Back to School: Healthy, Earth-Friendly School Snacks for Children

As parents start preparing to send their kids back to school, marketers start amping up the commercials for kid-friendly snacks. Unfortunately, many of these school snacks are unhealthy. As the childhood obesity epidemic spreads, parents are increasingly looking for healthy, natural snacks for their school-aged children. And don't forget about our earth's environment: Every little bit helps! Even what you choose for your child's school snack can help protect the earth and make the world a greener, cleaner, and more beautiful place.

In this back-to-school guide, we'll show you a few easy ways to incorporate healthy, natural and tasty snacks into your kid's lifestyle. Stick a few of these healthy school snacks in your child's lunchbox, and he'll forget about all those high-sugar, artificially flavored and colored commercial snacks.

What to Look for in a Healthy, Commercially-Prepared Snack:

Many of these commercially-prepared snacks for children boast about being made with "real fruit juices" or something that sounds slightly natural. Most of the time, there's nothing wholesome about that snack! Many of these commercially-manufactured kids' snacks are chock full of sugar, artificial dyes and artificial ingredients, as well as other chemicals and non-natural ingredients.

When looking for a healthy, prepared snack, skip any with the above snack ingredients. Your children are going back to school to get smart, so make their snacks smart, too! Look for snacks that are 100 percent natural, like organic granola bars (watch out, some of those have a lot of sugar, too!) or organic fruit leather from manufacturers such as Stretch Island Fruit Company.

But why buy school snacks for your children? Save yourself some money, and save the environment from all that packaging and pollution produced by shipping those commercially-prepared snacks to the store, and make your own school snacks!

Healthy Homemade Natural and Eco-Friendly (Green) School Snacks for Children:

Of course, the first choice should be fresh, organic fruits and vegetables. Preferably, these should be bought from a local farm to support your local farming industries. This cuts back on the pollution and environmental damage caused by shipping products across the country. Teach your child to appreciate nature by showing him how delicious and healthy fresh fruits and vegetables are. If you're pairing vegetables with a dressing, go with a locally-produced product or buy an all-natural, organic product (Newman's Own brand makes some great natural vegetable dressing).

But how many vegetables and fruits should your child be eating? It's easy to find out, thanks to a website that the U.S. government setup: Fruits & Veggies Matter.

On the website, you'll find helpful tips about incorporating fruits and veggie snacks into your child's school lifestyle. There's also a very helpful snack calculator for you to figure out how many fruits and vegetables your kid should eat in a day.

Besides fruit and vegetable school snacks, there are many homemade baking goods that you can give your children as healthy, natural and eco-friendly (green) school snacks. You'll want recipes that use natural, healthy ingredients like whole-wheat flour, fruits and natural sweeteners like honey (not sugar).

Is Your Child's Back-to-School Snack Green and Healthy?

This back-to-school season, show your child that the smart thing to do is to make wise decisions about school and snacking! Your kid's growing brain needs healthy, natural fuel. And don't forget the environment: Even your school snack decisions can help protect the environment and make the world a greener, more beautiful place.