Sugar: one of the tastiest, most addictive substances that has utterly taken over our food industry. So many foods targeted to children are loaded with it, especially breakfast foods and snacks. In an effort to raise healthier kids, we need to be mindful of how much sugar our family is actually ingesting. Sugar is inflammatory, and too much of it can be a true detriment to our health and well-being. Today I wanted to shed some light on that, and share some lower sugar breakfast and snack options.

My Breakfast Story

For years I began my day with a bowl of Fiber One, bran flakes, and milk, with Splenda on top. Now granted, those cereals are not too terribly high in sugar, but I certainly was not starting my day with any fruits, veggies, protein or healthy fats. And that carb-filled meal would spike my blood sugar, leaving me hungry not long after. So I’d reach for some Cheez-Its or Wheat Thins for a snack, and kept riding that sugar spike roller coaster. Once I cut out gluten, I had to switch up my breakfasts, and began to treat it like a meal that deserved more attention and balance.

Do you ever feed your kids Cheerios or Cinnamon Toast Crunch and then find that they are asking for a snack soon after breakfast? We need a more satiating meal to start the day, in order to avoid that sugar spike. Nutrient-dense foods are the key to avoiding too much sugar in our breakfasts and snacks.

The Goal

The goal is not to be a perfect eater, or go low carb, or take away every tasty food from our kids. I am all about having a sweet treat to celebrate a birthday or holiday! But the amount of sugar we feed our kids adds up quickly, so we must be mindful. The food industry loads so many store-bought items with added sugar, and it is easy for kids to get more than the daily allotment of sugar in just one lunch box. The goal is to lower the amount of sugar we feed ourselves and our kids, and the times that sugar seems to sneak in the most are at breakfast and in snacks. 

Dr. Temple has recently been discussing added sugar in a blog post here, two YouTube videos here and here, and she’s running an “eat less sugar” challenge on Instagram. She is shedding a light on how sugar affects inflammatory issues like eczema.

How Much Sugar Per Day?

“The Rule of 5: A Parent’s Guide to Raising Healthy Kids in an Unhealthy World” goes into greater depth on how sugar affects kids, plus it offers plenty of helpful tips! I love to use it as a reference guide for overall health for my boys.

Four grams of sugar equals one teaspoon, and kids should have less than 25 total grams or 6 teaspoons total of sugar per day. And honestly, those numbers are too generous. Kids two and under should not consume any added sugar. These amounts are based on the American Heart Association recommendations.

What is Added Sugar? What are other names of sugar?

When looking at a nutrition label, you can see the amount of total sugar, and also the amount of added sugar. Added sugar means it did not occur in the product naturally, and often pushes our daily allotment over the edge. It is important to be aware of that amount, and also know other names of sweeteners and sugars. Dr. Temple’s blog post explained this more in-depth. You can see those listed below:

How Can We Adjust Our Tastebuds?

Personally, the more sweet things I eat, the more I feel like I need something sweet. Even putting stevia in my tea or coffee affects my taste for sugar. Recently I was adding that sweetness, and also having a dessert of some kind every night. The more I ate sweets, the more I wanted them. I have cut out added sugar this week, and it has made a big difference. It doesn’t take long to curb our sugar addiction! We’ve been trying to offer fruit after dinner in lieu of chocolate or a dessert. Keeping fruit prepped in the refrigerator makes this easy!

High-In-Sugar Foods That You’d Think Would Be Healthy

Here is a look at some examples of the so-called “healthy” foods’ amounts of added sugar:

• Yogurt
  • Stoneyfield Organic Yo Baby Blueberry Yogurt cup 6 g
  • Happy Baby Organic Yogis yogurt bites 3 g
  • REMEMBER, kids under 2 are not supposed to have any sugar!

• Crackers
  • Wheat Thins 4 g
  • Lance Gluten Free Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers 3 g
  • Schar Gluten Free Honeygrams 6 g
• Granola Bars
  • Z Bar 10 g
• Cereal
  • Nature’s Path Envirokidz Choco Chimps 10 g
  • Rice Krispie’s 4 g
  • Nature’s Path Heritage Flakes 5 g
  • Cascadian Farm Organic Fruitful O’s 11 g
• Milk
  • Almond Breeze Original Almondmilk 7 g
• Juice
  • Simply Balanced Organic Apple Juice 30 g in 8 oz (1 cup)
    • This isn’t added sugar, but that still exceeds the total that kids should have in a day
• Sports Drinks
  • Gatorade Organic Thirst Quencher 29 g
• “healthier” Gummies
  • Annie’s Homegrown Organic Bunny Fruit Snacks 11 g
• Dried Fruit
  • Craisins Original 29 g
• Frozen Waffles
  • Kodiak Cakes Power Waffles Buttermilk & Vanilla 7 g
• Bottled Green Tea
  • Tazo Zen Brewed Green Tea 18 g
• Oatmeal Packs
  • Quaker Instant Oatmeal Apple and Cinnamon 8 g
• Organic Jelly
  • Smuckers Natural Strawberry Fruit Spread, 1 Tbsp 10 g

If your child starts the day with one of these bowls of cereal, has a half of a cup of juice, then has a peanut butter and jelly for lunch, they’re already well past their daily allotment. It is alarming!

