Kids Who Can Easily Detect Sugar Are More Likely to Be Obese

Kids Who Can Easily Detect Sugar Are More Likely to Be Obese, Study Says

A new study published online in Nursing Research links sugar-sensitivity to obesity in children.

By Caitlin St John

Does your kid have a serious sweet tooth? That could mean that she is sugar-sensitive—or able to detect sugar even at low concentrations.

A new study by the Monell Center found that youngsters who can easily taste sugar are actually more likely to be obese, which is not what researchers had originally predicted.

Researchers had first hypothesized that heavier children would be less sensitive to sugar and, therefore, need higher concentrations of sugar to be satisfied—but their assumption was proved wrong.

The study published online in Nursing Research found that "children having more body fat were more sensitive to sugar and were able to detect a sweet taste at lower concentrations of sucrose," said lead author Paule Valery Joseph, PhD, in a press release.

To draw conclusions, researchers measured each child's "sweet taste threshold." In order to determine this, over 200 healthy kids between the ages of 7 and 14 were given two drinks. One cup contained distilled water while the other contained a sugar solution. After consumption, children were asked about the liquids' taste, and the lowest distinguishable sugar concentration was deemed the child's "sweet taste threshold."

"The most sensitive child required the equivalent of only 0.005 teaspoon of sugar dissolved in a cup of water to detect sweetness," according to the press release. "Whereas the least sensitive needed three teaspoons to get the same sensation."

Notably, kids who were most sugar-sensitive also often showed a gene variant that can make them more sensitive to bitter tastes as well.

For organic & all natural snacks to combat the sugary chemical filled snacks try the healthy snacks packed in each month's GREAT Kids Snack Box 

HOLIDAY discount on GREAT Kids Snack Box! Save $10 with coupon code

Happy New Year! Make it a healthy new year and keep your resolution with the GREAT Kids Snack Box! Use coupon code HOLIDAY and get $10 off your snack box. 

Save $10 on your GREAT Kids Snack Box! w/ code HOLIDAY



Give the gift of #healthy snacks to someone in your family. Delivering a box packed full with #organic & #allnatural snacks for families to discover and enjoy! Many of the snacks are #glutenfree and #nonGMO as well. Address the box with a child's name for added excitement when they receive their own snack box in the mail! 

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iamcapturingthemoment.com Final Review of GREAT Kids Snack Box!

GREAT KIDS SNACKS – FINAL REVIEW

12.08.2015 by HEATHER SWARTHOUT // LEAVE A COMMENT

GREAT Kids Snacks is a subscription box company that specializes in healthy snacks that are perfect for your child. Their focus is on Non-GMO, Organic, All Natural, Gluten-free (some) snacks that your child will love. You can purchase subscriptions ranging from one-month to a year. This is also a great gift to a child in your family that needs healthy snacks in their life, especially around Christmas time!

You can read individual reviews on each snack at the links below.

Week One
Week Two
Week Three
Week Four

This is the final over-all box review. If you would like a more in depth review on each company and snacks they provided in this box, please click the links above. You not only get to see these yummy snacks on display but you get to see my adorable for year old showing each one off!

You won’t get a better box than GREAT Kids Snacks if you’re looking for healthy, organic fun. Each day is a new snack for the entire month. I would rather give my daughter a snack out of this box than the ones I find on the shelves at the store. Although you can find these at the store in regular boxes, I would prefer the element of surprise for my daughter since she gets to sample something from each company you see above.

The box I reviewed came with something from each of those companies you see. My daughter was more than ecstatic. She was over the moon enjoyed with each snack she was able to pick out of the box every day and enjoy. If we missed a day, she would just pick two and continue on from there. These are small snack sizes that you can take anywhere with you, and some are even in handy travel packages so they don’t spill everywhere.

GREAT Kids Snacks makes every day even more enjoyable for my daughter. She loves to get a snack every day and loves to show it off for the camera as well. You can see below a small compilation of a few photos from her first week of snacks.

