What can I pack for my kids’ lunch?

Times Contributor    

 

“What can I give to my child for lunch? Sandwiches are boring. What else can I pack for them?”  

Greta Kubis, registered dietitian with Strathmore Health Unit, hears those questions often.

“Parents want their kids to eat healthy, to have good nutrition, and to have enough energy for the rest of the day,” Kubis says. “Lunches should have all four food groups.”

She suggests we plan lunch around meat or another protein like fish, eggs, nuts, or beans. 

“Kids are growing,” she says. “They need protein. They need iron. They need fat.” 

A good lunch also includes a grain, and a milk or milk alternative like cheese or yogurt.

A good lunch includes fruit and vegetables, and it’s challenging to get children to eat enough vegetables. Lunch can include carrot sticks, snap peas, cherry tomatoes or corn. Lettuce or a tomato can be put in a sandwich. A pasta salad or bean salad can include vegetables, and chopped red or green peppers or onions can be added to egg salad. Cucumbers or pickles are good, too. 

“Whatever (vegetables) kids like,” Kubis says, “it’s good to try to give them more vegetables as a part of lunch.”

Choosing drinks is important, too. 

“Two drinks are good for kids. Number one is milk. Number two is water,” she says. 

100 per cent fruit juice (not cocktail or punch) is fine, but not more than half a cup (the equivalent of a juice box) per day. Children shouldn’t drink energy drinks or sports drinks like Gatorade, because they contain a lot of sugar, and the caffeine in energy drinks is unhealthy for children. 

She suggests parents limit chocolate milk and vanilla-flavoured milk to special occasions, since they also contain a lot of sugar.

But how do busy parents find time to prepare healthy, appealing lunches for our children? Kubis says planning is the key. If parents take half an hour on weekends to plan what children eat Monday to Friday, and then grocery shop accordingly, choosing food from all four food groups, we “can save time during the week, much more time,” she says.

She suggests packing lunches the evening before, and involve children in the process. 

“Talk to kids about what they will eat,” she says, so “kids know what they will eat the next day.” 

Enlist their help, and they’ll soon do it on their own. There’s another benefit. 

“They usually eat much better and they will not bring food home (uneaten) if they are involved in preparation of lunches,” Kubis says.

Victoria Stowe, dietetic intern, adds, “a parent can be a good role model (by taking) lunches to work themselves. That’s a real good way to show (children) that it’s something good to do, and it will also save them a little bit of money.”

A healthy lunch is not enough, of course. 

“Kids should not leave home without eating breakfast,” Kubis says. “If they do not eat breakfast, they are hungry. They cannot concentrate in school. They cannot learn properly. If they eat, they have energy. They have material for growth. They are calm … they can learn much faster than if they are hungry.

“Parents can stop at Tim Hortons for breakfast … but kids do not have this opportunity.” 

To encourage children to get up for breakfast, she suggests we talk about it the night before. Cereal and milk, toast with an egg, bread with ham, or a bagel with cream cheese are all good starts. It’s ideal for children to have milk in the morning, she says. Hungry children and teens can fill their stomachs with fruit.

“It is not difficult to eat healthy if parents really plan and think and want to know how,” Kubis says. “If parents teach, from early childhood, eating properly and healthfully together, then for kids it becomes normal to eat regular meals and to eat healthy food.”

For more lunch ideas, see www.healthcanada.gc.ca/foodguide.