Episode 62: Why Choosing Kids Snacks is Harder than ever

Episode 62: Why Choosing Kids Snacks is Harder than ever

Today, I’m diving into a topic that I know so many of you are grappling with – how to navigate the confusing world of kids’ snacks. Between the supermarket minefield and the misleading marketing, it’s no wonder choosing healthy snacks for fussy eaters feels almost impossible.

In this episode, I break down why it’s so tricky, how food manufacturers are exploiting loopholes, and what you can do to better support your child’s nutrition without feeling overwhelmed or guilty.

If you're ready for some honest truths, a bit of perspective, and practical, achievable tips from your trusted paediatric dietitian, then tune in!

Links
https://nourishwithkarina.com/feedingbabies
https://nourishwithkarina.com/membership

Highlights:

Introduction (00:00.118)
Snack Time Struggles: Why Finding a Healthy Bar They’ll Eat Feels Impossible(02:16.334)
Feeding Kids in a Junk-Filled World: Why It Feels Like a Losing Battle (04:36.942)
From Froot Loops to Food Reform: How Snack Culture Has Spiraled Out of Control (06:55.81)
Feeding the Future: Why Snack Culture Is Failing Our Kids (09:18.766)
Greenwashed and Misled: The Truth About ‘Healthy’ Kids Snacks (11:44.696)
No Added Sugar? Think Again — The Snack Deception Parents Need to Know (14:06.232)
The Feeding Plan That Ends Mealtime Battles for Good (16:22.624)
Guilt, Snacks, and Sneaky Labels: Why Feeding Our Kids Feels So Hard (18:46.88)
Decoding Snack Labels: The Truth Behind ‘Healthy’ Kids’ Food (21:08.866)
How to Read Food Labels Like a Pro: 3 Simple Steps to Healthier Kids’ Snacks (23:19.31)
Raising Healthy Eaters in a Processed Food World: Why Messaging, Moderation & Additives Matter (25:40.302)
Snack Guilt & Pantry Wars: Why Small Changes Matter (and You’re Not Alone) (27:59.756)
Progress Over Perfection: Doing Our Best as Parents in a Processed Food World (30:18.104)

Show notes

READ TRANSCRIPT

Show Notes

If you're ready for some honest truths, a bit of perspective, and practical, achievable tips from your trusted paediatric dietitian, then tune in!

In this episode, I share:

The snack aisle minefield
How marketing tricks are leading parents astray and what to look out for.

Small swaps, big impact
Simple, realistic changes you can make today to improve your child’s diet without the overwhelm.

How processed snacks are fuelling picky eating
Why fast sugars and low-fibre foods are impacting your child’s mood, behaviour, and long-term health.

What to check on food labels
The top three things you need to scan for when picking up a snack

Practical snack solutions for busy mums
Where to find my brand new supermarket snacks guide packed with quick, easy food options for children.

Show Notes:

More about Karina and Nourishing Kids!

📒 Grab Karina’s Time Saving Healthy Supermarket Kids Snacks Guide now for the INTRO offer https://karina-savage.mykajabi.com/offers/GkPU49mj

Karina's popular Nourishing Kids lifts the "food stress" load, giving mums a clear plan to get kids trying new healthy foods and guidance on how to feed their family more easily! Learn more here https://nourishwithkarina.com/nourishingkids

Her Podcast The Easy Feed dives into popular topics - check it out here https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-easy-feed/id1710594874

Karina is a regular on Channel 7, Sunrise. Check out her segments here: https://nourishwithkarina.com/press

For online consultations & personalised support. Click here https://nourishwithkarina.com/nutrition-consultation

Karina's popular Kids Food Reviews are here https://nourishwithkarina.com/food-reviews

If you have a Fussy Eater, register for Karina's online training and learn the 3 Essential Steps required to end fussy eating. https://nourishwithkarina.easywebinar.live/endfussyeating

Introduction (00:00.096)
You're listening to the Easy Feed podcast episode number 62. Why choosing kids' snacks feels so hard these days. Hi there, I'm Karina Savage and with over 20 years experience feeding children, including my own, I've learnt all the secrets that busy mums need to get their children eating better and actually enjoying healthy foods. So a huge welcome to the Easy Feed podcast.

