As parents, we’re always concerned with what our kids are eating. But sometimes it’s hard to really know what we should, and importantly what we should not, be serving our kids for snacks.

Don’t get me wrong—kids need snacks and in our busy worlds, it’s sometimes easier to defer to the easiest solution: the snacks that are at hand or are easy to buy and give to kids.

Let’s start with sugar. What is a gram of sugar? What does that look like? It almost feels as if manufacturers list some ingredients “in code” to make it hard for us to decipher.

So here it is: four grams of sugar equals about one teaspoon. Take a look at some of the snacks you may be giving to your kids. I bet you’ll see that they’re loaded with sugar. But you don’t need to examine every box or wrapper. Instead, we’re going to list a few of the worst sugar offenders for you:

Fruit Snacks. To be clear, we’re not talking about MOON FRUIT which is made with all natural ingredients and contains NO ADDED sugar. No, “fruit snacks” include products like Gushers and Annie’s which are loaded with sugar. Are they really fruit snacks or are they just candy in disguise?

Granola Bars. Yes, we all want to believe that granola bars are healthy snacks for our kids. But take a close look at the ingredients list and you’ll see that once again, this is a product that’s really a candy product in hiding.

Soft Drinks. This one is a no-brainer. Soft drinks are LOADED with sugar. There are so many healthier alternatives to soft drinks. But be careful because some—but not all-- juice products also have quite a bit of sugar in them.

There are many healthy snacks we can serve our kids, knowing that they’ll get the energy they need, the satisfaction of something sweet and crunchy, along with our parental knowledge that we’re serving them something healthy.