Healthy Lunch Boxes

 

Healthy Lunchboxes
As you will probably be aware, schools are now subject to much stricter rules about food served on the premises. Although our school dinners have always been of a high standard, there is now even more fresh fruit and veg and restricted meat products and fried foods.
We know that parents who provide packed lunches want to support this move to a healthier diet for their children, and finding suitable items for lunchboxes can be difficult. Some parents have requested some advice about buying healthy packaged snacks:
 
  • As a general rule, it is worth looking on labels for the fat and salt content of savoury foods and the sugar and fat content of sweet foods- it is helpful to look on the label for the amount of fat, salt or sugar per 100g as it is easier to compare different snacks of different weights, finding the healthiest one.
 
  • When choosing butter or margarine, compare the amount of fat per 100g. Even low fat spreads have quite a high percentage of fat. It is sometimes better to leave the butter or margarine off sandwiches altogether and use alternatives like salad cream, marmite, mustard, peanut butter, tomato sauce (!) pickle etc, if you want to limit the fat your child is eating.
 
  • It is also worth looking at the labels of so-called ‘Healthy Eating’ ranges of foods. Sometimes low fat yoghurt can have added sugar, or low sugar cakes can be high in fat. The manufacturers will only tell you the good news!
 
Finally just a few ideas:
  • Jaffa Cakes are low in fat compared to other cakes and biscuits.
 
  • Baked Crisps like Twiglets are low in fat compared to other crisps.
 
  • Snack a Jacks come in a range of flavours, including sweet. These are also very low in fat.
 
  • All fruits and vegetables contain zero fat. Fruit contains natural sugar for energy.
 
  • If you have a smoothie maker or blender hiding in a kitchen cupboard, smoothies are easy and cheap to make from fruit juice or milk- just add some fruit. They work out very expensive in the supermarket, because they have such a short shelf life.
 
 
The following websites have lots of information for parents:
www.eatwell.gov.uk
www.foodinschools.org
If you do not have a computer or the internet at home, just a reminder that there is free access to the internet at all libraries and staff are on hand to assist.
I hope you find this information useful.
Mrs L Johnson ( Healthy Schools Co-ordinator)