Hello, hello. Welcome back to another episode of the Easy Feed. I'm really happy that you're here. And today we are talking about kids' snacks. And it's a never ending topic, I think in most households, because let's be honest, kids love to snack, especially the foster eaters that don't necessarily fill up at main meals. So it's something that is

at the top of most parents' lists is to find healthy snacks. And whenever I post a real or a post on Instagram about snacks and healthy kids' snacks, it always is a very popular post because as parents, we want those quick, easy ideas for kids' snacks. And we want to know what snacks are good to buy in the supermarket because

There's so much junk in the supermarket these days and it's an absolute minefield. And it's really frustrating from my perspective because I see all the junk and I can decipher what's good and what's not good. And a lot of it is junk. And without realizing, many of us are feeding this to our children unknowingly, but it's supported by the big food companies that all they care about is making a dollar and they don't care that it's just pouring.

rubbish into our kids. So it's a real bugbear of mine and I'm on a mission to spread the word to inform parents about how we can actually decipher these misleading food labels and make better choices for our children. All you have to do is go to the supermarket Musely Bar aisle and stand there and look at the gazillion options of Musely Bars from top to bottom. You name it, there would be,

Snack Time Struggles: Why Finding a Healthy Bar They’ll Eat Feels Impossible(02:16.334)
It feels like hundreds of options. I'm not going to go down there and count them all, but there are so many options, so many more than they used to be. And they are basically all different versions of each other. No, they're not all different versions of each other because some are higher protein, some are higher sugar, some are no sugar, but they are often using highly processed ingredients.

It's so confusing to try and find the right music bar for your family or the one that's going to be healthy, but that your children will also eat because that's another drama is actually getting them to eat it. The number of music bars that I've brought home because they've, in my view, ticked all the boxes, but then my son's like, nah, nah, that's a no go. It's a whole nother battle because you also need them to eat it and not rely on just the sugary music bars that they love. So.

It is a really tricky one. I think it's snacks are right up there in terms of difficulties and stresses that parents have around feeding kids aside from dinner. But snacks are a confusing, frustrating world and kids obviously love. And kids usually love those processed white salty, sugary packet snacks, which are the ones that are usually loaded with salt and really low in fiber and often so highly processed.

fast sugar, so the sugar levels go up and then the sugar levels race down and they end up with this shark tooth-like blood sugar level. And it's not good for behavior, mood, concentration at school, tantrums, you name it. It's a recipe for disaster, but they love it. And the other thing that really annoys me is often these foods are loaded with artificial preservatives, colors, flavors. It's just so much stuff that is pouring into our kids and

It's, I think it's changing, which is good, but I feel like maybe rewind eight years, it was almost like a herd like mentality. Everyone's doing it. Everyone's eating the same junky Oreos and crackers in the playground. And so it's accepted and it's okay. And look, there would definitely be many families, mine included, that would still have packets of food in the lunchbox that aren't necessarily great for them, but it's.

Feeding Kids in a Junk-Filled World: Why It Feels Like a Losing Battle (04:36.942)
They're like we're fighting a losing battle at the moment because food manufacturers are allowed to pour all this crap into our kids' food. Our kids love it and the pesto power is huge. We try our best as parents to feed our kids as best as we can, but sometimes they just want these, what are these crappy chicken flavored, some sort of not Dixie drumstick, they're worse than that, Jumpees or something like that. These are highly processed.

flavored, salty crappy foods that, one of my son's friends must have them. And so he hits me up for them every time we go to this particular shop. And it must be because they sell them jumpies or something like that. yuck, they're gross. But anyway, I let him get them as a treat. He has them once every term maybe. But look, don't get me wrong. We're not.

