According to the American Heart Association the average teen consumes about 34 teaspoons of sugar…or about 500 calories…in a typical day. It’s so easy to reach for snacks loaded with sugar and fat and empty when it comes to nutrition. With just a little planning, you can feed them well and feel good about it.

On the podcast this week, Margit Ragland, Health Director at Family Circle magazine joins me to share simple strategies for your kids’ snacks.

Try these simple strategies from Family Circle’s July issue:

1. Offer smart snacks. Choose options that override cravings for sweets such as peanut butter or almond butter and whole grain crackers or whole wheat bread. Try fun, prepacked freeze-dried fruit, trail mix or squeezable applesauce.
2. Focus on fruit. Fruit contains natural sugar or fructose plus a load of vitamins, minerals and fiber. Summer is peak season for a lot of fresh fruit. Serve it with frozen yogurt or make parfaits with granola, fruit such as blueberries and your favorite yogurt. I like to use Greek yogurt and make parfaits for snacks and breakfast.
3. Rethink drinks. Soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages are major culprits in over-the-top sugar consumption. Try mixing juice with sparkling water or seltzer, unsweetened tea, or try the lower-sugar fruit-juice-blend products. Don’t forget milk.

What simple strategies work for you? Tell me.

The Nutrition Facts label is very confusing when it comes to figuring out sugar intake. I hope that changes with the label update. For now, your simple strategy is to do the math so you know the amount of sugar in a product.

Determine calories from sugar: grams of sugar in a serving x 4 (4 calories/gram) = sugar calories

Teaspoons of sugar: grams of sugar per serving divided by 4 = teaspoons of sugar per serving

Remember that currently the Nutrition Facts label doesn’t separate out naturally occurring sugars such as fructose or lactose from the added sugars. You must go one step further and look at the ingredient label to see what sugars have been added.

In your body, sucrose which is sugar, molasses, honey, raw sugar, high fructose corn syrup or maple syrup are all sugars or sweeteners and the body doesn’t differentiate between them regardless of what the Internet scares tell you.

Each month Margit shares a recipe from the Family Circle kitchens and this month it’s a Berrylicious Shake. It’s quick and includes fresh blueberries which are in season now.

Listen to this week’s podcast