Side note, just because something is labeled “natural” or “organic” does not make it healthy.

Lower Sugar Breakfast Ideas

• Yogurt Parfait
  • Kite Hill or Forager unsweetened yogurt, or full-fat plain Greek yogurt
• Chia Pudding
  • with fruit
• Eggs and Avocado
• Breakfast Salad (details below)
• Oatmeal with Fruit, Nuts, and Maple Syrup or Honey
  • Sweetening it yourself is better than getting all of that added sugar
• Roasted Potato Bowl
  • Use leftover roasted white and sweet potatoes from dinner, add a fried egg and some avocado
• Breakfast Tacos (details below)
• Avocado Toast
  • Mash avocado with lime or lemon juice, sea salt, and then top the toast with some hemp seeds
• Banana Nut Butter Toast
  • Top a piece of toast with your choice of nut butter or sun butter, plus slices of banana, a sprinkle of cinnamon, and a pinch of sea salt
• Bacon and Broccoli Frittata (recipe below)
• Gluten Free Granola; serve with yogurt or milk, and fruit (recipe below)
• Apple Cinnamon Oat Pancakes
• Banana Bread
• Green Smoothie
• Chocolate Banana Greens Smoothie
• Almond Flour Banana Muffins (recipe below)
• Applegate No Sugar Added Bacon

And if you really need a special-occasion sweeter breakfast, try homemade cinnamon rolls – we love this recipe – or some paleo donuts! 

Breakfast Salad

Salads do not just have to be for dinner or lunch! We like to prep boiled eggs and Aidell’s Chicken Apple Sausage ahead of time, so that this is easy to create in the mornings. Just place spinach, chopped boiled egg, cooked chicken sausage, avocado, tomato, and hemp seeds in a bowl, and dress with either Trader Joe’s Green Goddess dressing or Tessemae’s Ranch.

Breakfast Taco

Try wrapping up some greens, scrambled egg, avocado, potatoes if desired, and even black beans and salsa, into a tortilla.

Bacon and Broccoli Frittata

• 1 broccoli crown, chopped small and steamed
• 8 eggs
• 3/4 cup dairy free milk
• 3 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled
• salt and pepper
• cooking spray or oil (I like using avocado oil spray)

Grease the dish. Add in the broccoli, then bacon. Whisk together the eggs, milk, salt and pepper, and pour over the broccoli and bacon. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.

Gluten Free Granola

• 5 cups gluten free organic oats
• 3 cups of chopped, raw nuts and/or seeds (I like to use unsweetened coconut, pecans, flax seeds, and sunflower seeds)
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 1/2 cup honey or maple syrup
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

In a large rimmed baking sheet or pan, mix together the oats, nuts, seeds, salt, and cinnamon. Melt the coconut oil and then stir in the honey and vanilla. Drizzle the coconut oil mixture over the oat mixture, and stir well to coat. Bake at 300 degrees in 4, 12 minute increments. Between each 12 minute session, stir well with a heat-proof spatula. Bake for 40-50 minutes total.

Almond Flour Banana Muffins

• 3 very ripe bananas, mashed
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup almond butter
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 Tbsp coconut oil, melted and cooled
• 2 1/2 cups almond flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Stir all of the wet ingredients together, adding the mashed banana last. In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients, then stir those into the wet ingredients. Mix well. Fill a greased or lined muffin pan 3/4 of the way full. Bake at 350 for about 18 minutes.

Lower Sugar Snack Ideas

I have an entire blog post dedicated to healthier snack ideas, but here is a snapshot of the list:

• cucumbers and carrots with individual guacamole packs
• cut-up veggies (peppers, broccoli, radish) with hummus or Tessema’es ranch
• bell pepper nachos
• pickles
• olives
• celery with almond butter and raisins
• Siete chips with mashed avocado mixed with lime juice and salt
• Rx bar or Lara bar
• energy balls with oats, almond butter, honey, flax, chia, coconut
• rice cake with nut butter and fruit on top
• Simple Mills crackers with dairy free cheese
• hard-boiled egg with everything but the bagel seasoning
• popcorn
• egg salad on cucumber slices
• smoked salmon on a cucumber slice
• Chomps or other paleo meat stick
• sweet potato chips
• Barnana plantain chips
• pico de gallo or salsa with chips
• homemade granola with plain, unsweetened yogurt or milk
• plain, unsweetened yogurt with fruit
• roasted chickpeas
• dried fruit and nuts for homemade trail mix
• any fresh fruit
• apples with nut butter
• paleo bread
• homemade muffin

Sugar sneaks in more than we realize, and unfortunately excess sugar can have detrimental health consequences. Though we can have some, we need to be careful not to go overboard. Reducing our families’ sugar consumption can be done! You’ve got this!