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The Healthy Lunchbox
6 ways to give your child's lunch box a healthy taste-filled make-over.

by Debbie Rose and CSPI: Center for Science in the Public Interest in the Public Interest

There is a science to healthy eating; but with mixed messages about what is healthy and what is not, it can get very confusing. Here are 6 ways to give your child's lunch box a healthy taste-filled make-over.

1. Become a label reader:

There are three ingredients that should really be avoided: High-Fructose Corn Syrup, Trans Fatty Acids and Nitrites.

High Fructose Corn Syrup is in so many products, especially those made for children: from fruit drinks to bread to pasta sauces and health products. High Fructose Corn Syrup is a genetically modified food. Manufacturers like to use it because it is mixes well in many foods, is easy to store and cheap to produce. It also tastes sweeter, giving manufacturers more bang for their buck. Unfortunately it has been linked to obesity, since it acts more like a fat than a sugar; Many researchers also believe it causes liver damage, bone loss, interferes with the heart's use of key minerals, elevates blood cholesterol, inhibits the action of white blood cells and increases the creation of blood clots. If your interested in a list of product containing HFC, click this link.

Trans Fatty Acids also known as Hydrogenated and Partially Hydrogenated Oils are found in many foods and have been directly linked to diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease. They are used to prolong the shelf life of processed foods, but they have been proven to shorten the life of your children. They are being banned all over the world, but until they are completely removed from all products, watch out for them!

Nitrites also called Nitrates are used to cure meats. They are found in many kinds of lunch meats and hot dogs, and form nitrosamines in the body. Nitrosamines are carcinogenic. If you plan to serve hot dogs or lunch meats, look for nitrite-free brands like Boars Head.

2. Make sure the carbs are right .

Good Carb, Bad Carb, Low Carb? It's all so confusing! Here is an easy way to make sure a carb is good: Is it the way nature made it? Everyone needs carbohydrates and the best ones are natural : Whole grains, raw fruits and vegetables (washed and rinsed), nuts, beans and legumes are the best choices. Sneak a few vegetables and fruits into carrot or corn muffins and banana nut bread. Kashi makes good breakfast bars that taste good too.

Stay away from enriched flours, sugar, and the ‘–ose' brothers: glucose, dextrose, fructose, lactose and maltose. They are all names for sugars!

Another good Carb: Fiber . It's found in many carbohydrates like almonds, whole grains, cabbage, beets, carrots, Brussels sprouts, turnips, cauliflower, and apple skin. It is good for cardiovascular health, helps maintain blood sugar levels, wards off unwanted pounds, and is very good for the digestive system.

3. Good Fat / Bad Fat

Not all fats are bad. Stay away from saturated fats and never eat trans fats if you can help it. Beneficial fats are found in nuts, peanut butter, olive oil, avocados, canola and flax seed oils and oily fish like salmon (Doctors recommend one serving a week for children because of possible mercury content.).

4. Protein

Proteins are an important part of every meal. Meats, legumes, dairy products, eggs, and nuts are healthy proteins. A few other ideas: cottage cheese, jerky, canned soup, cheese slices, and low-fat yogurt.

5. Water

Our bodies are 98% water. Keeping kids hydrated is difficult! Offering lots of water, limited amounts of fruit juice and rare treats of sodas will help. Soda dehydrates, so if they are looking for flavor, try adding a little lemon or lime. There are also flavor pouches, just read the label to make sure it isn't 100% sugar.

6. Healthier Snack Food

Baked corn tortillas, rice cakes, and many other whole-grain choices are popping up at many grocery stores as they compete with pricier organic stores. Look at all the organic and whole-grain choices for snack foods, as well as pastas, yogurts, crackers, cereals . . . you name it!

Top it off with a love note, and you will have a lunch that is sure to make them smile, inside and out!

If you're hungry for more information, read on for more tips from The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPC).

Back to School: Lunchbox Makeovers

The Center for Science in the Public Interest offers these ten tips for making healthy lunches.

It’s back-to-school time and for many, that means back-to-packing-lunch time.

