Patti Regehr and Larry Magid

School is out and, if you have kids at home, routines are changing. If yours is like most families, you’re no longer having those hurried breakfasts and brown bag lunches. Instead, the kids are spending a bit more time in the house — and at friend’s houses — with nearly 24/7 access to snack foods. There is nothing intrinsically unhealthy about snacking, but too many snacks — and the wrong type of foods — can add up to some serious calories, which can result in putting on pounds and inches between now and back-to-school time.

Also, snack foods tend to be lower in nutritional value than what mom or dad serves for dinner, so even if your kids don’t overeat, they may wind up eating the wrong foods. In theory, summertime should be an active time for kids. They have plenty of time to play, run, swim and engage in sports.

But too many of today’s kids spend their summer in front of the computer or TV or being driven to relatively sedentary social events. The combination of unhealthy eating and lack of exercise is taking a toll on today’s kids and the results are far more serious than weak muscles or a few extra pounds.

A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control predicts that one in three U.S. children born in the year 2000 could contract diabetes during their lifetime. Type 2 diabetes used to be called “adult onset” because it was very rare among children, but it’s now far too common and it’s generally due to childhood obesity. In 1998, about 11 percent of the nation’s 6- to 17-year-olds were overweight compared with about 5 percent in 1970.

The number of children diagnosed with type 2 diabetes has tripled in the past five years, according to research from the Irving, Texasbased VHA Health Foundation.

Diabetes isn’t the only risk. Children who are overweight are more likely to be overweight as adults and run an increased risk of heart disease and other problems. OK, enough scare tactics. Raising kids is hard enough without having me browbeat you into policing everything they eat.

I also caution you to avoid making your kids neurotic about food and health. Fitness is important, but we also don’t want to raise a generation of kids that are so “health conscious” that they fail to enjoy their childhood. It’s also important to make sure that kids — especially teenage girls — eat enough to maintain a healthy weight, which isn’t necessarily as skinny as some of the models and actresses they see on TV. Kids want to be as independent as possible and that includes what they put in their mouths. Sure, you feed them healthy meals, but they’re going to be hungry — or bored — during the day. They’re likely to reach into the refrigerator and grab whatever is handy. And it may not be your refrigerator. They may eat at a friend’s house or at a fast-food restaurant or convenience store. Unless your kids are quite young, you can’t control everything they do, but you can make it easier for your kids to get healthy snacks by keeping your refrigerator and cupboards full of the right stuff while keeping unhealthy foods out of reach. So, what foods should you have on hand?

You’ve probably already thought about fruit and vegetables but be sure you think beyond apples, carrots and celery sticks. Berries, cherries, apricots, and nectarines are also quite healthy.

At times these fruits can be a bit pricey, but they’re usually a bargain compared to the price of packaged snack foods.

In addition to sweets, kids often crave salty foods, especially in the summer. There are two issues with salty foods. One, of course, is that they’re high in sodium. The other is that snack foods that are salty also tend to be high in calories and fat

Still, for most kids, a bit of salt is OK, but consider salty snack foods that are also low in fat, such as baked or partially baked chips or low-fat pretzels.

Nuts are high in calories, but they’re very filling and especially appealing with sweet (yet sugar free) dried fruit. If your kids tend to munch like there’s no tomorrow, consider packaging up an ounce of so of nuts with about an ounce of fruit into plastic bags so they’re less likely to consume too much of this health, but relatively high calorie treat.

Popcorn can be another healthy, though sometimes salty, treat. If you have an air popper, you can make fat-free popcorn but even if you do pop it in oil it’s still relatively low in calories because popcorn is mostly air. Read the labels on microwave popcorn. Some brands are high in hydrogenated fat, which is almost as bad for you as saturated fat.

Granola bars are sometimes high in sugar and fat, but they’re also high in fiber, which is certainly better than most candy bars. The same is true with fruit bars such as Fig Newtons.

Another option is frozen fruit bars. Frozen treats tend to satiate and take a long time to consume and you can get bars that are sweetened with fruit juice rather than sugar. Another trick is to put some seedless grapes in the freezer and feed them to the kids like candy. Also consider making your own shakes in the blender with frozen fruit, low fat milk or yogurt and honey, if needed.

Other healthy snack ideas include breadsticks with hummus, tortilla chips with bean dip, cereal in a bag, toasted whole-wheat breads with peanut or almond butter and fruit, gingersnaps dipped in applesauce and frozen bananas.

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