Packing a Healthy School Lunchbox for Kids“2 Comments”
admin | 12:46 pm | January 25, 2011 | Uncategorized
The process of packing a nutritionally balanced and healthy school lunchbox for kids can be challenging as it is, and when confounded with rushed mornings getting yourself and the kids ready for the day, it can become an overwhelming chore. Kids also tend to ask for the wrong things, and would often rather take crisps, a cold drink and a chocolate bar to school instead of a wholesome meal. However, with a little thought and creativity, its possible to pack lunches that are nutritious and don’t come home uneaten. Here are some tips for a healthy day, including a health school lunchbox:
Start with a good breakfast
It’s still the most important meal of the day. Breakfast gives your child the fuel to kick-start the brain into motion and to provide a sustained release of energy during the day. Ideal breakfast choices include:
- Wholegrain porridge, with milk or yogurt and fresh fruit
- Wholegrain toast with low fat cheese, peanut butter or scrambled eggs
- Fruit smoothie made with low fat yogurt, fresh fruit and oats or muesli
Always try making time for breakfast, even if it means waking up a little earlier. If it’s still a struggle, try one of these breakfasts on the go:
- A fruit or cereal bar (try TruFruit or Safari fruit bars, slim slabs, Special-K or All-Bran bars) and a yogurt
- Bokomo Up-And-Go
- A yogurt and a piece of fresh fruit
- A wholegrain sandwich with peanut butter
Check out the tuck shop
Find out what kinds of foods the school tuck shop is offering. Are there some healthy choices, or is your child buying sweets, chips and fried foods? Lobby for healthy tuck shop options that include nutritious sandwich fillings, salads and healthy snack foods like yogurts, nuts and fruit. Encourage the tuck shop to serve sweets only after the first break instead of offering them early in the morning. If you feel your child is still going to buy unhealthy foods at school, then limit the amount of tuck money you give them. Or better still, discourage tuck and pack a healthy, nutritious lunch box.
The healthy lunchbox
The next step is ensuring healthy choices accompany your child to school each day. Kids get bored- so offer a variety of wholesome foods each day. The following are some suggestions for a healthy lunchbox:
- Make healthy sandwiches. Offer and encourage whole-wheat or brown bread or rolls. Low GI (glycemic index) white breads are also available. To this add a nutritious filling like low fat cottage cheese and cucumber, tinned tuna, pilchards, marmite, avocado pear with lemon juice, peanut butter and banana, mashed egg with low fat mayonnaise, lean chicken or meat slices or fish paste with tomato.
- Try adding veggies. Not all kids will cooperate but it’s worth a try. Pack tuna, chicken or cheese salads or add raw crudité veggies, like carrot sticks, celery, baby tomatoes, sugar snap peas and baby corn to the mix. Offer some peanut butter, smooth cottage cheese or tomato salsa for dipping. Try potato pr pasta salads with chopped veggies. In winter offer veggie soups in a flask.
- Up the fluid. Make sure your child receives adequate hydration throughout the day. Pack at least a 500ml bottle of water; more of your child is active. Plain bottled water, diluted fruit juice and iced teas are all acceptable additions. Avoid squashes, as these tend to be high in sugar and additives.
- Pack healthy snacks. Kids should eat small regular snacks during the day for more sustained energy and concentration. Fresh or dried fruit, fruit salads and fruit kebabs, crackers with with peanut butter or avocado pear, dried fruit and nuts, low fat yogurt with a container of muesli to add, fruit or muesli bars, homemade oatcakes or oat crunchies, digestive biscuits and homemade popcorn all go down well and provide good nutrition. Add some protein snacks like lean meat roll-ups, fish cakes, a couple of sushi rolls, a boiled egg, low fat cheese wedges, minced legumes, a mini burger patty or some low fat biltong.
- Pack in some nutrients. Make sure your child is getting some of the more important nutrients for learning. Try carrots, butternut, peaches, mangos or any other yellow/orange fruit and vegetable for added vitamin A which helps strengthen the immune system. Fish is an excellent source of both iodine and omega-3 fatty acids- the essential fats that help boost concentration. Ensure that your child gets adequate protein from meats, chicken, fish, dairy and legumes; calcium from dairy, fish tinned with bones and green vegetables and iron from dried fruit, green vegetables, red meat, chicken, fish and legumes.
When it comes to planning a healthy school lunchbox that helps nurture a child’s growth and development, moderation and balance are key. It’s never a good idea to deprive children of sweets and junk foods, but it’s imperative that you set limits and boundaries. Offering a variety of healthy, nutritious foods for school and at home is one of the best things you can do to help fuel active body’s and minds and help children to reach their full potential.
Besides fruit and treats, try the following lunchbox ideas
- 3/4 cup cold wholewheat fussilli pasta, chopped peppers, baby tomato, 5 olives and 60g mozzarella cheese
- 60g woolies pre-made chicken fillets added to a chopped salad with a low fat yogurt dressing and 2 ryevita biscuits
- Bulgur wheat (3/4 cup) with grilled vegetables and 50g mozzarella cheese to make a salad
- Salmon fishcake with a yogurt and cucumber dressing
- 60g smoked salmon on a brown bagel with lettuce and capers
- 2 chicken kebabs, 4 provita with cottage cheese and marmite
- Crudité vegetables with an avocado and smooth cottage cheese dip, 20g mixed nuts and 4 fincrisps
- Tuna salad with 2 rice cakes, 1 fruit, 20g nuts and a yogurt
- Sandwich on seed bread with 6 slices low fat chicken, mayonnaise, lettuce and tomato
- ¾ cup quinoa, ½ cup lentils, chopped peppers, cucumber carrots and baby tomatoes to make a salad
5 Steps to a Healthy 2011“0 Comments”
admin | 7:54 am | January 4, 2011 | Uncategorized
So many of us use the New Year as a motivation factor for starting new things, like a healthy eating or lifestyle plan. In reality a healthy eating plan should be something you follow all year, year in and year out so that it becomes a lifestyle change that you build over time, rather than just a resolution. However, all changes have to start with a resolution or intention to change, and if the New Year inspires you to do this, then now is a good time to start the process towards a healthy 2011.