“Unfortunately, many lunchboxes are overloaded with fat, sugar and salt and are missing fruit, vegetables and whole grains,” said Margo Wootan, senior scientist at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). “But since a handful of foods do most of the damage to children’s diets and health, a handful of changes can go a long way toward improving them.”

What’s in a child’s lunch is important because it’s in childhood that eating habits are formed and heart disease, obesity, osteoporosis and other diseases begin to develop. Fatty build-ups — the beginnings of clogged arteries — are seen in the arteries of children as young as ten years old. Obesity rates in children have doubled in the last decade.

CSPI suggests ten easy tips to give your child’s lunchbox (or your lunch) a nutrition makeover:

1. Encourage your child to choose 1% or fat-free milk. “Milk is by far the largest source of saturated fat in children’s diets,” said Wootan. “Choosing 1% or fat-free milk instead of whole or 2% milk is an important strategy for keeping children’s hearts healthy and arteries clear.”

2. Leave the cheese off sandwiches, unless it’s low-fat or fat-free cheese. Though cheese provides calcium, it is the second leading source of artery-clogging saturated fat in kids’ diets. Healthier sources of calcium include lower-fat cheese, fat-free and 1% milk, low-fat yogurt and calcium-fortified orange juice.

3. Switch from ham, bologna, salami, pastrami or corned beef, and other fatty luncheon meats to low-fat alternatives. Wootan noted that supermarkets sell many good tasting, low-fat or fat-free brands of turkey breast, chicken breast, ham, bologna and roast beef.

4. Include at least one serving of fruit in every lunch. Try buying a few new types of fruit each week to let your child discover new favorites and to give her more choices. In addition to apples, oranges or bananas, try pears, sliced melon, cups of applesauce, grapes or pineapple (fresh or canned in its own juice). Try serving fruit in different ways -- whole, cut into slices, cubed or with a yogurt dipping sauce.

5. Sneak vegetables — like lettuce or slices of cucumber, tomato, green pepper, roasted peppers, zucchini or sweet onion — onto sandwiches. Eating fruits and vegetables reduces your child’s chances of heart disease, cancer, blindness and stroke later in life. Putting veggies on a sandwich is one way to get more into your child’s diet.

6. Use whole grain bread instead of white bread for sandwiches. Choose breads that list “whole wheat” as the first ingredient. If the main flour listed on the label is “wheat” or “unbleached wheat flour,” the product is not whole grain. Most multi-grain, rye, oatmeal and pumpernickel breads in the U.S. are not whole grain.

7. Limit cookies, snack cakes, doughnuts, brownies and other sweet baked goods. Sweet baked goods are the second leading source of sugar and the fourth leading source of saturated fat in Americans’ diets. Low-fat baked goods can help cut heart-damaging saturated fat from your child’s diet, but even fat-free sweets can crowd out healthier foods like fruit.

8. Pack baked chips, pretzels, Cheerios, bread sticks or low-fat crackers instead of potato, corn, tortilla or other chips made with oil or Olean. Avoid fat-free Max chips and Procter and Gamble’s Fat Free Pringles. They are made with Olean (olestra), a fat substitute that can cause abdominal cramping and diarrhea and can rob your body of carotenoids and other phytochemicals that may lower the risk of cancer. Also beware of Bugles, which are fried in heavily saturated coconut oil. One ounce has as much artery-clogging fat as a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder.

9. If you pack juice, make sure it’s 100% juice. All fruit drinks are required to list the “% juice” on the label. “Watch out for juice drinks like Sunny Delight, Hi-C, Fruitopia and Capri Sun. With no more than 10% juice, they’re soft drinks masquerading as juice,” said Wootan.

10. Don’t send Lunchables. Oscar Mayer’s Lunchables that come with a treat and a drink get two-thirds of their calories from fat and sugar. Making your own healthy alternative is as easy as packing low-fat crackers, low-fat lunch meat, a piece of fruit and a box of 100% juice in your child’s lunch box (at the very least, use the lower-fat Lunchables).

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