Packing Healthy Lunches for kids

As we adjust from summer fun to back to school it is often too convenient to just throw together lunches for our kids.  I challenge you to try and make healthier choices for your children.  You are establishing their eating habits now.  With the amazing increase in childhood obesity, diabetes and inactivity, eating healthy is becoming even more important.  Here are some healthy, quick alternatives to junk food.

Skip the juice, pack water instead.  A 6 ounce glass of 100 percent fruit juice is the equivalent to one piece of fruit.  However, it contains no fiber and can have more sugar than a can of soda. 

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, fruit juice offers no benefit for infants 6 months old and younger.  Kids ages 1 to 6 should drink no more than 4 to 6 ounces of juice daily.  Children 7 to 18 should have no more than two 6-ounce servings daily.  All children should be encouraged to eat whole fruits.  So skip the juice, pack fruit and zero calorie flavored water instead. 

Include protein, it is an important part of all meals.  A favorite of kids is peanut butter and jelly.  So let’s make it a little healthier by using whole wheat bread and low/no sugar preserves.  When items containing sugar are eaten with protein, the protein slows down the absorption of sugar into the bloodstream, which will leads to fewer blood sugar spikes, which can prevent feeling tired after eating. This will help you child stay more alert after lunch instead of wanting to take a nap.

The best way to convince kids that vegetables are yummy is to let them see you enjoying them.  Try some of those sweet Alaskan carrots and add a small container of low fat dressing to dunk them in.  One of my favorites as a kid was peanut butter in celery sticks.  By the way, French fires dunked in ketchup don’t count as a vegetable, or a fruit!

Read the labels of the food you give your kids (and yourself).  Those “fruit snacks” in fun shapes and colors are full of fruit juice, corn syrup, sugar, dextrose (another name for sugar), and other things that you really don’t want to know about.  The average American eats 175 pounds of sugar per year!  I’m not saying don’t eat sugar.  I’m saying know what you are eating and most likely, you will start eating differently.

The earlier you can introduce healthy eating habits to you kids, the better chance you have of them making it a lifetime habit. If you can't stand vegetables yourself, I have one piece of advice - get over it. If you want to live long enough to see your kids graduate from high school, college, get married and get to know your grandkids, you'd better eat your vegetables!