Postgame snack smackdown

Being a parent to young kids is tough, especially when it comes to worrying about proper exercise and nutrition.

The best intentions of the most vigilant moms and dads can be foiled by children who ditch healthful lunches, opt for the school’s less-than-wholesome offerings or gorge themselves on cookies, chips and soda in front of the TV at a friend’s house. Even as vending machine fare gets healthier, there are dietary land mines galore.

The athletic field would seem like a haven, a place where young people get much-needed exercise and learn to appreciate the importance of healthful eating. That’s not always the case.

At baseball, softball and soccer games the rotating job of snack provider has moms and dads bringing every kind of food and drink: the good (fruit and water), the bad (homemade cookies and juice drinks) and the ugly (doughnuts and fast-food tacos). It’s usually up to coaches to dictate what parents should bring, but some are more laissez faire than others. And a few parents figure that since their kids are exercising, it doesn’t really matter what they eat.

For others, that lax attitude doesn’t fly.

“I went to one soccer game,” says Marci Freed, “and it was one girl’s birthday. There was a morning birthday snack and then there was the game and then another birthday snack. It was probably some cupcake thing. I was so excited about that, I can’t tell you.”

The Beverly Hills mother of three echoes the sentiments of parents who are thrilled their kids are involved with sports, but lament the fact that after burning off a few hundred calories they put them right back -- and maybe then some.

“Some people bring fruit and water, but usually there’s some kind of sweet like brownies or Rice Krispies bars. Have they really burned enough calories for that?” she says.

Maybe a once-a-week extravagance isn’t heinous enough to get upset over, especially for active kids. But it’s that on top of birthday cake on top of movie treats on top of carpool treats on top of bake sales and cookie drives that have moms and dads worried their children are riding the snack train a little too long. Parents who try to find a happy medium between wheat-free soy bars and Double Stuf Oreos are often thwarted by peer pressure, which manages to rear its ugly head even in adulthood.

Melissa Krantz hit a home run with Go-Gurt yogurt-in-a-tube snacks for her two daughters’ soccer games but, in a bold move, combined it with apples.

“I felt I was being brave,” the West Hollywood mother says about the apples, which went over well with her younger daughter’s teammates, but not so well with the older daughter’s. “Whenever I do bring something like fruit, my husband worries that we’re going to incur the wrath of angry little kids who want sweets. We’ve never had a terrible snack ... some people brought bagels.”

“And M&M;’s!” says a child’s giddy voice in the background.

“I think someone probably did bring M&M;’s, but I’m not sure,” she says.

Freed, whose kids are involved in baseball, soccer, tennis and dance, isn’t fiercely strict about what they eat. She occasionally packs small servings of cookies or even Cheetos into their lunches, but also adds fruit and water. For games she often makes homemade treats such as muffins or scones, but downsizes them into reasonable portions.

“I’m very passionate and very concerned,” she says, “but I can only control so much, and I don’t want to deny them.”

Rebecca Foster says she tries for a balancing act for her kids too, and doesn’t stress out about what her two boys, ages 6 and 8, eat at their baseball and soccer games. Snacks for morning games, says the Newport Beach mom, can be doughnuts or bagels. “Doughnuts are to please the kids and bagels are to make the parents happy,” she says, “so it depends on who you want to impress, who you’re shooting for.”

Of course, not everybody likes doughnuts, such as her husband, John, who has been known to grumble under his breath while standing in line at Krispy Kreme. “But you don’t want to be the bizarre, paranoid mom who brings odd snacks and the kids are ostracized because you bring the [bad] snacks. It’s those two seconds of glory when your son’s friends say, ‘Great snack, Alex!’ ”

For the time-pressed parent, snacks are often acquired on the run, i.e. rushing into Costco at the last minute and grabbing a tub o’ chips. Even snacks that purport to be nourishing and wholesome often aren’t, such as high-sugar, high-fat granola bars that are, in fact, cookies.

Terry Didelot is one soccer coach who does dictate what snacks can be consumed. The French expatriate (which explains a few things) who lives in Los Angeles tells parents at the beginning of the season that no fast food, doughnuts or chips are permitted as after-game snacks, and only water and orange slices are allowed during the game. Parents do comply, he says, but his control pretty much ends there: “My kids [daughters ages 8 and 10] have started softball and last week they got some Pringles or Doritos.” He sighs. “It’s a difficult balance.”

There was one instance when coach Didelot was overruled, reports his wife, Barbara Hearn. To celebrate the end of one season, parents decided to take their kids to McDonald’s. They went to the fast-food restaurant, but while waiting in line the electricity went out.

“We were laughing,” she says, “because we all said it was a sign from God for Terry that we had to go someplace else.”

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Sample offerings

Here are some common kid-friendly snacks typically served at athletic games, with their calorie and fat content:

* Yoplait Go-Gurt yogurt, 2.25 ounces: 80 calories, 2 grams of fat.

* Doritos Nacho Cheesier chips, one 1-ounce serving: 140 calories, 7 grams of fat.

* Pringles chips, one Snack Stack serving, original: 140 calories, 10 grams of fat.

* Kudos milk chocolate granola bars, chocolate chip, one bar: 130 calories, 5 grams of fat.

* Krispy Kreme doughnut, original glazed, one: 200 calories, 12 grams of fat.

* Apple, one medium (approximately one cup of apple slices): 65 calories, 0 grams of fat.

* Minute Maid 100% orange juice, one juice box (200 ml): 100 calories, 0 grams of fat.

* Hi-C Blast fruit punch juice drink, one pouch, (200 ml): 100 calories, 0 grams of fat.