The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention state that healthy eating includes getting your nutrients while staying within your calorie needs to avoid becoming overweight. However, if your children are picky eaters, you might worry that they are not eating enough. If that is the case, you can offer them high calorie foods that have plenty of nutrients.
Peanut Butter Sandwich
A peanut butter sandwich can be a healthy high calorie food for children. KidsHealth.org offers a recipe for a peanut butter sandwich with banana slices and cereal flakes on whole wheat bread. This sandwich has 357 calories, 14g protein, 15g unsaturated fat and 7g dietary fiber. You can vary the sandwich while keeping it high in calories and nutrients by making easy substitutions or additions. You could use mixed whole grain bread instead of whole wheat bread, almond butter instead of peanut butter, or apple slices or berries instead of bananas. You could add raisins or other dried fruit to the sandwich to increase the calories, vitamins and fiber content.
Snack Mix
A snack mix can be a healthy high calorie food for children. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, foods with low water content tend to be high in calories. Dried fruit such as raisins or dried peaches are high in calories, fiber and potassium. You can try adding nuts and seeds to the mix. Most types such as peanuts, cashews, almonds and sunflower seeds have nearly 200 calories per ounce, and they provide polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats, dietary fiber and protein. You can also add fortified or enriched whole grain dry cereal to the snack mix for extra iron and B vitamins. Granola is more calorie-dense than most other kinds of cold breakfast cereal, and oats are a good source of soluble fiber.
Spaghetti And Meatballs
Spaghetti and meatballs can be a healthy high calorie food for children. Grains, meat and Parmesan cheese topping are calorie dense foods. Whole grain pasta and tomatoes and other vegetables that you might use for the sauce are rich in nutrients, and KidsHealth.org states that children should eat these foods frequently. You can increase the calories by making the tomato sauce with olive oil, which provides heart healthy monounsaturated fat. Your children can get additional healthy fats if you make the dish with whole grain pasta that has flax seed with Omega-3 fatty acids. You can reduce the cholesterol and saturated fat in the meal by using extra-lean ground beef, ground turkey or a vegetarian meat substitute such as tofu crumbles.
References
- KidsHealth.org: A Vegetarian Recipe: Peanut Butter And Banana Sandwich
- United States Department of Health And Human Services: Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2005
- KidsHealth.org: Go, Slow And Whoa: A Kid's Guide to Eating Right
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Eat More, Weigh Less?
- KidsHealth.org: Simple Snack Mix
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