What do you feed your child?
Time is always short and in the end you find yourself buying the usual industrial snacks for your child.
I know what you're thinking!
I don't have time to do anything, I'm always in a rush, let alone if I have time to make a cake or a healthy snack. I would like to but when I come home from work I always have a thousand things to do. And then packaged snacks are also cheap.
I can agree with you that there is less and less time to do things and packaged snacks actually have a very low cost, but let me ask you a question?
What value do you place on your child's health?
I bet you will tell me "My son is the most important thing I have and I cannot quantify a value because for me he is priceless"
Well done, excellent answer but by buying packaged snacks you put their well-being into the background to satisfy your need for "saving" both time and money.
Now I'll explain why I don't like packaged snacks!
SNACK = ADDICTION
Snacks are foods devoid of vital nutrients and are instead rich in sugars and refined flours with acidifying effects, saturated fats often of uncertain origin, flavorings and synthetic additives.
The high presence of sugars and flavorings creates addiction and at the same time creates a poor sense of satiety, so children and teenagers are unlikely to limit themselves to just one portion: many people want one snack after another and it is not uncommon for them to consume them three or four servings a day.
“I was the first, as a child I ate at least 2 kinder fiesta a day, in fact I was already 45 kg at 8 years old”
Some studies have shown that the sugars and additives present in this type of product create a real addiction at a brain level, weaning us from the consumption of genuine and natural foods.
This addiction arises from the pleasure circuits linked to the neurotransmitter DOPAMINE: excess sugars and synthetic additives that enhance flavors interfere with the dopamine D2 receptor in the brain and cause structural brain changes similar to those produced by addiction to some narcotic substances.
YOU MUST READ THE LABELS!
Nowadays all the marketing geniuses of these companies do nothing but fill labels and packages with slogans that aim to enhance the simplicity and genuineness of the ingredients.
But how can you believe that a chocolate sandwich will remain soft for 60 days and not show signs of mold without using chemical additives.
Try it yourself!
Make mini margherita cakes at home using natural ingredients and put them in a plastic bag and see if after 60 days they are the same and have the same flavor as when they were made.
Now you will tell me: "BUT I KNOW THIS TOO!"
So if you know this and you continue to buy these snacks you are a masochist.
When you buy a product and read the label you need to pay attention to three categories of ingredients:
- The additives
- The aromas
- Fats
Let's start with additives
The two most used in snacks are the mono and diglycerides of fatty acids (stabilisers), mostly obtained from poor quality oils or animal waste.
Then there are the aromas
This ingredient does not provide any nutritional principle but serves to enhance certain characteristics and flavors that foods normally lack.
Unfortunately, Italian law allows only the word "flavors" to be indicated on the label without specifying whether they are synthetic or natural aromas.
Only BIO products guarantee the use of natural aromas, i.e. obtained from a vegetable product or from a mix of several natural products.
Finally there are fats
I could write pages and pages about the world of fats but I'll just tell you that the most used ones are low cost and very rich in saturated fats.
The preferred fats are extra virgin olive oil, followed by cold-pressed vegetable oils such as sunflower oil.
Even butter, however demonized, ultimately turns out to be safer than many vegetable oils and margarines obtained through refining or chemically manipulated processes.
The best snack? The fresh one
The healthiest snacks to give to our children are undoubtedly fresh ones, based on simple and organic products such as whole grains, fresh and oily fruit, yogurt, honey, fruit and vegetable juices.
Do you know why there are no snacks from Madreterra?
Because we haven't found it yet. Yes, you understood correctly, we haven't found it yet.
We want to give you the best, this is why we are looking for a manufacturer who can make us a quality product with a "clean label" and rather than marketing a snack like the others we prefer to give up.