Use these 5 steps to help implement and sustain the changes you need for a healthier 2011:
Step 1: Assess You Health
Before you can decide what changes need to be implemented, it is useful to see where in your life you need to change. A good pace to start is to have a medical health assessment and check your cholesterol, blood pressure and blood glucose values. The company you work for or your medical aid often offers these tests free of charge. Routine diagnostic tests, like pap smears, bone density scans and mammograms as well as gastroscopies and colonoscopies, where necessary, can also give you a better picture of your overall health status.
Next you should look at your negative lifestyle habits, like smoking status, alcohol consumption, junk food, caffeine and sugar consumption for example. Also look at whether you are consuming enough water, fruit and vegetables, wholegrains, lean proteins and essential fats in your diet. Assess your exercise habits and the frequency of your visits to the gym or other fitness clubs.
The manner in which you handle and process stress, your emotional state and your work-life balance are also important factors in determining your overall health status.
Step 2: Out with the Bad
This is where you start to remove the potentially harmful foods and practices from your lifestyle. Negative lifestyle practices that you may want to consider cutting down on or taking out of your lifestyle completely include sedentary behaviours, smoking, drinking too much alcohol, eating junk food, eating sugary foods, eating chocolate, drinking too much coffee, tea or cold drink, eating processed flour based foods (like biscuits, pastries and white bread) and eating too many fatty foods (like fried foods, fatty red meats, full cream dairy and cheese, chicken with skin).
Step 3: In with the Good
This is when you can start to introduce good lifestyle practices as well as wholesome foods into your diet. The groups that you want to focus on, include:
Fruits and Vegetables. The recommended minimum daily intake of fruits and vegetables is 5 servings per day. A serving is 1 medium fruit, 200ml fruit or veggie juice, 1-cup raw vegetables or salad or ½ cup cooked vegetables. A good start is to include 2 fruits and 3 vegetables per day.
Wholegrains. Wholegrains are carbohydrate foods that have been prepared with minimal processing and are eaten in their more natural state. Wholegrains contain more fiber and more vitamins and minerals than their refined counterparts. Wholegrains, in general, also have a lower glycemic index, which means more sustained energy for your day. Examples of wholegrains include wholewheat cereals and breads, wholegrain rye, wholewheat pasta, barley, buckwheat, bulgar wheat and legumes.
Essential fats. These are fatty acids that are essential to health and that you must include in your diet. The 2 most important ones are:
Omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 fats help us produce special chemicals, which help the body resist illness by reducing inflammation. Getting your daily dose of omega-3’s helps support the healthy functioning of your immune, reproductive, nervous systems and heart and goes a long way to preventing diseases of lifestyle and even boosting your memory, concentration and intelligence. They also act as medicinal foods, helping to fight heart disease, arthritis and brain disorders. Best sources are fatty fish like salmon, mackerel, herring, pilchards and sardines. Vegetable sources of omega 3’s include walnuts, flaxseed oil, pumpkin seeds and hemp oil. Dark green vegetables like seaweed, broccoli, spinach and kale are a reasonable source of omega-3 essential fatty acids if eaten in large amounts
Omega-9 fatty acids. Also known as monounsaturated fats, these fatty acids are the reason behind the health benefits of the Mediterranean Diet. They are particularly beneficial in keeping the heart healthy by reducing the amount of harmful fats in the blood. They may also help offset certain cancers and are rich in the antioxidant vitamin, Vitamin E. Best sources of omega 9’s are olive oil, olives, avocado, canola oil as well as most nuts and seeds.
Lean Protein. Protein provides the building blocks (called amino acids), which help maintain the structural integrity of your body and also provide the basis for hormones, immune cells and enzymes.
Good sources of protein to include at meals and snacks include leans red meats, skinless chicken, fish, eggs, legumes and low fat dairy products.
Step 4: Move
Aerobic exercise increases your heart rate, works your muscles, and raises your breathing rate. For most people, it’s best to aim for a total of about 30 minutes a day, at least 5 days a week. If you haven’t been very active recently, you can start out with 5 or 10 minutes a day and work up to more time each week. Or split up your activity for the day — try a brisk 10-minute walk after each meal. If you’re trying to lose weight, you may want to exercise more than 30 minutes a day.
Strength training, done several times a week, helps build strong bones and muscles and makes everyday chores like carrying groceries easier for you. With more muscle, you burn more calories, even at rest.
Flexibility exercises, also called stretching, help keep your joints flexible and reduce your chances of injury during other activities. Gentle stretching for 5 to 10 minutes helps your body warm up and get ready for aerobic activities such as walking or swimming. You could also try yoga or pilates.
One does not need to rely on a gym in getting active. Being active helps burns calories. The more you move around, the more energy you’ll have. These strategies can help you increase your activity level:
- Walk instead of drive whenever possible
- Take the stairs instead of the elevator
- Work in the garden, rake leaves, or do some housecleaning every day
- Park at the far end of the shopping center lot and walk to the store
Step 5: Relax
Relaxation and stress management as important to your health as anything else. Find time every day to do something that relaxes you- and never feel guilty about it. Make whatever it is that relaxes you more and more a part of your daily life.
Wordpress Themes | sheepdip by mahud © 2007 | Scoreboards