Don’t stress about school lunches – a dietitian’s guide
Eating nutritious meals and snacks will help your child learn, play and grow, but coming up with lunch ideas to suit all eaters in your family can be a challenge.
Back to school — ‘tis the season for the daily question of what to pack for your child’s lunch.
Eating nutritious meals and snacks will help your child learn, play and grow, but coming up with lunch ideas to suit all eaters in your family can be a challenge.
Let me help your family prepare for the upcoming school year with some lunch-packing tips:
– Aim for balance – In order to be sure your child has enough fuel in their lunch, aim to include a food from each section of the Canada’s Food Guide balanced plate: protein (such as chicken pieces, chickpeas, cheese, boiled egg, and seed/nut/Wow Butter), whole grains (such as crackers, pitas or bread) and vegetables and fruits (such as berries, apple slices, carrot sticks or cucumber slices).
This does not have to be complicated. For example, a Wow Butter and banana wrap roll up is an easy lunch that includes each group.
• Include variety but keep it simple – Your child’s lunch box doesn’t need to look like a Pinterest board each day. Focus on what your child likes and find variety within it — you can still get creative by cutting fruit and breads into fun shapes, and choosing foods with a variety of colours and textures.
Remember, your child’s appetite can fluctuate daily so trust your child to know when they are hungry or full. You’ve done your job by providing a variety of food and your child will decide how much they eat.
Send a variety of snacks in case they get hungry outside of the designated lunchtime.
• Focus on adding instead of removing foods – It can be easy to limit the foods we think shouldn’t eat or label foods as “good” and “bad.”
This in turn can often makes the food we label as “off limits” more desirable for our kids. Instead of trying to eliminate certain foods, focus on trying to add nutrients to your child’s lunch with familiar foods.
For instance, shredded zucchini chocolate chip muffins provide an extra nutritional boost with the same great flavour.
• Lead with the familiar – Make a list of the foods your child typically likes to eat and include them in their meal.
For lunch at school, try to provide at least one food you know they enjoy.
To help expose them to new foods, try pairing a new food they haven’t tried before with a food they love. Encourage your child to take part in planning and packing their lunches and snacks for school to help them become more adventurous when it comes to trying new foods and to help them feel more empowered over their food choices.
If you’re struggling with school lunches or your child’s nutrition in general, our dietitian team is here to support your family’s unique nutrition journey.
Atlantic Superstore registered dietitians provide a range of services, such as virtual or in-store one-on-one consultations, store tours and recipe ideas.
At this time of year, it is also important to remember those in the community that are not so fortunate. Research shows approximately one million Canadian children live with food insecurity every day.
For children whose families might struggle to put food on the table, back-to-school is a welcome time when they will have easy access to school meals thanks to President’s Choice Children’s Charity.
Their program is essential to helping children learn, play, and grow; and to ensure no child in your community goes hungry, please consider donating in-store at Atlantic Superstore during the Million Hungry Minds campaign from now until Sept. 28.
Stephanie Rogers is a registered dietitian with Atlantic Superstore in Yarmouth and Digby. Do you have a nutrition health goal in mind? Contact Stephanie by phone at 902 774 0799, by email at stephanie. rogers@loblaw.ca or or book an in-person or virtual consult at bookadietitian.ca. Group programming and community events will resume as per provincial guidelines and safety measures.