You can purchase the following choices of Subscriptions through GREAT Kids Snacks. I highly recommend buying the box. It’s not only fun for your child, they get a good healthy treat every day!

Healthy Snack Plan – 15 each month: $20.95
Healthy Snack Plan – 30 each month: $39.95
Gluten-Free Snack Plan – 30 each month: $45.95

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A happy snacker surrounded by healthy snacks from the GREAT Kids Snack Box!

That looks like one happy snacker surrounded by some #GreatKidsSnacks! 
#Repost @izabella_tovar with @repostapp.

Let your kids be surrounded by organic & all natural GREAT Kids Snacks - Order HERE

As moms I think we all rely to some extent on pre-packaged snacks to get our kids through snack times, especially on the go! I always feel guilty giving my kids convenient, not so heathy snacks. So I was so excited to come across @greatkidssnacks This is a box subscription that delivers healthy, organic, all-natural, (gluten free upon request) snacks. What I love about it is that I get to sample snacks to see which ones my kids like without buying a whole package of them. They also provide a large variety of snacks! Our box had several different chocolate chip cookie options great for Henry since those are his favorite sweet, as well as freeze dried fruit and food pouches for Anastazia! I love box subscriptions in general because it feels like Christmas getting a box delivered and not knowing what's inside. 😊 I highly reccomend @greatkidssnacks to all moms. It's so nice to be able to have convenient snacks I can keep in the diaper bag but not have to worry that I'm feeding my kids junk all day! 👍🏻 #healthykids #healthysnack#healthysnacks #subscriptionbox#happykids #parenting #parents #momlife#dadlife #snacktime #organic #allnatural#healthy #nomnom

Convenient and fun healthy snacking! GREAT Kids Snack Box - delivering organic & all natural snacks monthly

The GREAT Kids Snack Box is a monthly subscription box that makes healthy snacking ‪#‎CONVENIENT‬ for parents and ‪#‎FUN‬ for kids! The box delivers 30 different kid friendly, ‪#‎organic‬ & ‪#‎allnatural‬ snacks for kiddos to discover and enjoy every month. We like to address each box with the child’s name on it for added excitement, so they can look forward to the arrival of their ‪#‎snackbox‬ in the mail at the start of each month. Having the box addressed to them also gives them ownership of “their box” which in turn means they are more likely to try new and different ‪#‎snacks‬ they choose from their box, rather than mom or dad giving them something.  

Order your GREAT Kids Snack Box today! Click HERE to order

‪#‎GreatKidsSnacks‬ ‪#‎healthykids‬ ‪#‎healthysnack‬ ‪#‎healthy‬ ‪#‎healthysnacks‬‪#‎parenting‬ ‪#‎parents‬ ‪#‎kids‬ ‪#‎snacktime‬ ‪#‎nomnom‬ ‪#‎subscriptionbox‬‪#‎momlife‬ ‪#‎dadlife‬

GREAT Kids Snacks and The Pure Bar Organic, non-GMO, Gluten Free, Vegan Snack Box GIVEAWAY!!!

**GIVEAWAY** Last day to enter to win!!! 

To enter - Follow @purebarveronica & @greatkidssnacks and TAG a FRIEND on Instagram and Facebook for a chance to win this delicious, #organic #nonGMO #glutenfree #vegan #soyfree #healthy snack box. *honey peanut clusters are #vegetarian not vegan 

We'll randomly select a winner tomorrow so check back for our reply! 
No purchase required. Legal residents of U.S. 18+. Void where prohibited #sweepstakes #purebar #giveaway#GREATKidsSnacks #healthysnacks#snackbox #kidssnack

There are no losers in this giveaway. Everyone can enjoy the delicious and nutritious snacks packed in the GREAT Kids Snack Box every month. Order your box today so your family can start discovering new healthy organic and all natural snacks this holiday season. 

*GIVEAWAY* GREAT Kids Snacks & Pure Bar Are Giving Away A Healthy Snack Box

We've teamed up with The Pure Bar to giveaway this box stuffed with all kinds of organic Pure goodness. Pure's snacks are all certified ‪#‎organic‬, ‪#‎nonGMO‬, ‪#‎soyfree‬, ‪#‎glutenfree‬ and ‪#‎vegan‬ - plus they make great treats for school lunches! 

