Heatlhy Foods and Healthy Snacks

Summer is the Perfect TIme to Enjoy Live Foods

This past year I have had the privilege of editing transcripts of interviews with experts and authors with an interest in healthy eating for a raw foods guru. Over and over again I read the words "live" foods and I think that the term "live" foods only exist because we produce, buy, prepare and eat so many "dead" foods. Summer time is an excellent time to introduce our children to more live foods right off of the vine or tree. Families will hopefully have more time as school ends and sunlight extends, for picnic meals eaten out of doors and without hurry. Live foods are healthy foods and perfect for picnic meals or even for packable snacks for a trip to the park or a hike.

Several years ago, my friend and I were walking around a park while our kids rolled, pedaled and were pushed along. When her children asked for a snack, she whipped out green pepper strips. I was awash with guilt thinking my kids would never accept green pepper strips as a snack. Then I realized, of course they would never eat green pepper strips as a snack because I had never served them as a snack.

The American Academy of Pediatrics confirms what refuse-to-give-up parents already know: It can take up ten exposures for a child to try a new food. With this in mind, I soon offered my son, then two, green peppers strips at the park. He was not impressed with them as food but thought they were handy for drawing in the dirt. It was a start.

Snacks makers are now trying to woo parents looking for healthy snacks with "100 calorie packs" of snacks. I often think of all the extra packaging created and trashed because we've lost our internal sense of portion control. We don't have to read the labels of berries and melons to know they are healthy foods that contain no saturated fats. Fresh fruits and vegetables offer our families vitamins and fiber without the need to count calories. They are good for us and the environment too as they come only in their own compost ready packages.