Your Kid’s Lunchbox: Gimme Five!

Five Worst and Best Additions to Your Kid’s Lunchboxes

You as a parent or guardian have to make sure that the lunchbox your child takes to school is as nutritious as what your child would have at home. Yup, it can be challenging at times. Here are some of the worst additions you should avoid including in your child’s lunchbox, followed by some of the best additions. We’ve given you five of each!

Five Worst Additions

Juice Boxes. These have had so much fame and popularity among children that no one really bothered to look at the ingredients. The word juice has been equated to good health and guaranteed compliance from your child. We’re talking about high concentrations of sugar and fructose and their effects on your child’s liver and pancreas. It’s just as bad as giving your child sodas or fizzy drinks. Also, these drinks don’t hydrate your child but dehydrate them even further.
Sweets and lollies. It doesn’t get better folks. These sugar spiking, zero nutritional value junk foods don’t provide anything to your child. You can just imagine all those artificial colourings and flavourings incorporated into each swee. Again, stay away from putting these into your child’s lunchbox altogether.
Chip packets. Talk about MSG (monosodium glutamate) overload. It’s already a suspected neurotoxin. Also, be aware of the MSG symptom complex. If you eat foods high in MSG, you may experience the following symptoms:
- Flushing
- Headache
- Sweating
- Tingling or burning sensations in your face, neck and other body regions
- Numbness
- Your heart pounding in your chest (heart palpitations)
- Nausea
- Body weakness
- Chest pain
Chip packets may satisfy your child’s hunger for about 30 minutes, but then can turn them into junk food addicts as they’re looking for more chip packets 30 minutes later!

Fizzy drinks (Sodas). Contain very high concentrations of fructose, similar to juice drinks. These drinks do nothing but spike sugar in your child’s body. Also, these fizzy drinks predispose your child to develop diabetes mellitus type 2 when he or she grows up. Carbonated drinks have a tendency to block mineral absorption, yet another negative.
Bad muesli bars. Thanks to the almighty advertising gurus that got our children (and us) thinking that they’re eating healthy food when they unwrap a delicious looking muesli bar. Whole grains may be at the forefront of these bars, but if you take a closer look, sugar is again closely lingering in the background. The sugar content ranges between 30g to 70g per bar meaning they can outweigh the sugar found in some chocolate bars! Not to mention other flavours, sweeteners and additives included in the ingredients. Just take a look at the long list of ingredients next time you go to throw a box in your trolley. Can they really just be called a simple ‘muesli bar’?

Five Best Additions

Hummus, crackers and vegetable sticks. Replace those chips with healthy sticks. Hummus, a Middle Eastern superfood dip (which has a good appeal to your child) with a decadent and creamy taste is right for your child because of its high protein content due to the chickpeas, protein will provide sustained energy. This is just the tip of the iceberg, there are myriads of health benefits when you make hummus a part of your child’s diet. You can buy healthy ones in the supermarket, alternatively, it’s very easy and quick to make at home in the blender!

High-protein wrap. This is the part where you can get creative. Use the salad (lettuce, cucumber, sprouts, mashed egg for vegetarians) from last night’s dinner and mix it with shredded chicken or tuna (your choice of meat).
Fruit kebabs and fruit salads. Light snacks for a little bit of fruity juicy sweetness which won’t fill your child’s head with toxins, but with vitamins and minerals. Also, they don’t make your child sleepy during class.
Homemade muesli bars. This time, the bars will not be evil because you know what’s in them. Fill these homemade goodies with superfoods without your child even realising! Examples include; desiccated coconut, cacao, nuts, rolled oats, dried fruit etc. Bound together with things like; coconut oil, butter, maple syrup. Your choices could be endless and there are lots of recipes out there.

Natural Unsweetened yogurt. Throw some frozen berries to the mix. You know how healthy yogurt is, so it’s best to start your child enjoying it early. By lunchtime, the berries have thawed and juices would have melted and mixed with the creamy yogurt. Hmm thanks Mum (or Dad)!

Note: Most of the best additions may take a little more time to prepare than just throwing in a packet of this or a box of that. Hey, it’s your child’s health and nutrition we’re talking about here. It’s best that you know what you literally put in your child’s lunchbox.

The lunchbox you pack is your child’s link to your home when he or she is at school. It reminds them the value of good and nutritious food even when they’re preoccupied with school work. They need quality nutrition to feed and nourish those growing brains! Not junk foods which actually deplete some nutrients, provide barely any, and may even interfere with their learning abilities in the classroom. These habits you encourage now will become normal habits for the rest of their life.