Low-Fat Foods for Kids

Marion Nestle, author of "What to Eat," advises parents that "children are supposed to eat the same foods their parents eat." Nestle says that if you serve healthful, low-fat foods, your children will eat them; if you offer your children junk food, they will eat junk food. You can, however, make nutritious, low-fat foods more appetizing for everyone.

Breakfast

Although most cold cereals do have unacceptable levels of sugar and sodium, they are low-fat; the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity notes that "nearly all cereals have less than 1% fat content." Choose a cereal with the lowest level of sugar for the most healthful breakfast and keep it healthful by using low-fat or fat-free milk. Make your own pancakes and waffles with low-fat milk as well. Rely on syrup alone, without butter, to avoid even more calories from fat.

Lunch

Talk to your children about the school lunch menu and discuss the nutritious options, recommends the nonprofit organization Healthy Child on its website. Encourage your children to avoid fried foods and to choose low-fat milk or water to drink. Healthy Child also suggests talking to your children about what to pack in their lunchboxes. It recommends low-fat lunch meats such as turkey instead of bologna, light mayonnaise and baked chips instead of fried ones. Bake your own cookies using applesauce or prune puree in place of all or some of the fat; add plenty of raisins to make up for the reduced fat.

Snacks

Provide cut vegetables with low-fat ranch dressing instead of high-fat chips and cookies. Other low-fat snack choices include fruits such as apple slices, grapes, cherries and watermelon. Jan Warren, author of "Super Snacks," recommends pretzels, low-fat carrot muffins and dried fruit such as apricots, raisins and pears. Marion Nestle cautions parents to treat most yogurts as desserts instead of between-meal snacks because they may be high in sugar and fat.

Dinner

Your children will benefit, along with the rest of the family, when you cut back on fat used in cooking. Invest in nonstick pans to cook lean meats such as chicken or pork on skewers that both children and adults enjoy. Skip the butter in rice or pasta and choose the leanest hamburger you can afford for spaghetti sauce and for other hamburger dishes; your children will never know the difference. Learn the secrets of oven baking to cook foods that you would ordinarily serve fried. Anything from chicken fingers to French fries can be dipped in egg whites and bread crumbs and baked in a 400-degree oven.