Angelic with the lunchbox, he would have stuff that's got too much sugar in it or flavors in it, especially if there's been a party and you've got leftover chips or leftover cake and our lunchbox isn't perfect and we shouldn't strive to have the healthy, perfect lunchbox because that's not real life anyway. What we need to do is try to make small tweaks that when done consistently, make a big difference to your child's day, week, month, year life. And.

Bit by bit, are gradually, hopefully, changing their taste buds to accept healthier options. It's a challenge and it really depends on how far along they already are with their taste preferences because sometimes kids are so used to all the junky crappy foods that it's really hard to unwind, especially with their taste preferences, because they're so used to almost addicted to the salt and the sugar.

So it's tricky. It's really tricky. And I feel so sorry for us as parents, me included, because I feel like we're really up against it on so many fronts. We're time poor, where we have a generation of children now that demand of us. And I feel like I get spoken to in a way that I would have never have spoken to my parents. And I just feel like it's a different generation. It's probably my fault.

From Froot Loops to Food Reform: How Snack Culture Has Spiraled Out of Control (06:55.81)
But I feel like this generation is very different in so many ways. the amount of snacks and processed snacks that are available these days compared to when I was a child is 10,000 times. If that's even the right number, I don't know, but it's just astronomically bigger, multiplied many times. Because back then I think there might've been a couple of mizubas to choose from, but really you just snacked on fruit, cereal.

I remember coming home and having things like dim sims. my God, now I would never even dream of it because it's got pork. I probably had leftovers, just more real food than so much of the packet stuff that's available now. Having said that, I do remember every now and again, we had that multicolored popcorn. my gosh. And we were allowed Froot Loops in the school holidays. I do remember that. And I loved Froot Loops in the school holidays.

Aside from that, the everyday foods, which is what counts, right? It's not the treats here and there that matters. It's the everyday foods. That's what's important. And that's what I think has really changed. I just feel like manufacturers are just getting away with so much these days. And thank goodness, finally, there's going to be a reform of our baby, toddler, child foods in the Australian supermarket and how manufacturers can actually

Not so much how, why, what they can put in them and how they label them. Because at the moment, there is no restriction on how much salt and sugar that they can put in our baby and toddler food. They could just pour as much in as they want. And secondly, it's so misleading in terms of when you pick up a label, it's really hard to work out just by looking at it, whether it's healthy or not. I've got a few great stats for you. wanted to share. So the first stat is that 90 % of toddler foods.

fail to meet World Health Organization standards. So that's nine in 10 toddler foods on Australian supermarket shelves fail to meet the World Health Organization's nutrition recommendations. And this is particularly due to high sugar content and inadequate nutrient profiles. Now I was interviewed a couple of times actually on Sunrise Channel 7 about this and it is a big issue. And as I said, as a result of some of this data,

Feeding the Future: Why Snack Culture Is Failing Our Kids (09:18.766)
And these research studies, there is going to be a big review and reform, hopefully, of the ingredients that can go into our children's food and also how it's labeled. And the rules around misleading marketing will hopefully become a lot tighter. So they won't be able to do it. Another stat, snack food consumption increased by 10 % between 2018 and 2019 and

2022 to 2023, Australians consumption of snack foods grew by 10 % per person with notable increases in potato chips, 16 % and chocolate, 10%. So that's Australians, adults and children, but that's quite significant that 10 % is gone up by, and that's just in the last, what, five years, 2018 to 2023, five years. Another statistic, over 40 % of children lack adequate fiber intake.

Data indicates that more than 40 % of Australian children do not meet the recommended daily intake of dietary fiber, which is essential for digestive health and overall wellbeing. So I talk a lot about gut health and microbiome. In fact, I only did an episode on Sunrise two days ago on the microbiome and the importance of feeding our gut bugs with healthy fibers to keep our gut microbiome in good balance, to keep the balance of good and bad bugs.

because that's so crucial for health. But if we're not, if 40 % of our kids aren't getting enough fiber to feed their gut bugs, then their gut is not going to be working to its full potential, which means their health, their brain, none of that's going to be working to its full potential because it's all linked. It's all related. So it's really important that our children are getting enough fiber to fuel their gut bugs so that their gut brain connection is as good as it can be. So that their cholesterol is good as it can be there.

blood sugar level, there's so many effects of good gut health on the rest of our body systemically. It is the center of our systemic health. So important that we're getting enough fiber and our children are getting enough fiber that because of crappy snacks, it's contributing to an inadequate fiber intake. And look, I'm going to talk to you a little bit later about where you can find a really great supermarket snacks guide. I've created it. It's a fantastic starting point. I've got over 80.

