How to Make a Healthy Lunch for Your Child

How to Make a Healthy Lunch for Your Child

Since following your kids around all day is not an option, many parents sit around and wonder whether their children are making the right nutritional choices throughout the day. One of the best ways to ensure that your kids are eating a well balanced diet is by preparing their school lunch at home.How to Make a Healthy Lunch for Your Child? Giving your child the ability to chose his/her own lunch can lead to money being spent on junk food or unhealthy meal choices (such as a daily basket of fries). As a parent you should take charge and prepare a nutritious, yet still enjoyable, meal at home. Kids, just like adults, are prone to gain extra weight if they eat unhealthy on a daily basis. The only difference is that an adult has the ability to take some of the best diet pills (such as hoodia gordonii), in order to lose weight. Feeding your children the proper nutrition is the key to keeping them healthy and well nourished. How to Make a Healthy Lunch for Your Child, The first step to making a healthy lunch is observing the type of fruit or vegetable your child likes best. Giving them something they like will assure you that they will happily consume it. A lot of parents also rely upon various dipping sauces as a means of attracting their child’s appetite. Kids love to dip stuff and if they get a sauce which they really love, they will be more likely to eat their fruit and veggies. The five food groups which should be included in every lunch box include protein, whole grain, fruit, vegetables, and calcium rich dairy. The key to success is being creative. Kids don’t respond well to eating the same thing each and every day. There are various nutritious snacks available at your local grocery store. There are whole grain chips and countless 100 calorie snack packets. Furthermore, if you demonstrate healthy eating habits at home, your kids will be more likely to follow your example.

 

A child's energy, attention span and stamina at school depend much on his nutrition. Good parenting means giving your child a healthy breakfast and lunch or snack, which is just as important as being in a good school and having a good teacher. Just as important as hygiene, and just as important as learning to be a nice person and How to Make a Healthy Lunch for Your Child.

Unfortunately not all parents take the time to ensure a nutritious meal and send their kids to school with a box full of junk, making it harder for the other kids to be interested in their healthy snack, which furthers to a parents frustration when the healthy lunch or snack box comes home untouched.

Good parenting means recognizing that it isn't always a good idea to solely rely on school cafeteria lunches, because although the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) says school lunches should provide one-third of a child's nutrition needs, meeting caloric needs alone is not necessarily nutritious enough. Calorie dense makes no sense if the meal is not also healthy.

How to Make a Healthy Lunch for Your Child? Tips to a Well Balanced Lunch Box

A lunch consisting of a lean meat, whole grain, low-fat dairy product and fruit and/or vegetable is a well-balanced, healthy lunch. 1-2 to of these is good for a balanced healthy snack. Packing a sandwich with lean meat or tuna fish is good but making that sandwich with whole grain bread, a good source of fiber, is even better. However, unless from very early on a child is accustomed to eating brown bread, kids usually become totally uninterested in their sandwich if it's made with brown bread. How to Make a Healthy Lunch for Your Child, A good idea is to start off slowly but keeping the healthy sandwich on white bread but making sure you have also packed their favorite fruit to compensate for the brown bread. Include a few carrots and cucumbers as well, or their veg of choice that is packable. Tell your kids that if they don't want the brown bread they have to eat a fruit and veg along with their sandwich.

Pack a bottle of water instead of juice boxes. Most juice boxes are high in sugar. However, water will keep a child hydrated without the sugar rush, extra calories and a lowered immune system. Water is also beneficial to the skin, as well many other parts of the body. If your child insists on the juice then dilute the juice in a water bottle.

How to Make a Healthy Lunch for Your Child, Involve your child in the decision making of his lunch or snack. This helps to alleviate swapping his food with others. Use the opportunity to chat about healthy eating but try and make it fun and entertaining and not like a classroom experience.

Help keep your child from using his milk money for junk food by packing a dessert. You can satisfy your child's sweet need with tiny amounts of junk food mix in with healthy foods. A small amount of M&M's with trail mix, one cookie with yogurt, fruits topped with raisins and a little caramel or chocolate sauce or dipping sauce. Try making muffins or cookies with pureed vegetables in the ingredients.

So if your going to make a lunch or snack box, take a few extra minutes to make it count toward your child's well being and functionality through out the day. It will take some time for your child to get used to his new foods so use the suggestions above as well as be creative and before you know it your child will be accustomed to his new healthy friends and coming home with an empty lunch or snack box. As a parent you will have earned an "A" in parenting for the healthy lunch box challenge.

