Planning Ahead for Healthy Lunchboxes
Even though it’s summer break, it’s a good time to begin efforts on improving school lunches for your children. By the end of the school year, lunches don’t look quite as healthy as the enthusiastic start of September. Now is a good time to redirect your efforts and challenge those little taste buds before the school year begins.
Provide Nutrient-dense Foods
The first aspect to consider is that kids don’t get much time to actually eat at school. Even though there is a 20-minute lunch break, they only get about 10 minutes to sit down . That means we need to provide nutrient-dense foods that pack in the calories and nutrients they need without the volume that takes up time to eat it.
Joel Fuhrman, M.D., author of Eat for Health, created a food ranking based on the nutrients (vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, etc.) that different foods pack. According to Fuhrman, these are some of the top ’superfoods,’ along with their Aggregate Nutrient Density Index (ANDI) scores: kale (1000), spinach (739), romaine (389), broccoli (376), carrots (240), strawberries (212), tomato (164), blueberries (130), lentils (104), kidney beans (100), sunflower seeds (78), apple (76), cucumber (50), almonds (38), chicken breast (27), and eggs (27). Other foods to include that are rich in calories and nutrients are nuts/nut butters (almond and cashew for allergy-free environments), bean spreads/hummus, avocado/guacamole, organic Greek yogurt with berries, and whole grain pockets/breads/wraps. (Read More)