Greenwashed and Misled: The Truth About ‘Healthy’ Kids Snacks (11:44.696)
good, healthy supermarket kid snacks for you. And as I said, I'll talk about it bit later, but I've got a great intro offer for you that I'll share with you because it's just good to have those quick and easy grab and go options. You don't have to stand there for 20 minutes, analyzing all of the food labels because that's confusing in itself. Anyway, back to our stats. Less than 7 % of children meet vegetable intake recommendations. That doesn't really surprise me.

But again, it just goes to show how much we're struggling to get good nutrition into our kids. And the more crappy snacks they're having, the less healthy snacks they're having, the less healthy homemade carrot and hummus or celery and peanut butter. Just those basic snacks that we might've had more of when we were growing up. Instead, they're going for just another packet of barbecue shapes. And not to demonize barbecue shapes because everyone can have barbecue shapes, but they just need to fit in and they just need to be in moderation.

Not going into their mouths every day. Another stat, packaged baby and toddler foods can carry up to 20 marketing claims. And this is where there needs to be much tighter restriction around what can be said on food labels. It's called greenwashing where companies can make claims that make food sound healthier than it is. And they can.

really blur the lines between what is actually allowed to be said and what shouldn't be said. But for example, the Rafferty's Gardens, yogurt buds, which are literally worse than white chocolate. They are that high in sugar. On the front of the label, it will say 97 % fruit and yogurt, which is absolute BS. And they can still get away with it because of shonky food.

labeling laws, basically they find the loopholes and they use it. And they have made millions out of this because it seems healthy and to parents seems healthy, but the children are chowing it down and it's literally higher in sugar than milk chocolate. So it's incredible. And that's what I mean by greenwashing. It makes it sound healthier than it is. And they use other, they use pretty.

No Added Sugar? Think Again — The Snack Deception Parents Need to Know (14:06.232)
pictures of gardens and Raffy's gardens, I am going to name a shame because they're actually pretty guilty of making food look healthier than it is. And it's not good. They'll actually concentrate up the sugar and use apple juice concentrate to sweeten, say a fruit bar. And they'll be allowed to say no added sugar, which is absolutely rubbish because they have concentrated up the sugar. That's not just natural peach or pear or sultanas. You've actually concentrated up the sugar.

in fruit juice concentrate, but they're still at the moment currently allowed to say no added sugar. And now the statistic. So in this World Health Organization study, none of the assessed infant and toddler foods met World Health Organization promotional standards. And this again, related to how they promoted the food and the labeling and the marketing on the food. So it just goes to show how deceived we are, especially in Australia, which is really sad and really frustrating.

given we're a first world country. Many ready-made infant foods exceed recommended sugar levels. And this comes back to the fact that they can concentrate up the sugar with apple pastes, fruit paste, fruit juice concentrates, and still say no added sugar. The thing is having too many of these snacks can actually lead to nutrient deficiencies in our children because they are filling up on all these lower nutrition snacks.

And that means that they're actually not getting fiber from an apple or calcium from yogurt or a plant yogurt that's been calcium fortified or calcium and fiber from edamame or baked beans. So we just need to try and strip it back a bit to how it used to be. It's just gone so far the other way. And that's why I think it's just so hard for parents because there's so much deception. There's so many salty, sugary, crunchy kid snacks out there.

And we as parents are time poor. So it's a recipe for disaster because we grab these foods because we know the kids like them. They're marketed as healthy. We think they're healthy, but they're not. And it's a vicious cycle. it's something that we are, it's something that we're all facing as parents, but we need to try to pause, take a step back and just look at what's going into your supermarket cart.

