Snacking is a part of every American’s life. Children and adults alike tend to eat three meals a day along with two snacks. In our lunches, we often put snacks for our children to ensure that they are not hungry when they are in school. Unfortunately, many parents choose convenience over nutrition. When we have hectic schedules, picky eaters, and children with a sweet tooth, it is much easier to grab a pre-packaged snack, than it is to cook up something healthy.

While many parents do not intentionally give unhealthy snacks to their children we are often misled about what healthy snacks are. Here are some of the most unhealthy kids snacks to avoid:

1. Gummy bears and fruit roll-ups
   These fruit snacks are found in almost every kid’s lunch across America. They are typically known as a great healthy fruit snack because they are made with real fruit or even classified as organic. The packaging may make these snacks appear healthy, but the opposite is true. These snacks are full of sugars, making them one of the most unhealthy snacks for kids. Real fruit has sugar too, but these snacks can triple or quadruple the number of sugars found in a real piece of fruit.
2. Fruit juice boxes
   Fruit juice boxes have incredibly high amounts of hidden sugars in juice boxes. Most juice boxes say that they are made from real fruit so it leads parents and kids to believe they are healthy. This is not true though. Most fruit boxes are filled with sugars and even high fructose corn syrup. Before giving your child a fruit box try looking at the nutrition facts to determine the number of sugars in the box and what percent daily value of sugar it has. There are many different drinks that we can make for our children that do not have this added sugar.
3. Veggie sticks
   Many children are picky eaters and finding vegetables for them to eat can be a challenge. Most kids do not like vegetables and it is almost impossible to get them to eat them. While the snack veggie sticks or veggie chips has the name veggie in them, it does not mean that they can count as a serving of vegetables. These snacks are marketed great because they trick parents into thinking they are giving their children a healthy snack. Instead, these snacks are filled with preservatives, high sodium levels, high-fat levels, and almost no vitamins or minerals that kids need to grow and develop.
4. Lunchables
   One general rule that parents should remember is that if the food is prepackaged, it is likely unhealthy and not the best snack option for our children. Lunchables and other pre-packaged lunches are thought to be healthy because they are marketed as having all four or even five food groups in them. You can often find some with meat, cheese, and grain. The company that makes them consider the fruit drink to have fruit in them, even though this is not true. These lunches are filled with preservatives, sodium, sugar, and fats that are not good for our children.