To enter, just follow and like @purebarveronica & @greatkidssnacks on Instagram and Facebook and tag a friend in the comments. 

We'll choose a winner on Thursday, so check back for our reply!

No purchase required. Legal residents of U.S. 18+. Void where prohibited ‪#‎purebar‬ ‪#‎GREATKidsSnacks‬ ‪#‎healthy‬ ‪#‎snackbox‬ ‪#‎snacktime‬ ‪#‎nomnom‬‪#‎healthysnacks‬ ‪#‎giveaway‬ ‪#‎kidssnacks‬ ‪#‎activekids‬ ‪#‎healthykids‬‪#‎schoolsnacks‬ ‪#‎kids‬ ‪#‎parenting‬

*Honey Peanut flavor of Crispy Clusters is not vegan but is ‪#‎vegetarian‬

Order your GREAT Kids Snack Box today to start discovering 30 organic and all natural healthy snacks every month!

Top 10 Reasons Why Parents Should Push Their Kids To Play Team Sports!

Why Parents Should Push Their Kids to Play Team Sports

Mothers, Mary Dell Harrington and Lisa Heffernan from the blog Grown & Flown discuss the importance of pushing kids to play team sports and the effects that it has on the lives currently and in the future. Do you agree with them and their top ten list of reason to get kids involved in team sports? 

One of the great parenting quandaries is when to push our kids and when to back off. This issue surfaces in every aspect of their lives from academics to music lessons to team sports. For each child there is a different answer and for each family a different story, but on the issue of sports, there seem to be a few universal truths.

Sports loom large in our world and while there are many insidious aspects to this, the value of sports, particularly team sports, in a child’s life cannot be overstated.

One of the good things about sports is that many bad things will happen. Games will be lost. Injuries incurred. Your child might be benched, demoted, or not perform up to his/her abilities. Your child might hate his coach and feel that he is incapable or unfair. And all of this will be good. Responding, adapting and dealing with all of this will be the solid foundation upon which his later life will rest.

But kids sometimes want to quit. The practices can get tedious and time-consuming and the work involved can feel like all too much. We have been there. As moms raising four boys and one girl between our families we have been through this many times. All five kids have participated in team sports in middle school and high school, and four of them in college.

All five kids have had rough days or weeks or months.  When they were younger we pushed them to stay with their sports over their protestations, knowing what was to come.  The sport our children selected did not matter, neither did the level of play.  The benefits accrued from just being on a team. We come down hard on the side of team sports and of making our kids stick it out, and here is why:

1. Teenagers and Trouble

Teenagers get into trouble and extra time on their hands doesn’t help. Teens who have practices, games, team dinners and fitness sessions have less time for mischief. A study in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine showed, “A survey of more than 14,000 teenagers found that those who participated in team sports were less likely to use drugs, smoke, have sex, carry weapons or have unhealthy eating habits.”

2. Happier Kids

Teams broaden a kid’s social world and research shows team athletes are happier than kids who do not participate. This study showed that among middle school teens who participated in team sports, “boys were five times more likely, and girls 30 times more likely, to describe their health as fair/poor when they were not playing on a sports team.”

3. Common Goal

Being part of something larger than yourself and working toward a common goal is always good, always. Teams succeed and fail together and the value of group effort is reinforced every day.

4. Sense of Belonging

Beginning in middle school, cliques and mean girls can be social minefields. Boys can splinter apart into groups with well-defined lines. Sports teams cut across social divides pulling together kid’s from disparate groups on campus and increasing the number of kids your child comes to know. Being part of a team gives kids a sense of belonging.

5. Parents on the Sidelines

As kids gets older, they naturally develop their own lives and there will be fewer ways for parents to be involved; the sidelines are not a bad spot. Even teens who seemed determined to shut their parents out, tolerate mom and dad attending their games.

