Navigating lunch can be so overwhelming with kids. Let’s chat about how to pack a healthy lunch for your kids. I find there is a lot of pressure on sending a healthy lunch and also on how much your child chooses to eat. If your child has 3 meals and 1 snack per day, their 5 school lunches represent just 13% of their eating opportunities for the week… Let that sink in. Now that we have that little reframe taken care of, let’s take stock of a few logistics.
When you’re planning lunches there are lots of things to consider, including:
Now that you’ve taken stock of your logistics, we can talk about a framework or what nutrition factors to consider when you’re packing a lunch. Packing a healthy lunch is really about supporting satiety (fullness or satisfaction) and blood sugar control. Key nutrients for satiety and blood sugar control are protein, fat and fiber. When meals have a combination of protein, fiber and healthy fats it slows down the time food takes to go through the intestines and avoids blood sugar spikes. Foods that are higher in each of the larger nutrients (protein, fat, carbohydrates) also contribute a different variety of vitamins and minerals, so it’s helping to ensure our family is getting a great balance of nutrients.
