentration and facilitates the acquisition of knowledge. Water is also an important factor in nutrition, which is also largely responsible for various processes that support proper functioning. A varied diet should not be without whole grain products, which are rich in B vitamins, iron, folic acid, and fiber. Another important ingredient is fresh fruit and vegetables, which are an invaluable source of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Let's not forget the healthy fats found in nuts, for example.