6. Practice and Determination

Teams set goals and thrive through cooperation, discipline and commitment. Parents can lecture all they want, but words only do so much. Sports is one of the best places for kids to learn the importance of practice and determination. In team sports there is the added element of teammates depending on you for participation and performance.

7. Expertise and Mastery

Getting good at something, as good as your kid can be, through perseverance and repetitive hard work is one of life’s lessons. It is hard to teach in the abstract.

8. Good Health

Athletics encourages strong, healthy bodies. Kids who compete know that they are only at their best of they are well fed and well rested. Alcohol and drugs impede performance and every athlete knows that. In sports, strength and speed, rather than skinniness or other distorted body image, is desirable. Team sports help kids better avoid obesity problems even better than activities like running or biking, according to recent research.

9. Future Employment

A new study, conducted by Kevin Kniffin, a behavioral science professor at Cornell University, shows that kids who played team sports in high school make better employees.  They are looked upon more favorably by job interviewers, whether or not the interviewer was an athlete.

10. Memories of Home

Sports teams are the stuff of lifetime memories. The triumphs and defeats of a sporting season stay with us long after the season is over.  Our kids may one day forget who was in their English class or which math teacher they had in 10th grade.  But their team…that they will never forget.

Keep your little athletes healthy and happy with the GREAT Kids Snack Box. Delivering 30 organic & all natural snacks for kids to discover and enjoy each month. 

A Child's Thinking Skills May Be Affected By Exercise & Bodyweight

Weight, Exercise May Affect Children's Thinking Skills

Kids who participate in dance or sports better able to pay attention and solve problems, research suggests

MONDAY, Nov. 2, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- Children's weight and physical activity levels may affect their thinking and learning skills, a new study suggests.

Researchers studied 45 normal-weight children, aged 7 to 11; 24 of them were active and the rest were not. Children were considered active if they took part in organized activities, such as swimming, gymnastics, soccer or dance for more than an hour a week.

The study also included 45 overweight and inactive children.

As expected, active, normal-weight kids had less body fat and a lower resting heart rate than overweight, inactive children. But the researchers also found that normal-weight active children did better on tests of mental skills -- such as planning and paying attention -- than their inactive counterparts.

The findings were published online recently in the journal Pediatric Exercise Science.

While the study found an association between physical activity and mental skills in children, it did not find a cause-and-effect relationship.

"Activity made a difference even among normal-weight kids. That verifies that physical activity makes a difference in brain function," study author Catherine Davis, a clinical health psychologist at the Medical College of Georgia, in Augusta, said in a college news release.

The good news is that children -- with the help of families and schools -- can boost their physical activity levels, she added.

"If they can cut some of the empty calories out of their diet and pick up the pace on physical activity, they may grow into their weight," Davis said.

In addition, Davis pointed out that the study focused on...Continue reading

Let us make healthy snacking convenient and fun for your family. The GREAT Kids Snack Box delivers a box packed with 30 organic & all natural snacks for kids to discover and enjoy every month. 

Flex Your Creativity to Get Kids Eating Fruits & Veggies!

The folks over at Copy-Kids pride themselves on teaching kids how to be healthy and eat fruits and vegetables by watching other kids doing it and copying them. Kids copying other kids being healthy! Here are some ideas that parents can use at home to make healthy eating a little bit more fun. Flex your creativity!

Most people have been raised to believe that there are rules, established guidelines for eating.  Eg. Eat cereal for breakfast, pasta for dinner – not the other way around.  Eat at certain times of day.  (We are the only beings in nature who consult a clock before eating.)  Eat in prescribed places – usually at a table in the kitchen or dining room.

If you are prepared, dear reader, to break out from conventional norms, then you are ready for my #1 tip for getting kids to eat healthy.

1)      Be Flexible!

What does flexibility look like?  It will vary from household to household.  Here is what flexibility looks like in my home:

My 5-year-old took a bath first thing when she woke up today.  I figured out a few years ago that coupling happy bath-time play with a meal was an excellent way to get her to eat more.  First she started with a banana.  Then she asked for a second banana.  Then I set a melamine plate on a low stool next to the tub.  The plate contained red cabbage, cauliflower, celery & a cherry tomato – each in its own compartment, because she doesn’t like things to touch.  And she ate them all.  Yep, veggies for breakfast!

