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Parenthood

5 Healthy(er) + Delicious Guilt-Free Treats Your Kids Will Love!

March 7, 2023 By Dr. CeCe 7 min read

5 healthy choices

I get it. We all need to have some treats and candy stocked up in our pantry to bribe our children, to break up arguments between siblings, or simply to witness JackJack’s happy feet dance after dinner (that’s my personal favorite). JackJack, JackAttack, Jax, Jaxon – he goes by many names – is our handsome 22-month-old little man. I’m not one to give my kids’ ages in months after they turn one, but he’s older than a year and a half and younger than 2, so I felt like it was the best option here. I digress..

What if we taught our children that ‘better options’ exist? I have trained- yes, trained- our 4 year old to politely decline candy or treats that are offered at school and gently explained to her that “mommy has some better options at home, bug”. Okay, so the word ‘trained’ is a little harsh, but it does take time, patience, and constant explaining for a 4-year-old to understand my madness. I never want her to feel excluded and I also never want her to come off as if she’s too good for the lollipops at school – so it takes some balance. But I do want to teach her that everything she consumes, including candy, isherdecision. It’s a decision that decides the type of fuel she’s feeding her precious body. We all like treats. We all eat them. I’m definitely not saying I ever want to deprive my child of treats, but why not look at the ingredients and choose a ‘better option’?

She’s in pre-school, so of course she doesn’t fully grasp this concept. But she does understand the ‘better options’ part. Every few weeks Ava and I go to Sprouts (a local grocery store) to pick out candy to fill her special candy box. It’s become something that she genuinely looks forward to doing. Knowing it’s full, Ava will come home from school, hand me a lollipop that she was awarded, and ask if we can get a treat from her special candy box instead. Standing tall with a smile on her face, I can see the pride she takes in this small gesture (and the excitement of getting a treat).

She may not completely understand my logic, but the chick gets it.

So what types of treats are in her special candy box, you ask? Or you didn’t, but I’m going to share with you anyways. Keep in mind, these aren’t perfect. They aren’t homemade without any sugar. They are still full of sugar. But my kids like them and they have far better ingredients than other brand names – so it works for me (for now).

1 // Surf Sweets Organic Jelly Beans by Wholesome

These areeverythingfree. I mean gluten free, dairy free, egg free, fish free, peanut free, soy free, and treenut free. I wasn’t kidding. Jelly beans after my own heart, they’re also organic.

Let’s compare nutritional labels between Surf Sweets Jelly Beans and another common brand that shall remain nameless.

I want to reiterate that in no way are the Surf Sweets Jelly Beans perfect – the sugar content still gives me heart palpitations. BUT. Glance back and forth… what do you notice? I’ll tell you a few things that stick out to me:

The rationale behind avoiding artificial food dyes, artificial flavors, and attempting to stick to all organic food items is a talk for another time. My goal here is to create an awareness of other options. The coolest part? A 7 ounce bag of the nameless brand of jelly beans costs $6.49. A 6 ounce bag of the Surf Sweets jelly beans costs $4.29. Yes, it’s a one ounce difference but you see my point.to note, these prices were taken off of the respective manufacturer’s websites

2 // Black Forest Organic Gummy Bears

My kids love chewy things. The issue is, my husband does too. So these rarely make it to the kiddos… I typically find the empty bag stashed in the side door of my husband’s car. Let’s take a look at the ingredients of the Black Forest Organic Gummy Bears and another nameless popular brand.

Time for some bullet points…

There is one minor rant I’d like to go on right now – bare with me, it’ll be worth it. I put an asterisk by “comparable number of ingredients” because it’s important to know that whenever a nutrition label lists “artificial flavors” as part of the ingredients, manufacturers arenotmandated to let us know what those ingredients are or how many of them are included. To give this some perspective…quoting the United States Food & Drug Association (FDA) Code of Federal Regulations, Title 21, Section 101.22:

“The termartificial flavororartificial flavoringmeans any substance, the function of

which is to impart flavor, which isnotderived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable

or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, fish, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products

thereof. Artificial flavor includes the substances listed in 172.515(b) and 182.60” …..

Section 172.51:

“Synthetic flavoring substances and adjuvants may be safely used in food in accordance with the following conditions. (a) They are used in the minimum quantity required to produce their intended effect, and otherwise in accordance with all the principles of good manufacturing practice. (b) They consist of one or more of the following, used alone or in combination with flavoring substances and adjuvantsgenerallyrecognized as safe in food, prior-sanctioned for such use, or regulated by an appropriate section in this part.”

After this statement, the FDA listsover 600 synthetic ingredients that are deemed “generally safe”. That means, in the nameless brand of gummy bears above, any of those 600 chemicals could be included as part of the “artificial flavors” on the label. For those brave enough to scroll through the list, click here.

3 // YumEarth Organic Lollipops

Keeping my prior rant in mind… we’ll quickly look at the differences between the YumEarth lollipops and a very common and unidentified brand.

No artificial food dyes versus4 artificial food dyes

YumEarth Label

Nameless Brand Label

4 // Free2B Dark Chocolate Sunflower Butter Cups

By this point you’re a pro- you already know the simple differences I’m going to point out. But for the sake of consistency, let’s compare the Free2B Dark Chocolate Sunflower Butter Cups to.. well.. you know.

5 // Unreal Dark Chocolate Peanut Gems

I bet you have no idea what I am comparing these to and I’m sure you’re sick of my comparisons by now… but hey, it’s what I’m here for. So here we go.

No artificial thickener/preservative versusdextrin

We’ll go into detail on artificial dyes, preservatives, GMOs, soy, gluten, dairy, and a whole bunch more at a later time. But for now, I hope this opens your eyes to the idea that thereareeasy, affordable, delicious alternatives out there; that ‘better options’ for our secret candy stash do in fact exist.

US Food and Drug Administration. CFR- Code of Federal Regulations Title 21, Volume 3. Last revised: April 1, 2019. Retrieved from https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFRSearch.cfm?fr=101.22&SearchTerm=natural%20flavors

The Discovery Doc – Dr. CeCe Brooks – Atlanta Holistic NP

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