The Feeding Plan That Ends Mealtime Battles for Good (16:22.624)
or supermarket trolley if you're in the supermarket. Okay, I wanna pause just for a second to let you know about something very important. If your child's eating is driving you nuts, it might be time for a new feeding plan. A plan that gets your kids eating well with no battles or bribes at the table. If you're a busy, time poor mum who's tried everything to get her child to eat better, but nothing is working, then listen up. It's not your fault, but there is a new way, light at the end of the tunnel. I've been there.

And I know that there is a new way. The thing is there's no feeding kids rule book, which is exactly why I've used my 23 years experience as a pediatric dietician and 12 years experience as a mother, including my own fasciitis, to create my own method to improve my children's eating habits and nutrition that actually works. I've helped thousands of parents over the past 23 years to improve their children's eating habits and reduce the stress and burden of feeding. The mum guilt is real.

I get it. Creating a healthy feeding plan is the only way to get your child eating healthier and end the food stress and worry for good. The feeding burden is so real. It's so overwhelming. I've felt it. I've lived it. But I want you to know that there is absolutely hope that things will change for you. It did for me and I know that it can for you too. I'm here to stop your food stress, boost your feeding confidence and end the battles for good. I'm here to give you freedom from worry.

frustration, overwhelm at meal times from the battles and the bribes, freedom from it all. Click below on the show notes to take your step towards feeding freedom. All right, let's get back into it. A little bit more attention every six months to change the online order or to change what's going in your trolley could make a big difference to the days and the weeks and the months and your child's taste preferences, your child's fiber intake, your child's intake of food additives and preservatives and

colors in my recent five days to healthier kids challenge that I ran one of the days, day three was all about food additives and colors. And it's just phenomenal how many artificial colors are still allowed in Australia when they're banned in other states. In America, they're banned in nine states of America. There's food warning statements on foods that contain these.

Guilt, Snacks, and Sneaky Labels: Why Feeding Our Kids Feels So Hard (18:46.88)
six artificial colours in the UK, but Australia, it's a free for all. We're still allowed to pour all the rubbish we want into our kids. And the thing is that many of us parents, we're aware that there is a lot of junk that goes into these products for our kids and it makes us feel guilty. And that's so unfair because we want our kids to eat good food, but they love this food. And I know that if we were a bit tougher and stricter and just said no to all of it, you're eating the cat-

the celery and the peanut butter and you're eating the cucumber and cheese sandwiches and you're having popcorn. And if you're strict and you say no to any of the snacks, then, you know, I guess then they're going to have less of those snacks. And look, I was very much like that for probably the first 10 years of my kid's life. But as I get older, it gets harder. And then for many, they see what their friends are having at school and many kids are having a lot of processed foods.

from kindergarten reception year one, year two, and they come home and they're like, I want the packet of Oreos like such and such, or why don't you ever give me, what are those jumpies or joeys, whatever they are. And so as parents, they make you feel guilty for not giving them the crappy foods. You don't want to give them the crappy foods, but then they start refusing the healthy stuff because they want the crappy foods. So it's hard. And you as a parent feel guilty and I certainly feel guilty when another high sugar choc-

Usually bar goes into my son's lunchbox, but I know he loves them and I know we'll eat them, but it's not good. So I'm becoming less inclined to buy them because I know that he'll just go mad for them and he'll not only eat them at school, he'll eat have one after school. And so they all add up and the box just goes really quickly. So it's about really being mindful and intentional with your purchasing behaviors around snacks because.

