Pizza, cookies, soda, chips—these foods may be on your child’s lunchtime list. Unfortunately, they’re also culprits in a growing health concern: childhood obesity. Schools are working hard to provide healthier lunchtime options. But by packing a lunch for your child, you can make a difference in his or her health now—and into adulthood.
Reinforce Good Habits
Packing a lunch for your child can give you more control over what your child eats. It can also help you reinforce healthy eating habits. A recent study in the journal Preventing Chronic Disease found that adolescents who brought a lunch to school tended to make better food choices overall. Compared with adolescents who never brought lunch from home, the lunch-toters ate more fruits and vegetables, less fast food, and fewer servings of soda, fries, and high-sugar foods.
What’s more, packing a lunch can add nutritional variety to your children’s diet. Your kids won’t be stuck choosing the same unhealthy foods in the lunch line, and you can provide them a taste of their favorites from home. Get your children involved in planning lunches. Brainstorm ideas or take them shopping with you.
Try These Strategies
When planning a healthy lunch for your kids, keep these tips in mind:
Add eye-appeal. Children can be attracted to how foods look and are packaged. Choose bright, colorful foods such as strawberries. Vary the shape and size of usual lunch fare. For instance, use a cookie-cutter on a sandwich or pack mini-bagels.
Go with grain. Select healthy whole-grain bread, tortillas, pitas, or crackers.
Lower the fat. Try low-fat versions of lunchmeat. Tuna packed in water instead of oil is another good choice. Also, use mustard instead of mayonnaise or opt for low-fat or no-fat mayo.
Vary the veggies. Add thinly sliced vegetables to sandwiches. Pack a little bag of carrots or pepper strips. Build a veggie kabob by putting vegetable slices on a skewer or toothpick.
Favor fruit. Pack a banana or slice it onto a peanut butter sandwich. Send kids off with applesauce or a snack bag full of sliced kiwi, raisins, or dried apricots.
Don’t forget dessert. Choose a healthier treat such as vanilla wafers, graham crackers, or a low-fat granola bar.
Sources
Rite aid – “Wellness”
“Child Nutrition.” National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health. www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/childnutrition.html.
“Making the Grade at Lunchtime.” American Dietetic Association.
www.eatright.org/Public/content.aspx?id=6748&terms=lunchtime.
“New School Lunch Guidelines Take Effect.” American Dietetic Association.
www.eatright.org/Public/content.aspx?id=3830&terms=school+lunch.
“Pack a Nutritious School Lunch.” American Dietetic Association.
www.eatright.org/Public/content.aspx?id=3556&terms=school+lunch.
“School Lunch Source and Adolescent Dietary Behavior.” T.A. Hastert and S. Babey. Preventing Chronic Disease: Public Health Research, Practice, and Policy. October 2009, Vol. 6, no. 4, pp.1-9. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19754993.
“Weight Problems in Children.” National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health. www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001999.htm.
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