How to pack a healthy lunch for kids is a skill that all parents need to learn. Do you know what your child is eating for lunch? Do they take a packed lunch or do they purchase lunch from the school canteen? Whatever they have, have you ever considered the nutritional value of what they eat. Children they have no concept of what is a good or bad choice nutritionally until we teach them. They naturally choose what they like rather than what is healthy. Because sugary foods and fried foods are tastier they gravitate toward them without any consideration of whether those foods represent healthy food choices.
If you don’t know how to pack a healthy lunch for kids and supply them with junk food then they learn that it is acceptable to constantly eat unhealthy foods. Of course, in practice, this will lead to health issues. Children must be taught about healthy nutrition and how to make healthy food choices, either through the school or home environment.
It isn’t enough to rely on the school to educate your child about this. You need to be educated about healthy nutrition so you can incorporate the knowledge into family meals and pass those lessons on to your children. After all, children learn more from example than by being told. Discuss what they are eating in school. Explain that while all foods are okay to eat, that they need to balance their food intake in order to supply their body with all the nutrients it requires to function properly. Explain that too many sweet or fatty foods can lead to future weight issues. Help them to see that they can make choices about what they eat. Help them to understand that eating chocolate occasionally isn’t bad but that eating chocolate bars daily may be unwise.
If you want to pack a healthy lunch for kids you need to consider what is included in it! Schools in some countries are banning certain foods from school lunch boxes. No more crisps/chips, chocolate, cake or sweets. If your child’s lunch box contained these items would you know what to replace them with?
Of course, when it comes to how to pack a healthy lunch for kids the biggest problem isn’t what to replace unhealthy food with but getting children to eat what goes in. A sudden change in foods from unhealthy to healthy can be a huge shock. Suddenly they no longer receive the foods they like and must start eating foods that they may be unfamiliar with.
Did you ever watch Jamie Oliver’s ‘School Dinners’ program? When he got the canteen to stop serving junk foods like turkey twizzlers and replace them with healthy foods, an enterprising group of young students mutineed against the whole idea by boycotting the canteen and starting a petition to bring back the junk food. Good for them to demand their rights but sad that they are using it to achieve something that is actually bad for them.
So how can you help them get over this problem? Start by introducing foods into their other meals. Instead of soda try giving children pure fruit juice or water. There are lots of different flavored waters around with no added sugar, buy those and try them out. Many are only 1 or 2 calories for 1 liter bottles. Soda drinks contain so much sugar (at least 5 teaspoons of sugar) and up to 160 calories per can.
Replace white bread with whole-wheat or multi grain bread. If they are fussy about this then try one slice of white and one slice of whole-wheat. Put in a filling that they might enjoy, but be adventurous. Open a tin of tuna and chop a little onion into it. If they don’t like mayonnaise then substitute ketchup to it to bind it together. You could also chop a little tomato or cucumber into this mixture.
Give them chunky vegetables to eat. Tomato, cucumber, carrot sticks, celery etc. Give them a little low fat cream cheese as a dip. Increase their fruit consumption, add a piece of fresh fruit to their lunch box. Or add small packets of dried fruit.
Once you know how to pack a healthy lunch for kids it’s easier to work with school recommendations.
source : weightlosstips4kids
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