Some things are priceless – but do you pay enough attention to your children’s diet and lifestyle?
One of the most important things we can do as parents is provide our children with healthy meals and snacks. It’s also important to talk to children about food and encourage them to cook or help out in the kitchen. Young children in particular love cooking and are far more likely to eat something they’ve made themselves, so get them involved in making simple recipes like fruit smoothies, or filled pitta breads.
Children also learn by example – you can’t expect a child to eat loads of fruit and veg if you never touch the stuff yourself – so make it your mission to ensure the whole family has a healthy diet. Your waistline will love you for it too!
School lunches are an opportunity to provide nutritious food which will help in the fight against obesity and provide essential vitamins and minerals.
Top tips for healthy lunchboxes
1. Starchy foods: Use bagels, rolls, pitta pockets, and wraps in addition to bread for variety. Pastas, noodles, potatoes, or couscous are also good sources of carbohydrates. Choosing the multigrain/ wholemeal/ wholegrain option will help increase fibre intakes.
2. Make fruit & veg fun: Aim to have at least one piece of fruit or veg in the lunch box. Try vegetable sticks with dips, or a small container with mixed vegetables such as cherry tomatoes, carrot sticks, celery, and cucumber. Children will leave food that takes a lot of effort. Peel clementines and cover with plastic wrap, cut kiwis in half, or make colourful skewers with bite sized-pieces of fruit.
3. Lean meats: Try to have lean meats such as ham, roast beef, chicken, or turkey. Tuna and egg salads are great sources of protein and vitamins.
4. Dairy for strong bones: Yoghurt, yoghurt drinks, fromage frais, small cartons of milk (including flavoured milk ), and cheese provide plenty of calcium. The once-healthy yoghurt now often comes attached to a pack of confectionery to stir in. Some of these contain more than five teaspoons of sugar in each pot.
5. Savoury snacks: Cheese strings and similar foods tend to be highly processed and may contain high levels of saturated fat and salt. One single snack can contain almost as much salt as a young child should have in an entire day.
6. Cereal bars: many cereal bars contain more than 40 per cent sugar and 30 per cent fat. Sugar is sticky in cereal bars and sticks to the teeth causing maximum damage.
7. ‘Real fruit snacks’: Saying a product is made with 'real fruit' gives it a healthy spin. But take a closer look at the label and you may find that they contain as much as a whopping 63 per cent sugar! Manufacturers might claim that they are a great fun way to enjoy a healthy and nutritious diet but a dentist might disagree.
8. Drinks: Encourage water or milk as they are tooth friendly, and milk also provides calcium for strong bones. Pure fruit juice contains 100 per cent fruit juice as you would expect. However a 'fruit juice drink' can contain as little as 6 per cent juice. Many 'juice drinks' are really only juice-flavoured sugary water and contain more water and sugar than actual fruit juice.
9. Keep treats as treats: they are not as filling as more nutritious foods of similar energy content. Check to see if your child’s school has a policy on treats.
A healthy lunch box should contain:
1-2 portions starchy food – bread, pasta, rice
1 Portion of milk or dairy food
1 Portion of fruit
1 Portion of vegetable
1 Portion of protein such as meat or fish.
By Ciara Malone, Community Dietitian, HSE Dublin Mid-Leinster.
For more information on any aspect of diet, please contact The Community Nutrition and dietetic service, Marlinstown office park, Mullingar, Co Westmeath Tel: (044 ) 9353220
