Are "Balance Bars" okay for kids?

[Jean-Paul]

My kids eat at least one balance bar per day for a snack at some point. Does anybody know if there are any problems with that? It seems okay. Hell, it is a lot better than letting my children eat candy, which they only get on the rarest occassions. Is there any reason I should NOT let my kids eat them?

[fitone]

No, I don't think it will be a problem. Like you said its a little better then a candy bar. And other parents let there kids eat candy bars like its going out of style. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[bryanc]

I guess I'll be a little controversial and say that the primary reason I would be hesitant to feed Balance bars to kids as a snack is that it creates a "dependency" upon them as a snack. Ultimately, (and I'm making an assumption here which may or may not be true), I suspect your kids like the Balance bars because they have the feel of a candy bar (it's long like a candy bar and wrapped like a candy bar, and probably tastes like a candy bar). This, on the one hand, makes it easy to get them to eat; and makes them feel as if they're not missing out on the candy bar experience (which, if you're a child, is the difference between the end of world and whatever "not the end of the world" is). However, in essence, you're teaching them that a Balance bar is OK as a food choice. And since it's OK as a snack, it can be equated to being OK to as much of them as they want (kinda like how people see those packages of baby carrots).

It's up for debate as to how much variety is really necessary in one's diet for "health" and the importance of whole foods, but (and I'm speaking on an extreme edge here) kids who eat meal bars for snacks don't necessarily learn anything more about healthy snack/food choices than the kids who are eating junk because they're not exactly presented with making a choice between the Balance bar and a thing of yoghurt and a banana. Kids who grow up to be adults who make poor food choices make these choices often because they don't know what other choices are available to them AND they'll always pick what's "safe" as opposed to trying something new. Whether your "safe" is a Big Mac or a Balance bar, you're still going to go for the "safe" option.

Sure, the bars are nutritionally balanced and a better altnerative than candy, but similarly, they're highly processed food products and it's somewhat debateable as to exactly how much of a better altnerative they actually might be than candy bars--not to mention that they're not cheap either. A good analogy to this might be the whole "It's better to eat granola bars than candy" debate. Bars can be good alternatives to whole foods when whole foods aren't readily available. In my opinion, they should be used with this intent in mind--as opposed to being one's first choice of food, despite the availability of other alternatives.

I will admit that this "hesitation" is more about teaching children how to make good food choices rather than the pure "health" benefit of the Balance bar, but as a fitness community, we strive teach others how to make these sorts of decisions. If kids are exposed to, "You can have some cottage cheese and some fruit; or this Johnka granola bar and some milk; or half a chicken breast and some carrots." then they grow up thinking that making healthy food choices is normal and that people who don't like cottage cheese are freaks. I mean, how do you think chinese kids eat squid without thinking twice? And it's not even deep fried.

I will disclaim myself at this point and say that I am by no means trying to criticize the way JP is bringing up his children. I'm unmarried, single, and have no children and hence, am blissfully unaware of the complexities of rearing children. This is my own judgemental opinion.

[Kaiser]

I'm married and with young kids and I have to agree with what Bryanc said - it applies to our family anyway. We've tried to feed kids 'healthier' alternatives of stuff, but ultimately, they sense that we, as parents (my wife and I) think that this type of snack is 'OK' and they demand it more and more as a food and less as a snack. When we give them candy, they know it is a snack, and a relatively occasional one at that. Maybe the problem is with the attitude I convey to my kids. So now snacks are, for the most part, fruits and sometimes nuts, that we cut and put in front of them. When we do this, we find they'll eat the apple, pear, etc, whereas when we give it to them whole, we see it being met with resistance. Just our family's experience. As families and kids, vary, so will yours I'm sure. If you can control the kids urges for the Balance bars and it truly serves as a replacement for soemething else that is calorically similar (since they are very calorie heavy), I'd do it. But we can't control that in our family dynamic, so we avoid it.

