With the start of another school year upon us, parents are preparing themselves for the routine task of making lunch boxes. And packing a healthy lunchbox every day is one of the most important things you can do to help support your child’s energy levels, behaviour, focus, and ability to learn. No pressure, right?
Research has showed that the vast majority of children are eating far too few vegetables, and over 90% of children have energy-dense, micronutrient-poor snacks (‘junk food’) in their lunch boxes (National Health Survey: First Results, 2014-15) and as a result one in four children are now classified as overweight or obese.
With approximately 40% of a child’s Monday to Friday food intake coming from their lunchbox and a third of a child’s total daily food intake being consumed at school, it is important that what you include in your child’s lunch box provides all the nutrients, vitamins and minerals needed for energy, growth and learning.
Sounds simple doesn’t it? But keeping a balance between the nutritional needs of growing children and offering them foods they will actually eat can be challenging and overwhelming even for the most organised parents.
As a mum myself, I understand the struggle of packing a healthy lunch box that ticks all of the boxes.
So as school starts again, here’s 5 simple tips for packing a healthy lunchbox.
After all, healthy kids are happy kids!
To give you an idea, here is one of Jackson’s favourite lunch boxes
At Studio You, one of our core philosophies is Exceptional Client Education. To ensure education opportunities are as accessible as possible, we run a series of 30 minute workshops called Power 30s, or P30s.
We acknowledge that your time is precious and in high demand, you don’t have time to luxuriate for 2 hours at a workshop! Instead, we take a deep dive on a topic, distill all the research, then provide you with perfect sound bites and takeaway action points.
Held monthly, spaces fill quickly and we strongly encourage you to reserve your place in advance. You are very welcome to invite your favorite friends or family to our P30s which are run every second Thursday at 6.30pm. Spaces are limited to 15.
Kids Nutritionist Sandra Di Giacomo will be holding a Power 30 “Kids Lunchboxes Made Easy” on 16th February.
Book your P30 now and navigate to the Group Sessions tab, then P30 and find the date 16th February.
References
National Health Survey: First Results, 2014-15. Abs.gov.au. N.p., 2017.http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4364.0.55.001?OpenDocument
Sanigorski AM, et al. “Lunchbox Contents Of Australian School Children: Room For Improvement. – Pubmed – NCBI”. Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. N.p., 2017.