What to Buy at Lidl? A Guide to the Best Snacks
The most popular snacks chosen for children at Lidl were:
purees
bars
dried fruits and nuts
cookies, chips
How to Choose the Best Puree?
Enriching Additives - look for purees with additions like flakes, nuts, or yogurt. These provide extra nutrients, contributing to longer-lasting satiety.
Avoid Excess Sweetening - keep in mind that purees naturally contain simple sugars. Choose varieties that aren’t additionally sweetened.
From a Food Technologist and Nutritionist's perspective, I recommend caution when introducing purees into children's diets. Remember, raw fruits and vegetables always surpass purees in terms of nutritional value. Find more information in the full article, here.
Among the available options, I chose a puree that includes flakes in addition to fruits. To make this snack healthier, it's worth giving the child a handful of nuts (a source of good fats) or yogurt (a source of protein) along with the puree.
How to Choose the Best Bar?
When choosing the right bar, focus on a short and understandable ingredient list. Find those containing natural ingredients like dates, flakes, or nuts. Ensure the bar is rich in protein and fiber, but limit the amount of saturated fatty acids.
Avoid those with sugar as the first ingredient. Also, check the calorie count per serving - it's best to choose those under 250 kcal. Pay attention to the sugar and saturated fatty acid content - opt for options with low or none.
Among Lidl’s bars, I found my favorite!
Be Raw - Alesto
It includes only 3 ingredients:
3% dates,
18% cocoa nibs,
9% cocoa powder.
One bar provides 177 kcal, including over 9g of fiber! There is also a coconut flavor option :)
Dried Fruits and Nuts
If you've read my previous articles, you know I recommend looking for dried fruits and nuts that do not contain unnecessary additives. Primarily salt and sugar.
Unfortunately, in the purchases made by a mom at Lidl, all the dried fruits had additives such as sugar, salt, or sulfur dioxide.
I really see no reason to additionally preserve dried fruits since the drying process is fully sufficient. However, we still rarely find dried fruits without additives on store shelves. They're easiest to find in online stores. As for physical supermarkets, I recently recommended some in an article about Auchan, here!
Cookies and Chips
I do not support teaching children that their daily snack can be cookies, pretzels, standard chips, especially when they reach for them on demand. Highly processed products should not be a standard in the diet.
From a practical standpoint, I understand that moms look for quick solutions, which is why I encourage choosing products with good ingredients but also skillfully incorporating them into the diet, treating them as an occasional alternative rather than a daily staple.
Among snacks at Lidl, I chose… chips! Chickpea chips from Sonko!
In terms of ingredients, they are very decent. They are primarily less caloric than standard chips.
* The whole pack contains 244 kcal, almost the same as some bars. And due to the chickpea content, one pack has 6.4g of protein. As a chips alternative, it's quite a good option.
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