My daughter has never been conditioned that cereal is a breakfast food; we don’t limit our food choices to time of day.  Rigidity says, “Oatmeal for breakfast, spaghetti for dinner.”  Flexibility says the other way around is okay.  It’s okay to embrace flexibility in the service of good nutrition.

2)      Get Creative!

Sometimes a story prompt from you is all that is needed to get your child to eat.   “Bunnies love carrots.  There once was a bunny who ate 100 carrots.  Could you eat 100 carrots?”

Creativity could include arranging a story scene on a plate.  A sun, a house, a happy-face designed from the pieces of the meal.  You can employ child-friendly dishes & utensils.  Candles on a table at mealtimes can make the meal more appealing & pleasant.

Lighten things up… move away from familiar norms of “sit-up-straight, eat-your-food, stop-wiggling, no-talking, chew-with-your-mouth-closed.”  I’m not suggesting that you abandon good manners.  Merely that you make creative efforts to bring joy to the table with optimal nutrition consumption as the prime goal.

How do you employ flexibility & creativity to get your kids to eat healthy?

When you are busy and on the go be sure to get the GREAT Kids Snack Box so you always have healthy snacks on hand. Delivering 30 organic & all natural snacks for your kids to discover and enjoy! 

iamcapturingthemoment.com week 4 review of the GREAT Kids Snack Box! Healthy snack box review from a 4 year old and mom

Heather and her daughter are back at it again, giving their reviews of the snacks in the GREAT Kids Snack Box! Looks like we have a happy little girl and mama yet again. Join along and discover what they think about each snack as she enjoys her healthy snacking experience. A view into the snack box through a mom and 4 year old girl's eyes and taste buds. 

GREAT Kids Snacks has only the best in mind for your child. This is week FOUR of the monthly snack box I received from them. Take a look at week one, two and three. The final week is coming soon and will have a brief snippet of each snack included in the box and what we thought of the entire thing!

DAY 1: DOLE MANDARIN ORANGES

Dole snacks are the best. Great for traveling and the kids love them (so does mommy and daddy!). They’re perfect for a quick pick me up any time of the day, no matter where you are.

Why did she choose this one?: She has had these before and is a little obsessed with them. So of course she chose this one because she knew what they were!

What did she think?: My daughter hasn’t stopped talking about how delicious these were. She loves mandarin oranges and though they were juicy and delicious.

Some Facts about Dole: Dole is focused on high quality products that have good nutritional value. They have many great foods to choose from, and I’m sure you’ve heard of them before! 

Recommended by Mommy?: I’ve bought these just to have in the house for my family. We all eat Dole fruit cups and we love them, so yes, mommy approves 100%!

DAY 2: THE SNEAKY CHEF

Sneaky? I’d say so! With their awesome snacks that have good nutrition that your child will love, that’s pretty sneaky!

Why did she choose this one?: She actually knew that it was “peanut butter” and was excited to get it open.

What did she think?: The Sneaky Chef has done it’s job. She thought for sure it was peanut butter and was all excited to just eat it right out of the package instead of putting it on bread to make a sandwich. She loved it! Delicious and full of “nutty” flavor. What she doesn’t know is that it was made out of golden peas!

Some Facts about The Sneaky Chef: The Sneaky Chef is all about sneaking good healthy nutrition in snacks that children love to eat. Get your child to eat healthy when they think it’s a super sugary snack, when it’s not! They have more than just peanut butter (it’s actually made from golden peas, but they don’t know that unless you tell them!), including spaghetti sauce and others!

Recommended by Mommy?: Absolutely! I would buy a big pack of this to have in the house, especially since I know what it is made of. There is nothing wrong with sneaking healthy food into your child’s meals during the day.

Continue reading and discover more snacks

Order your GREAT Kids Snack Box today and let you kids start discovering and enjoying new snacks every month!