Healthy Packed lunches

Another school year is beginning. For parents who will be packing their children's lunch, it's time to prepare a tasty balanced meal that provides key nutrients, but is still fun to eat.

Making good packed lunches is a challenging task for most parents, all the more so for parents of kids who suffer from food allergies.
Here is some info about balanced meals and some ideas for packed lunches.
Choose foods that are easy for your children to eat:
• Children with loose or missing teeth have difficulty with some foods
• Children with their little mouths and tiny hands may have difficulty with large foods
• Children want to finish eating quickly so that they can play
• Some foods are messy to eat
What makes a lunch healthy?
• Whole grains, fruits and vegetables (preferably one of each), calcium and lean protein are the components of a healthy lunch.
• Healthy food is fresh and unprocessed if possible. Nature made and not factory made.
Ingredients to avoid:
• High-fructose corn syrup
• Partially hydrogenated oils
• Trans fats
• Nitrite (an additive often used in lunch meats that becomes a carcinogen in our bodies).
• Artificial sweeteners (often found in products marked “light” or “sugar-free,” or you may see aspartame,  sucralose or saccharin in the ingredients list).
• Remember-Always check the labels, use the decoder to find out what additives shouldn’t be in your child’s food.
Not all lunches are created equally
Kids compare lunches. Most of them don’t want to be different. So from time to time they can have chips like everyone else. But-
Make sure that the chips are baked and check labels for Trans-fats (typically listed as “partially hydrogenated vegetable oils”).
Instead of white flour high in sugar biscuit, pack some nice healthy biscuits.
Get kids involved
If parents let their children help prepare or shop for foods they like, they are more likely to eat better.
Remember
Wash all fruit and vegetables thoroughly (even if labeled “pre-washed”) before cutting them or placing them into your child's lunch bag.
• Do not reuse perishable foods (meat, fish, and poultry) that come home uneaten from your child’s lunch.
• Keep lunches in the fridge until your child is leaving for school.
• Use an insulated lunch bag with a small ice pack for foods that need to stay cool. Put foods that need to stay hot in a thermos. A thermos is also good for Smoothies.
• Teach your kid to drink plenty of water during the day.

Here’s a list of healthy lunch foods. Mix and match to see what combinations you can come up with. Share the list with your children and ask them to choose which foods they’d like to take to school. Reduce your work load by encouraging older children to pack their own lunches. Make sure you have plenty of choices on hand for them to choose from each day.

click on chart to enlage