A scene that every parent, or anyone who has happened to be at the playground in the afternoon, after kindergarten and school, but also just like that, has seen: A child approaches his/her father/mother, says he is hungry. Immediately a bag of snacks, one or two, is pulled out of the bag. And the parent even urges the child: “Share with your friends too.”
As a doctor who sees quite a few problems related to childhood obesity, the choice of snack as the obvious food and its becoming a norm and a habit among everyone troubles me greatly. Yes, I am aware that there are parents who make sure to pull out the box of pre-cut vegetables, but even they cannot stand up to their child who goes to that other kid who received the snack and offers them as well.
Despite the high awareness of health issues, slowly and quietly snacks have become a permanent component in the nutrition of children in Israel.
Most of the snacks consumed among children are ultra-processed food, that is, industrial products with a high amount of sugar, salt, saturated fat, and additives. They may supposedly be based on ingredients that also exist in real food – flour, corn, potatoes, and peanuts – but the processing has turned them into appetite stimulants and not filling like real food. Quite a few studies published in leading medical journals have shown a direct link between high consumption of snacks and sweet drinks and an increase in obesity rates, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and even cognitive developmental problems among children.
In Israel, according to Ministry of Health data, about a third of children aged 6–11 suffer from overweight or obesity. At the same time, the rate of children diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, a disease that was once considered a disease only of adults, is steadily rising.
All the more so, when this begins to be a daily habit, the snack ceases to be a “small treat,” but rather a fixed step in the direction of poor nutrition. So, to anyone who now says “What could be so terrible about one snack a day,” it is necessary to understand the meaning of one snack a day.
A child who regularly eats snacks gets empty carbohydrates and processed fat that will cause him to gain weight. Such a child will not want to eat other foods alongside the snack, which are more nutritious and provide him with the nutrients he needs, because the snack satisfied his appetite for that moment. Add to this a lack of physical activity and many screen hours, which today characterize most children starting from kindergarten age, and you get a recipe for children who live less healthily than their parents and many of whom are expected to develop diseases as a result. In case you wondered, this is also true if the child is thin. That is, the fact that he is thin does not mean he is necessarily healthy, and continuous and regular consumption of snacks is bound to create a future problem.
Tools for hunger control and limiting snacks – is it possible?
Like every saying that everything starts at home, here too, parents need to keep a close watch. If before kindergarten or school the child is hungry – make sure there are available cut vegetables, a sandwich from whole wheat bread with avocado, hummus, tahini, omelet, or tuna, natural yogurt, cubes of cheese, a hard-boiled egg, and fresh fruit. It requires a bit of thought and advance preparation – but in the end, it’s good for you and for him.
As parents, we always want the best for our child. It is important to us that our child is happy, full, socially accepted, and content. Just as we make sure he has the diaper that really absorbs, the comfortable mattress for sleep, the nice clothes – so too should it be with his food. Eating snacks may end in problematic eating habits and health problems that will accompany your child for a lifetime.
And yes, I know it is impossible to avoid eating snacks completely, I live among my people, but it is very important – to set boundaries, choose wisely, and understand the price of those moments of convenience and indulgence. Because the snack may be small, but the damage can be big.
Dr. Irit Hochberg is Director of the Endocrinology and Diabetes Unit, Hillel Yaffe Medical Center, and Chairwoman of the Health Promotion Committee, the National Council for Diabetes and Obesity.