Fantastic Lunch Box Ideas for Kids!
The British Nutrition Foundation (BNF) have produced a wonderful leaflet, Healthier Packed Lunches, which will be made available to schools, teachers and parents in the UK. The leaflet is designed to give them a better idea of what makes a nutritious packed lunch, for 5-11 year olds.
Many kids lunch boxes contain salt, sugar and saturated fat in quantities well above the recommended limits. When surveyed, researchers found that 23% of parents were confused about what foods should be in their child’s lunch box.
Main lunch box components
Lunches should be made up of a variety of foods from the four main food groups:
- One portion of vegetables, or salad, and one portion of fruit.
- One portion of a milk, cheese, or yoghurt.
- One portion of meat, chicken, fish, eggs, or peanut butter.
- One portion of a starchy food, such as bread, pasta, rice, noodles or potato.
To accompany the healthier packed lunches leaflet, the BNF have come up with a host of menu ideas for healthy packed lunches. All of their suggestions have been nutritionally analysed, and are consistent with the nutrient requirements of children aged 5-11 years.
You can check out their website for the complete list, but here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Tortilla wrap with grilled chicken, lettuce and red pepper slices (with reduced calorie mayonnaise).
- Cherry tomatoes.
- Banana.
- Fruit fromage frais.
- Carton of apple juice.
- Rice, bean and ham salad (boiled rice, kidney beans, green beans and chopped ham) with a little olive oil and lemon juice.
- Peach or nectarine.
- Low fat fruit yogurt.
- Slice of banana bread.
- Bottle of water.
- Wholemeal pitta with ham, reduced fat Edam cheese and green pepper slices (with reduced fat spread).
- Handful of raisins.
- Carton of rice pudding.
- Rice crispie cake.
- Carton of apple juice.
- Soft white roll with grilled sausage, lettuce and tomato (with reduced fat spread and a little ketchup).
- Celery and cucumber sticks.
- Small tub of fruit cocktail in juice.
- Low fat rice pudding.
- Bottle of water.
I also come across some other wonderful resources, which you may want to check out as well:
- Food Standards Agency - If you’re stuck for ideas, you’ll find a whole month of lunch box ideas here.
- The School Food Trust - For guidance on packed lunches, innovative mid-morning snack ideas, and much more.
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Sep 18, 2007
I like the idea of encouraging parents to pack a lunchbox by food group. It’s a very tangible way of ‘measuring’ what a healthy balance of food looks like but without being too constraining (especially for those parents trying to feed fussy eaters!)
Sep 19, 2007
Sophie - Yes you are completely right! The BNF have definitely produced a wonderful resource for parents trying to provide nutritius packed lunches for their kids.
Many thanks for stopping by!