healthy snacks.

Thank you guys for the ideas, Keep'em coming!
So far no nut alergies at my boy's school, so I'm in the clear with that...
On another note, can you guys tell me if this is over the top, not obvious enough, or okay for the general public? I know you guys are not quite the general public, but you'll have to do...

If it is labeled “all natural�, it’s good for you!
You can trust the ads when they say “natural�, right? Wrong. Those “natural� foods still contain sugar, high fructose corn syrup and other junk your body cannot properly digest. Heck, arsenic is natural and so is anthrax, but I sure as heck wouldn’t buy any to put on my cereal in the morning.
Let’s look at sugar. A few years ago, my family decided we had enough refined sugar and tried to cut it out of our diet. What we found was that there is sugar in everything. Mustard, catsup, bread, chips, juice. When something bragged it was sugar-free, it usually contained artificial sugar substitutes at worst and fruit juice concentrates at best. The labels are terribly misleading. Even foods marketed towards infants often contain sugar. Those little “fruit� snacks you offer your children? Guess what one of the two main ingredients is? Yep, sugar, followed closely by corn syrup. This is a trick maunfaturers of foods use. If you break up the sugar into two different types, it will not appear as the first ingredient.
As an example: Capri Sun Strawberry Kiwi
Ingredients: water, high fructose corn syrup, apple and pear juice concentrates, citric acid, grape juice concentrate (color), natural flavor
This means that the majority of this stuff is likely made from sugar. If there is %50 water, 30% HFCS and 30% fruit juice concentrates, then the sugar outnumbers the water. And fruit juice concentrates are little better for you than sugar. They are still a very potent from of sweetener.
Contrary to popular belief, fruit juice concentrates, corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup contain not a single beneficial nutrient that fruit or corn do. Nor are they natural. It takes a highly chemical process to suck the pure sugars from the fruit and corn and refine it into syrup. It is interesting what your body does with that syrup, once it gets into your stomach…
See, our bodies use energy in the form of glucose. That means that in order to get energy from our food, our bodies must first change the energy to glucose. Fructose can be converted to glucose with relative ease, but not when the body in inundated with it, as is the case with HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup). HFCS does more than add unused energy (junk calories); it also offsets the production of the bad sort of fatty acids. Your poor liver is trying to use the energy you give it and it gets overloaded and turns it into fatty acids instead. More and more studies are being released on the effects of HFCS. All of them tell of the dangers and destruction this sweetener brings. All of them. Well, okay, there is one organization that says it’s not so bad. Want to guess who that is? It’s the Corn Refiners Organisation. I wonder why they won’t just jump on the bang wagon of bad-mouthing HFCS. Hmmmm….
It’s not like I am saying that refined sugars will definitely kill you, it will actually be more likely you will die from complications of diabetes or heart failure, both directly linked to obesity caused by… SUGAR!! So, okay, maybe I am saying sugar can kill you, but it takes so long you’ll have forgotten all this anyway. So I guess it doesn’t really matter. What really matters is what you are setting our children up for. As our bodies grow from a wee baby to a toddler to a child, they are learning how to process foods. As we pump those bodies full of sugars, we are teaching them how to store energy, because as much as it seems impossible, your child will not use all of the energy in a soda if she drinks one every day. Did you know that your body creates fat cells as needed, but that those cells never go away? This is why losing weight is so hard. Those little cells are all ready to be packed full again at a moments notice. Just lying in wait for you to eat a little ice cream and then go to bed. All that energy in the ice cream has to go somewhere and if you are not using it sweat or pump your heart even, it goes straight to the fat cells. So, back to the kids. When we put high fructose corn syrup and other high sugar sweeteners into our children, we are giving them more energy than they can use. Their little bodies will spend a lot of time working on using that rush of energy and if you peel the kid off the wall too soon, the body will store that energy in the good old fat cells.
Now, another aspect of this is the studies indicating that in absorbing too much sugar early in life can lead to adolescent diabetes. Now, we know that too much sugar will cause your body to go haywire while it searches for a place to put the energy, but if that energy is not being used properly (don’t even get me started on kids and television…) it is setting up the body for insulin resistance. Insulin is the hormone produced in your pancreas that helps to convert glucose to energy. Now, when your pancreas can’t make enough insulin or your body can’t use the insulin you already have, you set the stage for diabetes. And the creepy part is that insulin resistance has no symptoms. You could be a diabetic time bomb and never know it.
So. Is their moment of sugar high really worth the possibility of diabetes? That’s totally up to you. A bit of sugar every now and then, like once or twice a week with exercise is fine, it’s even normal. Just do yourself a favor and stay away from that danged High Fructose Corn Syrup. It really is evil. Evil in a sugary, syrupy form.

Below is a list of good, healthy snacks to bring for the kids at school. Trader Joes offers a great variety of healthy, whole grain foods at very affordable prices.
For cheese, try to stick with mozzarella and cheddar.

Whole grain bagels and cream cheese.
Carrots and whole grain pretzels and hummus
Whole Wheat Wafers (Trader Joes) and cream cheese or cheese slices
Apple and peanut butter
Mixed fresh fruit and cheese
Small muffins made from whole grains and flax seed, but very light on the sugar
Celery with peanut butter and raisens
Tuna or egg salad rolls (made with whole wheat tortillas)
PB and J sandwiches made with whole grain bread cut into bite size squares (or use cookie cutters if you are really into it)
A trail mix made with raisins, dates, walnuts, almonds and soy nuts. Don't tell people there are soy nuts, (and use lots of them) they will just think they are "regular" nuts.
Fruit and cheese
Bran muffins
Yogurt that is not sweetened with sugar or HFCS such as Continental brand or Trader Joes.
Granola bars that do not contain sugar or HFCS
Sesame rice cakes and peanut butter or cream cheese
Banana and peanut butter
Oranges slices and cottage cheese
Fruit smoothies made with unsweetened yogurt and fresh or frozen fruit

Drinks:
Water
Milk
Whole juices (not from concentrate)

Snacks to avoid:
“Fruit� snacks such as those made by “Brachs�
Capri sun
Soda
Donuts
Chips
Hotdogs

"I should care, but I don't"--my lovely 3 year old daughter...