5 little things you can do to make better food choices with your family

We're excited to be sharing our favorite tips on behalf of our super awesome sponsor UNREAL Candy. Plus? We're excited to give away a $500 gift card to one of you, with a chance to win a $10,000 shopping spree. Seriously.

With the new year here we know we're not the only ones thinking about how make better food choices--not just for us, but for our kids. Of course we know that we're not going do a 180 overnight with our eating habits (boy, we love our Sunday pancakes), but there are some pretty simple changes that can really add up.

Here, just a few of our editors' favorite ideas for eating healthy as a family. We hope they help you too!

 

1. Choose whole grains whenever you can
You probably know this already, but it's amazing how often you actually get a choice in the matter and don't think about it. There's whole pasta on the supermarket shelf, whole grain toast instead of white with your eggs at the coffee shop, whole wheat tortillas instead of white flour ones. Whole grains are higher in fiber and in complex carbohydrates--both of which help you feel fuller longer. And, generally they're delicious! We admit we like food that actually tastes like...food.


2. Switch to Greek yogurt
This is one of the easiest changes to make because it's sooooo good. Greek yogurt is strained a whole lot, removing most of the lactose and sugar. This makes it thick and deliciously tangy, with up to half the sugar of regular yogurt, and double (double!) the protein. Good breakfast choice. You can also swap it in for sour cream--our kids like it with their quesadillas and don't taste the difference at all. The good news is it's now available widely and we don't have to forage for it at gourmet stores like we used to.



3. Skip the soda that comes with your meal.
When we're on the road, we're not above a convenient drive-thru stop with the kids. But it's amazing what a knee-jerk reaction it is to just pick a soda when prompted. We've learned that just because it comes with the meal when you're dining out, doesn't mean you have to consume 20 ounces of high-fructose corn syrup and carbonated water. Choose unsweetened iced tea, club soda, or hey, simply order water. We know it's hard to turn down something that seems "free," but in the end, we'd rather put those calories toward a few fries instead.


4. Call them sweets, not treats
This is one of our favorite tips for talking about foods with our own kids. We don't mind if our kids eat sweets sometimes--whether it's a milkshake, a handful of candy, or a few chocolate chips on their waffles--but we don't want them to think of it as a reward. A treat by definition is just that. A sweet is just another kind of food, one that you don't eat as often as the other stuff. Just changing the language you use is a good way to start getting your kids to make better choices on their own.



5. Read the ingredients!
Oh man, we should all have this drilled into our brain by now, but we're as guilty as anyone of just grabbing items that have big starbursts on the package that say "natural" or "wholesome." Tricky. The only real way to know how "wholesome" something is is to check the ingredient list and see what's in there. It's one of the things we love about UNREAL candies--what you see is what you get. Sugar is just plain cane sugar. Milk is real milk. There's no corn syrup (high-fructose or otherwise), no hydrogenated fats, nothing artificial. And noooo GMO's--although you can't yet find that on most product labeling.

Hey, if you're going to have sweets, might as well be ones you don't have to feel wildly guilty about.