Lunch box world – healthy eating online

Lunch box food is a familiar part of school life for Australian children. Parents sometimes find it a challenge to keep coming up with ideas for foods to put in their child’s lunch box. What’s more, once the food leaves the house on its bumpy ride to school in their child’s backpack, parents can’t be sure about how the food looks and tastes by lunchtime, or how much of it their child actually eats.

Lunch box food is important. Children are busy at school. Their minds and bodies are constantly on the go with learning activities, play and sport, not to mention fighting infections, and meeting the demands of a growing body. Where do they get the energy for all that?

Children need a regular supply of good, healthy food to give them the energy, protein, vitamins, minerals and a whole range of other nutrients that their bodies need to function, grow, develop and be active. Packing both a healthy morning snack and a healthy lunch will help to give children the energy to be at their best for the whole school day.

Lunch box food needs to keep well and be tasty too. Food that ends up bruised, warm or mushy is not likely to be eaten, so it is worthwhile packing food with care so that it still looks and tastes delicious at mealtime.

So how do we pack healthy lunch box foods that will stay appetising all day at school? A new website called Lunch Box World – healthy eating online is now available to help make this job easier for parents. 

Lunch Box World was produced by Meerilinga Young Children’s Foundation with funding from the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing National Child Nutrition Program. When you visit Meerilinga you will find a site packed full of information about lunch box food with everything from how to choose, prepare and store lunch box food, to nutrition for children, food ideas and links to other quality health sites.

Choosing lunch box food

There are so many foods and products to choose from these days that it can be very confusing to work out what is really healthy for our children. The Lunch Box World website describes the nutrients that are most important for children and how to choose the foods that will help to keep children healthy. There are also handy hints from parents and children. Children like to have a say in choosing their lunch box food. Talk to your child about the foods that they enjoy, but give them choices between healthy foods.

Tips

Think about:

• the amount of time that a child has to eat their lunch
• whether younger children can manage the size of the food
• whether packaging is difficult to open
• choosing easy-to-eat foods for children with loose or missing teeth
• avoiding sugary foods and soft drinks to help keep new teeth strong

Preparing and storing lunch box food

Lunch box food is stored without refrigeration so we need to make sure that it is prepared with clean hands and utensils, and kept covered and cold until it is time to go to school. This is particularly important in Australia’s warm climate. The website has lots of tips for packing foods such as including a frozen ice brick in an insulated bag to keep the food appetising and prevent it from spoiling.

Tips

• Tests showed that when the air temperature was warm (30°C), freshly made food in a lunch box without an ice brick took less than 1 hour to heat up to 25°C. In hot conditions (39°C), food stored without an ice brick reached a temperature of 32°C in the first hour.
• Food poisoning bacteria multiply between 5° and 60°C. This is called the Temperature Danger Zone. Bacteria multiply best at body temperature 37°C).

Lunch box food ideas

Sandwiches and rolls are the most popular lunch box foods. Try some of the many types of bread and bread products to add variety to school lunches. Children may enjoy pita bread pockets or flatbread rolled up with a tasty filling as a change from sandwiches. Have some taste sessions at home to try out different fillings for sandwiches. Fruits are great for lunch boxes and can be served whole, or cut up in containers and eaten with a spoon. Vegetables can be included in sandwiches or served as a side salad in a box.

Tips

• Wrap and freeze a tuna sandwich (without lettuce) to keep the tuna aroma under control.
• Only use chicken or turkey that you know is fresh and cooked through (no pink), and has been kept in the fridge. If you have any doubts about how it has been stored, don't use it.

Treats

Foods such as chocolates, lollies, fruit straps or roll-ups, sweet biscuits and packets of chips are considered ‘empty foods’ - they fill a child's stomach for a short time but don't give the goodness that they need to do their best at school. They’re best treated as ‘sometimes’ foods, not as everyday lunch box foods.

Tip

• Sometimes a sweet or a packet of chips is packed into a child's lunch box as a treat to eat after their main food. Chances are, the child will eat the treat first and either be too full, or not have time to eat the healthy food.

Nutrition in the school curriculum

Teachers who are looking for learning activities about healthy eating will find a whole section with curriculum support materials for early and middle childhood. Tell your child’s school about the Lunch Box World website. Including information in the school newsletter is a good way to get your school community thinking about healthy food for children.

Lunch box food in pregnancy

Pregnant women can enjoy healthy lunch box food at work or on picnics. The website describes good nutrition in pregnancy and also helps you to understand more about Listeria infection – what it is, where it comes from and how to reduce the risk of an infection.

By Helen Read

Nutrition Team Leader, Meerilinga Young Children’s Foundation

This article was first published in Australian Family Magazine, November 2004.