Bryan, what would a post be without my disagreeing with you on something? [img]smile.gif[/img] Who do you know who is going to overindulge in a bag of baby carrots? Like most other fruits and veggies, consumption is self-limiting: your body will sense that you are full because of all of the fiber and water well before you overindulge, calorically speaking. Your bowels will make sure you don't overindulge on carrots like you would on a bag of chips. [img]redface.gif[/img]

[bryanc]

Hee hee, well, I used the baby carrot example intentionally. A-way back, when Weight Watchers started their point system, baby carrots had a point value of 0. Naturally, these are convenient to carry and sweet and good for you. However, Weight Watchers found that _because_ baby carrots were 0 points (and they're _not_ calorie negative or even calorie neutral), people were consuming mass quantities of baby carrots throughout the day between meals because, well, basically it was a survival tactic for people who were used to grazing on junk throughout the day. The problem was that because they weren't calorically neutral, and Weight Watchers never expected people to consume them en masse, people weren't losing a whole lot of weight. So they made a serving of baby carrots worth 1 point. The uproar was astounding. It turned out that some people (if a serving of baby carrots was worth 1 point) were consuming up to 3/4 of their daily points in baby carrots (I think the average number of points you have in a day is 27-ish) in addition to their alloted points for the day. Weight Watchers has subsequently returned the point value of baby carrots to 0 (or given a rather LARGE quanity as a serving worth 1, I can't remember which), but with the disclaimer that eating lots of low calorie foods still amounts to calories.

To most of us the thought of overindulging on baby carrots seems almost impossible, but here's a group of people who practically substisted on them, possibly because they a) didn't have any other alternatives (i.e. Weight Watchers dictates what is OK to eat and not OK to eat) or b) didn't know how to implement good alternative choices. How they managed it without getting the runs, I'm sure I have no idea.

[Erika]

I love opinions and you guys have brought up some great points. I need to clarify exactly when we are feeding them, as breakfast, not as a snack. I split one for the kids and then add a fruit - this morning was the usual honey yogurt peanut bar plus cantelope. I have been fearful of giving a whole to them since I thought they were hard to digest. I hate all other breakfast options out there... simple carbs, simple carbs, simple carbs. I make pancakes and muffins with protein powder in them but they don't get as much protein that way.

I totally agree about needing to offer a variety and how it can lead to think they are eating a candy bar. I feel like juice does the same thing, our kids think it is a treat like drinking a soda since we rarely offer either. I much prefer to give them an orange or an apple instead of juice.

The concern over a child's diet is mainly for my daughter who won't eat any veggies and only processed chicken or fried fish sticks for meat. Our son is a great eater and won't always eat vitamins or medicine since it tastes like sugar!

Oh, more importantly my daughter has requested a protien bar many times but is only allowed to eat one once a day, rarely a whole one.

Regarding Bryan's disclaimer about not being a parent etc. - I find the view still helpful since sometimes fellow parents will relax a view, compromising good habits and health, simply because they know how much we sometimes need the easy way out.

Thanx for any and all input!
Erika, JP's wife

[Erika]

Kaiser - the presentation of food making a difference is so true! My son doesn't need tricks played on him, he eats really well although he does routinely use ketchup (it has lycopene).

My daughter quit eating cottage cheese until I filled these little health food chips (Skinny Chips) with the cottage cheese. She ate it all up and is again eating cottage cheese. Of course I find the easiest way to get them to eat is to get them really hungry but then it is hard to keep up a distraction to do that.

[Kaiser]

Erika, one of our sons is a great eater - he has always loved veggies and not been a big meat or junk-food eater. He takes what sweets he needs and stores the rest until later (like my wife). Our younger one likes meat and french fries, hates veggies, and will devour all the sweets in the house in one sitting if given the chance (like me ). It's hard to get both of them to eat the same thing at the same time, but we keep trying.

We don't get our kids a lot of protein for breakfast everyday. Some days they get eggs or, like you, waffles or pancakes. But overall, I think they are getting enough protein throughout the day that we don't add more at breakfast (they are young kids and their kidneys don't have the ability to process a lot of protein anyway, from what I have been told; I don't know the validity of that, but it sounds right).

Slow cooked oatmeal with raisins and cinammon is a common breakfast item for us - a slow digesting low GI carb that gives them enough fuel until lunch. Plus both kids really like it.

