WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS: Healthy Lunch Box Ideas

"Feeding kids healthy foods is not debatable."  --Chef Ann Cooper, the Renegade Lunch Lady

Last weekend I had fun watching kids pick out their new school backpacks and lunchboxes.  There is so much excitement around the first day of school and the new school year.  Kids need brain foods to help them power through the day and long-lasting energy and good mood foods.  I hear from parents all the time that they don’t know what to put into their kids’ lunchboxes. 

Here are some practical AND economical ideas for making healthy lunch boxes for your kids (and for you, too): 

1. Shop for a couple of cool reusable BPA-free containers.  Let your kids choose them!   Look for great containers at places like TJMaxx and Home Goods for under $3.00 each.  
2. Buy several reusable ice packs to keep foods safe and fresh. 
3. Make a chart with 4 columns for lunch choices:  protein, fruit/veggies, healthy carb snack or dessert, and a drink.  Ask your kids to help you make the chart.  Let them decorate it and name it:  “My Healthy Lunch Chart”.
4. Buy a supply of paper napkins and reusable utensils (let the kids pick them out).  
5. Set aside a shelf in your food pantry or a cabinet that is accessible to the children for storing their lunch boxes and supplies.
6. Shop for whole grain bread that meets “The Nancy Rule”:  Buy breads with 4 or more grams of dietary fiber per slice AND the first ingredient includes the word “whole”.   Once you find a bread that meets “The Nancy Rule”, write down the name and brand of the bread on your child’s chart.  Fiber is what fills us up and helps regulate the blood sugar.
7. Keep almond or peanut butter in the pantry, along with your child’s favorite flavor of jam. Choose nut butters without added fats, salts, and sugar.  Nothing beats a PB and jam sandwich on whole grain bread!

Here are two of MY favorite lunch box ideas:

1.  a small container of homemade hummus with cucumber slices, sliced red peppers and baby carrots.  This colorful lunch will have other kids asking your kids to trade! 
2. Fresh seasonal fruit in one container and a small serving of nuts in another.     

To learn more about making healthy lunches for your kids this school year, click here to read the latest from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  

Eat real food.  Buy from your local farmers.  Give lots of hugs.  Be kind. 

In gratitude,

Nancy Heinrich

Founder, Growing Healthy Kids, Inc. 

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS: Eat More Fiber

“A journey of a thousand steps begins with a single step.”  --Lao Tzu

uncooked oats

What is the one thing you can do to start losing weight?  Eat more fiber.

  

Here are 3 reasons why this simple strategy works:

1. Fiber fills you up.  When you eat foods high in fiber, you eat less. 
2. All packaged foods have a Nutrition Facts label that lists how many grams of fiber a serving contains.  That makes it easy to make a good choice.  
3. Soluble fiber absorbs water and slows the absorption of sugar into your bloodstream.  If your blood sugar level is lower, your pancreas makes less insulin, which means your body is less likely to store fat.  Examples of soluble fiber:  oats, apples, blueberries, beans, and nuts. 

How much fiber do we need?  For women, it is about 25 grams a day and for men about 35 grams. The USDA’s 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (to be updated sometime this year) recommends 14 grams of dietary fiber per 1,000 calories consumed. 

The fact is that Americans are really bad at getting enough fiber.  Eating processed foods which have been stripped of fiber in order to increase the shelf life of foods is partly to blame.  Most Americans eat far less than half the dietary fiber they need. 

Ready for fun?  Listen to Pop Up Health with Chef Michael Glatz and me (in Vero Beach on WAXE 107.9 FM/1370 AM every Tuesday and Sunday between 3 and 4 PM or from anywhere in the WORLD on www.iheartradio.com and search for WAXE).  To listen to one of our recent shows, just click here.

Keep it simple.  Eat real food.  Buy from your local farmers.  Give lots of hugs.  Be kind. 

In gratitude,

Nancy Heinrich

Founder, Growing Healthy Kids, Inc. 

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS: Eating to be Healthy or Sick

“There is no need for temples, no need for complicated philosophy.  My brain and my heart are my temples, my philosophy is kindness.”  -- Dalai Lama

A friend of mine owns a local bakery with a great coffee bar.  He describes the colored packets of artificial sweeteners he stocks for customers as “little colored packets of cancer”.   Choose your poison. 

Fresh, local ground cherries (related to tomatillos) from my recent trip to Oregon.  

Eating well is about eating simply and seasonally.  It means planning meals based on the vegetables and fruits that are in season and grown within about a 50 mile radius of where I live.  Fresh spinach, watermelon, squash, beans, salad greens, heirloom tomatoes.  Give me some Purple Cherokees from Mark Smith’s farm and I am in heaven.  It is about having a well-stocked pantry of whole grains, legumes, and rice.  Extra virgin olive oil, avocado and coconut oils, almonds, sunflower seeds, and walnuts.  Add cans of coconut milk, fresh turmeric, garlic, ginger, lemons, limes, and Hass avocados and I am good to go!

Keep it simple.  Eat real food.  Buy from your local farmers.  To find a farmers market near you, click here.

Eat dinner with friends and family.  Give lots of hugs.  Be kind. 

In gratitude,

Nancy Heinrich

Founder, Growing Healthy Kids, Inc. 

PS - To learn how to stock your pantry with good foods for great health, send us an email at growinghealthykidsnow@gmail.com.  We'll rescue you and your food pantry!