 

Being obese as an adult is hard, imagine what it feels like for a child. Overweight kids are at risk for heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, strokes and joint problems. A healthy eating plan can help your child lose weight and reduce his chances of developing any of these life altering complications. Prepare Meals from Scratch and Serve Them on Smaller Plates When you work hard all day, and deal with the ins and outs of parenting and managing a household, popping in microwave meals or swinging into the nearest fast food joint to pick up dinner is easy. However, a regular diet of fast food and microwave dinners can damage your child's health. These foods are laced with unhealthy ingredients and filled with empty calories. If you really want to help your child manage his weight, fast food and prepackaged meals won't cut it. Instead of serving your youngster snack cakes, fast food, cereal bars, frozen meals, bread, pastas and other processed edibles, prepare meals from scratch using natural foods. Natural foods include lean meats, poultry, fruits, vegetables, beans, eggs, legumes and raw nuts.

Children shouldn't have to count calories or measure food. When kids have to keep tabs on every morsel they pop into their mouths, it can lower their self-esteem and make them feel lousy. Instead of counting calories, serve meals on smaller plates. Keep in mind, the more food you pile on a child's plate, the more he's likely to eat. Since small plates hold less food, your child's portion sizes will be reduced automatically. If your child is still hungry after he finishes his first helping, you can give him a little more. During family meals, everybody's plate should be smaller; this way, your child won't feel like he's being singled out or punished for being overweight. Also, fill half of your child's plate should be filled with vegetables and use the other half for meats and other types of food. How to Make a Healthy Lunch for Your Child? Serve Breakfast at Home and Pack Healthy Lunches If your child attends school, chances are, and he’s eating processed foods for lunch. Most school systems boast about providing healthy lunches for the kids, but there's nothing nutritious about processed beef patties, chicken nuggets, frozen pizza and a bunch of canned fruits and veggies. When your child is away from home, it's impossible to monitor everything he eats. For all you know, he could be buying chocolate cupcakes twice a day from the school vending machine. You can minimize how much junk your child eats by serving him a nutritious breakfast at home and packing him a nutritious lunch. Encourage Plenty of Physical Activity Being sedentary is one of the primary reasons for obesity among children. If you really want to help your child slim down, encourage him to get off the couch. The United States Department of Health and Human Services recommends kids get 60 minutes of physical activity daily. This doesn't have to happen all at once. The exercise can be broken up into 10 or 15 minute bursts throughout the day. Some ways your child can get the exercise he needs to drop a few pounds include:

Playing outside

Participating in sports

Riding a bike

Skating

Washing the car

Doing household chores (vacuuming, making the bed, etc.)

Karate

Dancing

Helping in the garden or bagging leaves

Walking around the park

Never force your child to participate in activities he does not enjoy. If you do this, he will view exercise as punishment. Instead, help your youngster find activities he loves. Remember, a child is more likely to stay active if exercise is kept light and fun.

Whether you're in elementary school or graduate school, or even if you work a full time job, taking a bagged lunch with you is the best way to save money, eat healthy, and avoid long lines on your lunch break. This article explores several lunch ideas that are nutritious, filling, versatile, and easy on the wallet and How to Make a Healthy Lunch for Your Child.

1. Healthy wraps

Although many studies have declared that wraps are unhealthy or loaded with fat, the health content of wraps entirely depends on what you put in them. It is easy to make wraps that are nutritious and even low in calories. Stick with a small to medium sized whole wheat or whole grain tortilla (read the ingredients to ensure that the flour used to make the tortilla is whole wheat flour not enriched). Sauces, cheeses, and dressings are usually what give the wrap its reputation for being unhealthy; if you must use them, avoid mayonnaise, cream cheese, or heavy dressings like blue cheese or ranch. Stick to a little hummus, mustard, baba ganoush, or a low fat cheese. Fill the wrap with sautéed veggies; lean meats like ham, grilled chicken, or turkey; or even scrambled eggs with a little avocado or sausage.

2. Tuna and whole grain crackers

For those who love tuna simply bring a can along with you (with a lid you can peel off) along with a small baggie of whole grain crackers. If you must, bring a small amount of mayonnaise either in a to-go packet or a small baggie to make your tuna into a creamier tuna salad. Voila! You have a simple, nutritious, and filling snack that you can take almost anywhere. If you don't like tuna salad, you can make a similar snack with chicken or egg salad just remembers to use mayonnaise sparingly!

3. Kid's snacks can be adult snacks too

Don't underestimate the power of snacks made for kids many of them are still practical and healthy for adults too. Snacks like string cheese, mini yogurt cups, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and sliced meats are all nutritious for bodies of any age. And the best part: they were made specifically for bagged lunches, and are therefore very easy to carry around.

4. Mini-wraps without the wrap

A good way to make your wrap even healthier is to skip the wrap or tortilla all together. First, peel off a big piece of lettuce and use it as your base. How to Make a Healthy Lunch for Your Child, Fill it with a little mustard, hummus, or a small slice of low fat cheese. Next, fill it with either a couple slices of lean meat, such as turkey or ham, or a small scoop of sautéed veggies. Wrap up the lettuce nice and tight to seal the wrap. Make as many of these as you want, they are extremely nutritious!

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