[bryanc]

But if you're trying to avoid simple carbs, then aren't meal bars not necessarily the best way to go? I'm not sure what the carb source is for Balance bars specifically, though, I may have a wander down to the drug store in the student centre to check it out, but most of those bars seem to rely on simple sugars (for ease of digestability) as their primary carb source.

Kaiser does bring up an interesting point though regarding protein metabolism and children. No one's really sure what the effects of the 1g protein/1 pound body weight or even 1g protein/1 kg body weight (which is the study-supported number) are for children.

[Jean-Paul]

I guess that I would like to see some sort of study on children and their protein requirements. Bryan, I think that you would have better searching prowess where this issue is concerned though. The only other person on the net that rivals your ability to find supporting studies might be "Tony Soprano"... I seem to suck at it though.

I do worry about my little girl's diet, but I frankly don't have the slightest clue how to deal with it. My son eats apples, broccoli, carrots, pastas, most whole meats like chicken or beef. She seems to have a built in protein detector in her nose because she will even act like she will take a bite till it gets under her nose when she will suddenly turn away. Keeping your kids on nutritious food today is difficult though. Not just because of their pickiness, but the lack of choices (EVERYTHING has HFCS or TFA's in it!), and also the lack of time. I don't remember our parent's generation being so frazzled and overworked. Maybe they were, but it doesn't seem like this. I am just praying that my business continues on its recent trend for growth so I can afford for Erika to go part time, which would make raising 3 children MUCH easier. We will take them to a fast food joint about (or less than) once a week, cooking most of our own meals at home, but it really takes a monumental effort on our part to do that. Getting to eat a happy meal is a real treat for my kids. I don't want to avoid that food altogether for fear of my kids becoming what we resist. I am just glad that they don't subsist on it for every meal like so many families these days.

I can't believe that New England family is suing McDonalds, claiming that they fed their kids McDonalds EVERY DAY, their kids are over 300 pounds, and they didn't figure out it was a problem till a money-grubbing lawyer told them so. He probably enticed them with making enough money to buy a plasma screen TV with a satellite system so they could live out the rest of their pathetic wasted sedentary lives living vicariously through some soon to be obscure participant in the endless stream of "reality" shows.

Whew! I feel better, don't you?

Bottom line, I don't feel like they are unhealthy as infrequently as they eat that kind of food, but I do want to know if there are any health risks involved from eating them. For all I know, they may have too much protein in them for a breakfast choice, like Kaiser mentioned. Thanks for all the input so far guys. I am going to do a little searching. See ya back in this thread in one hour!

[bryanc]

The nutrition literature base is really small, and smaller for children. Most studies focus on diets for special needs children, so there isn't a whole lot on protein requirements in children other than the RDA numbers, which may or may not be grounded in any sort of published evidence. The only studies on high protein diets and children that I was able to find had to do with autism. So I guess the renal consequences of high protein in children is a neat little black box no one's really peered into yet. If Tony can find some studies, I'll read 'em though.

[Erika]

Well, I guess I'll quit worrying and just try to get a better variety. No studies means I don't know either. I can't get my daughter up in time to eat something that needs her sitting at a table. (How many parents can complain their 2 1/2 yo likes to sleep in, yes we are lucky). I can't get my ds to eat a cereal of any kind. Then I have to worry what the school is feeding them for their mid-morning snack. I could worry forever!

[Jean-Paul]

Uh, some quick translation for my wife... She is speaking in her forum language.

DS = Dear or darling son
DD = " " daughter
DH = " " husband

[bryanc]

I have a great recipe for "granola" bars (you can make 'em with oatmeal or oats) and my own recipe for "everything" cookies (which can double for breakfast, depending on what you put in them. I use sunflower, flax, pumpkin, sesame seeds, crushed almonds and dried apple chunks or chocolate chips). One cookie is like a meal.Unfortunately, these recipes are all sitting at home.

[Jean-Paul]

Post the recipe please.

[bryanc]

I keep forgetting to bring it from home. I'll try to do it this weekend, since I'll be at home, my laptop will be at home and the recipe is at home.