Once it's in the house, it gets really hard to say no or to moderate and often it will just go really quickly and will just contribute to a higher sugar intake and more fast sugars for our kids. And you might be listening to this podcast and thinking, yeah, Karina, but I don't even know how to work out whether a snack's healthy or not. Because I guess it's, do you start? Do you look at energy or fat? If you were born in the seventies or eighties, you were probably brainwashed with

Decoding Snack Labels: The Truth Behind ‘Healthy’ Kids’ Food (21:08.866)
fat and everything had to be low fat. Whereas nowadays it's not so much about the fat, it is saturated fat, but it's more about the sugar, food additives and colors and preservatives and goodness, what else gets poured into our kids' food? That's so confusing. Where do you start? What do you look at? So I get it if you're frustrated because you don't want your kids to eat rubbish, but you're...

Not really sure what is good and what's not good. And it, it doesn't make it any easier because the packet will go, it's 97 % fruit and yogurt. And then you think it's good. So, you know, as parents, you feel guilty, but it's not your fault because I just feel like we're up against it on so many fronts. So what do you do? So when you're standing in the supermarket or looking at the online order, depending on whether you're doing online shopping or not, I recommend really trying to.

Pay attention to two things, pay attention to the ingredients list and pay attention to the food table. And that's a great place to start. So I'm not saying you need to spend hours doing this, but maybe just spend half an hour once every three or six months, just really having a look.

I mean, look, if you want to cut that time down to three seconds, basically you just need to buy my supermarket snacks guide and you've got all the breakfast cereal options, all the music bars, the crackers, ice creams, and all the other bits and pieces, all the other snacky type foods that are good for your child. So literally that's the quickest and easiest way. And I'll put the link in the show notes. At the moment, I've got a special introductory offer. So click on the link and you'll be able to grab that special introductory offer.

And that's for a limited time. If you're listening to the podcast and it's only been released recently, then grab the introductory offer. And if not, grab it anyway, because it's a highly valuable product and it will literally save you hours of looking at labels and it will save you worry and guilt that your children are eating crappy foods because these snacks are going to be much healthier options for them. So check that link in the show notes.

How to Read Food Labels Like a Pro: 3 Simple Steps to Healthier Kids’ Snacks (23:19.31)
So what I would look for is when I look at the ingredients list, I would look for a short ingredients list, ideally under 10, under five is even better. Many measly bars are like 20, 30 plus ingredients. So the shorter the ingredients list, the better. And ideally it's got real food ingredients in there, nothing that you don't know the name of or that your grandmother wouldn't know the name of. The second thing I would do is I would look at the nutrition table.

Now that nutrition table will have a list of energy, carbohydrate, protein, fat, saturated fat will be in there. And that's the one that you want to keep down a bit lower. Then it will have any other vitamins or minerals that have been added and they won't necessarily list all of them, but they will list some of the main ones. Now you will have the information on those nutrients for the serve size and also per hundred meals or a hundred grams. Now I encourage you to compare products per.

100 mls or 100 grams, because that's the way that you can compare two yogurts or two breakfast cereals in terms of the sugar or the fiber. That's also how I would compare protein or fiber. Now, fiber is a very important one. As I said, 40 % of our kids do not get enough fiber and that is so important for gut health. So I would definitely be looking at fiber per 100 grams and trying to choose the higher fiber option.

When you look at the ingredients list and whole grain cereals, that would typically make it a higher fiber product than something that will say rice or corn at the beginning. So the three things that I would start with is to number one, look at the ingredients list, try and choose products with a shorter ingredients list with real food ingredients. Number two, I would check and compare the sugar per hundred grams. Number three, I would compare the fiber per hundred grams.

Because ultimately, if you're choosing lower sugar and higher fiber choices, that's going to be better for blood sugar level control, better for gut health, better on so many fronts. Look, not all kids snacks have to meet all tick all the boxes because our kids are going to want a Tim Tamer. They are going to want a packet of barbecue shaped, but it's about making it fit within the context of a healthy balance. Intake and making those foods, the sometimes foods, not the

Raising Healthy Eaters in a Processed Food World: Why Messaging, Moderation & Additives Matter (25:40.302)
three or four packets of processed foods every single day. So it's about saying, yes, you can have a packet of Oreos or a barbecue shake, but we're not having them every day. We're going to have some popcorn, perhaps as a better option for the packaged snack. And yeah, you can have some chocolate biscuits sometimes, but again, it's about the frequency. It's about the messaging and how we talk to our children about food and about snacks. And look, we, I go into all of this detail all the time with my members inside Nourishing Kids in our live calls and in my.

