15 Healthier Packaged Snacks

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14. White Leaf Provisions Apple & Pear Sauces

Yes, getting your kids to eat whole fruit is ideal, but I like White Leaf’s apple sauces (some of which are blended with pears) because they are just purees of organic and biodynamic fruits, which means that the farms are committed to biodynamic farming.

Browse White Leaf

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15. Butterfly Bakery Almond Cookies

These almond cookies are made of spelt flour and sweetened with just maple syrup. In fact, Butterfly Bakery makes a range of maple-sweetened treats, which would be the only cookies my kids were allowed to eat if I had my way! (And honestly, I am fine if they eat a few of these for breakfast since they are more healthful than most pancakes.)

Browse Butterfly Bakery

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What about meat sticks and jerky?

Jerky and meat sticks are a popular, portable snack. There are definitely some appealing versions out there, made from organic and/or grass-feed meats. But—here’s the big but—I don’t recommend this category as a snack because the regular consumption of processed meats, even the organic/natural/nitrate-free/uncured ones, is linked to an increased risk of colorectal cancer. My kids eat a lot of turkey bacon, so they don’t need another source of processed meat in their diet!

Runners Up: Healthy-ish Snacks

We considered adding the following nine brands in our list above, but ultimately decided that they are better in moderation than as a go-to snack.

1. Hail Merry. This brand makes really delicious sweets, but they are more of elevated treats than a regular kids’ snacks.
2. Sea Point Farms Dry Roasted Edamame. In general, soy should be eaten in moderation, but in the grand scheme of snacks, these are okay.
3. Simple Mills. They have a variety of prepared crackers, cookies, bars, pita chips, and more. Aside from the fact that most of the ingredients aren’t organic, I do like the brand…basically what I’d be baking with from scratch if I weren’t too lazy/busy!
4. Barnana Organic Plaintain Crisps. These are good as far as chips go (they are just organic plantains cooked in coconut oil, plus some straightforward seasonings), but I don’t see much nutritional merit in the chips category.
5. FitJoy Pretzels. These are basically just a gluten-free alternative to pretzels—nothing much in terms of nutrition, but very tasty!
6. HappyKid Organic Bars. These are basically fruit/veg plus oat bars. The only somewhat iffy ingredients are vegetable glycerin and natural flavors. They are organic and there’s nothing bad about these bars, but the bars listed above are better.
7. Nelly’s Organic. This is another healthier brand of candy bars–they are delicious, but still candy more than snacks.
8. That’s it Mini Fruit Bars and Organic Apple Crunchables. That’s it makes really simple snacks. The Mini Fruit Bars are a good, kid-sized alternative to fruit snacks and fruit leathers. They’re softer, less dense, and less sweet than many fruit-based snacks. Some of the flavors are just fruit, and some have fruit plus coconut. The Organic Apple Crunchables are crisp apples in single-serve bags. I just wish that this brand were organic!
9. Larabar Minis. These are made of nuts, dates, and fruit (and sometimes a little chocolate) and happen to be really tasty and just the right size. Another option is Larabar Kids Bakes, which are brownie-like, gluten free, and made from simple ingredients like you have at home. The only downside is that nothing is organic.

Sneaky Snacks

There were several brands that you guys asked about that I have to call out as Sneaky Stuff. This doesn’t mean my kids don’t eat these items–they do, and worse stuff, too! It’s just that these have to be seen as treats, not truly nutritious snacks. Here are four examples of brands that are marketed as clean, but aren’t really a health food.

1. Made Good Granola Bars. These are organic but a bit contrived (long list of ingredients, including brown rice derivatives and “vegetable extracts” to boost the nutrition profile; kind of remind me of the Annie’s granola bars). Not bad, necessarily, but not good enough to recommend, especially given other standouts in the snack bar category.
2. Perfect Kids Snack Bar. Aside from the fact that these have to be refrigerated, they are a little more processed than some of the competitors (for example, they add nonfat dry milk powder, rice protein, dried whole egg powder for protein, and some “dried whole food powders” to boost the nutritional profile). I don’t have anything against them per se, just not too keen to add them to the top list, given the competition.
3. Pure Organic Layered Fruit Bars. These fruit leathers are organic but are basically a bunch of fruit concentrates (from purees and juices) and are higher in sugar.
4. ZBars. My kids would live on these if I let them, but those are decidedly sneaky (with lots of sugar, soy, etc.).

Please share below which packaged snacks are your go-tos for kids!

Stay sane,

P.S.: If you’re looking for one place to buy all these snacks, you should consider Thrive Market. It’s a Costco meets Whole Foods meets Amazon model, with hard-to-find healthful foods delivered, for free, at steeply discounted prices.

P.P.S.: As a littler kid, Wolfie wasn’t a huge carrot eater, unless I bought the baby ones in little individual bags. It just goes to show you how much my kids have always loved any and all packaged foods!

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