Building Smart Habits Around Sweets
HandCut Foods strives to provide our customers—especially our youngest diners—with balanced meals, snacks, and beverages that promote healthy habits that will last a lifetime. We use fresh, whole ingredients to create nutritious plates free of preservatives and excessive added sugar.
What about dessert?
We love to punctuate our meals with something sweet, but we suggest focusing the final course on healthy, naturally sweetened treats. At HandCut schools, our standard weekly menus feature two fresh fruit desserts (such as melon wedges or clementines), one cooked fruit dessert (such as roasted pineapple), and two traditional pastry desserts (such as a cookie or brownie). We have found that serving naturally sweetened desserts at the end of most meals both satisfies diners’ tastes and supports nutrition education goals.
“The recommended daily allowance of added sugar is 10% of a person’s caloric intake. Children really shouldn't consume more than 6 teaspoons of added sugar per day. The good news is that naturally occurring sugars, such as those found in fresh fruit and dairy, are healthy and can be just as sweet for a child’s taste buds.”
Research shows...
- Health habits are formed in childhood. People who establish healthy eating patterns at a young age are more likely to maintain nutritional health over the course of their lifetime.
- Prevention is easier than reversal. It is easier and more effective to prevent poor eating habits during early childhood than to reverse obesity later in life.
- Pediatric obesity is still an epidemic in America. However, communities with comprehensive prevention plans have the lowest obesity rates.
- Ages 4–18 consume more added sugar than any other age group. Added sugar can lead to several problems outside of obesity, including type 2 diabetes, hypertension, lethargy, and trouble focusing.
If you are trying to cut back on sugar consumption within your household, pay special attention to the ingredients in your beverages and snacks. Sugar and corn syrup are often "hidden" in packaged products as flavor enhancers and preservatives.
That's why HandCut cooks from scratch—it gives us total control over the ingredients in our food. To learn more about our methods, just ask! Or to get started cooking from scratch at home, check out a HandCut recipe on the blog.