tutorials inside Nourishing Kids. So if you really want a deep dive into actually how to talk to kids about food, how to raise healthy, competent eaters and join Nourishing Kids and I'll also pop the link in the show notes too. So you can check out Nourishing Kids and I would gladly welcome you aboard because the more parents that I can support and educate and teach how to nourish their children, we can just grow a healthier future generation quicker. Now food additives, preservatives, flavors, that's a whole other conversation.

but a very important one again. Now, recently I have shared some information, especially inside Nourishing Kids and one of my recent calls, did a masterclass on food additives, preservatives, and I've got all the cheat sheets inside Nourishing Kids on which ones are the worst and which ones should really be avoided, even though they're still allowed in our kids' food, in all of our food really, which ones should be avoided and which ones are still okay.

But food additives and preservatives are another problem. And I think it's something to be really mindful when you do choose a shorter ingredients list, often you do cut out a lot of the food additives, but something else to be mindful of. don't have the scope to go into that today. As I said, joining Nourishing Kids, you'll get all that information about how to choose those healthy choices for your child. But if you want a little starting point, as I said,

Grab that supermarket snacks guide and it will definitely give you a good taste of what you can then get inside nourishing kids. And it will be a good starting point for you. So that link will be in the show notes. That's really designed to be a quick and easy resource for all parents so that together we can fight these big food companies and vote with our purse or wallet or iPhone and say no to purchasing these rubbish food for kids all the time, even though it's marketed as healthy and start saying no to stuff that

Snack Guilt & Pantry Wars: Why Small Changes Matter (and You’re Not Alone) (27:59.756)
No, you think is fruit and yogurt when it's really not. So I'm here to help uncover all of the deceit. And if you've got a particular food you want me to review, then please flick me an email or send me a link on Instagram because I do my Friday food reviews online. And I'm always happy to help out with, you know, particular popular foods that people want me to review. But look again, if you really want a deep dive into reviewing things in your pantry.

All the time, then we do a lot more of that inside nourishing kids as well. We've got a private chat group where people will send me pictures and say, Karina, what do think about this? We'll share new product information. It's really a one-stop shop to support you feeding your child. As I said, the link will be in the show notes, but look, I'll wrap it up there. I wanted to dedicate this episode to.

Making you feel a little less alone around the frustration with feeding kids, because I feel it too. My kids get home and my son, especially, he'll just go to the pantry and you'll just pull out another chocolate muesli bar. And I know that the sugar level is just going up and up and it's really stressful to know that they're just, when you're busy, they're just going to grab another bar. And of course it would be better if you had the time to prepare a healthy snack plate and get out the hummus and the carrot sticks and all that. But sometimes.

You're so busy that you haven't prepared a healthy platter. And so they're just going and grabbing a mullet pack and you just feel so guilty. So please don't feel alone because we're all in this together. But if you can start to leave one poor option on the shelf and replace it with one slightly healthier option, then it's going to make a big difference over the weeks and the months. If you can start to increase the fiber a little, and you can make a healthy snack plate a couple of times a week, it's going to help. It's all going to help.

small changes done consistently will all add up, but it just depends on what's available in terms of your time at the moment. But please don't feel guilty. You're doing the best you can. And if you can make one slight improvement, that's great. And I think you need to be kind to yourself and the fact that your child is still fed, they're being tucked into bed at night, they're warm, they're loved. There's a lot of good things that we're doing for our kids, but snacks are sometimes just a really big bugbear. And if we can make some slightly.

Progress Over Perfection: Doing Our Best as Parents in a Processed Food World (30:18.104)
Healthier changes than great, but at the end of the day, we have to remember that we're doing the best we can and it's work in progress for all of us and me included, myself included. So I'll wrap it up and I will look forward to chatting with you very soon. I hope you have a beautiful week. Bye for now.