Healthful Lunches Made Easy
This article originally appeared in the Park Record’s Parent section on August 15, 2009, as written by Greg Marshall.
Homemade Snacks Are Better
The biggest challenge to making healthful meals for kids is a lack of time, says nutrition specialist Michelle Larson. Busy parents often depend too much on pre-packaged goods for brown-bag lunches that are often loaded with sugar, artificial fats and other culprits.
“It’s an easy thing to fall into,” said Larson, who is the co-owner of Park City’s Origin Nutrition. At the same time, Larson said letting kids overindulge in sweets and snacks can be detrimental, even if long-term consequences, such as diabetes and obesity, aren’t immediately apparent.
“In a way, kids can get away with eating junk food more than adults can,” Larson said. But careless eating early in life leads to lasting habits. “Kids may be able to eat Doritos without gaining weight, but it’s going to be harder to break those habits later on.”
Even when pressed for time, parents can prepare wholesome food without spending too much cash. It’s a matter of thinking creatively and planning ahead. Rather than a packaged snack that contains bread sticks, cheese and lunchmeat, fix the snack yourself.
“The components appear to be the same, but you’ll have control over the quality of the ingredients,” Larson said.
A quick homemade treat like sliced cheese on crackers won’t have any nasty surprises such as high-fructose corn syrup or monosodium glutamate, also known as MSG.*
The next challenge for parents is, of course, how to make children eat healthy foods. The key is to be consistent. Give kids healthful foods, the logic goes, and eventually they will seize them. On the other hand, kids won’t ever choose oft-bemoaned “health food” if it is rarely presented as a possibility.
It is important to lead by example. If parents eat well, kids will be more likely to follow suit.
Remember that heart-healthy food an be delicious. Don’t be afraid to sweeten the deal with vegetable dips, hummus and nut butters to make fruits and vegetables more palatable to youngsters, Larson said.
At the same time, packaged snacks don’t need to be entirely eliminated from diets, but only given sparingly. “You don’t want kids to think of sweets as ‘forbidden fruit,’” Larson explained. Just as parents have been saying for generations, moderation is the best principle. By including just one fresh item in daily lunches and using fewer bagged foods, parents can steward healthier habits.
Larson offers a simple health test for nutrition labels: the simpler, the better. Ingredients that are hard to pronounce are usually created in a laboratory, and are not the healthiest options.
Keep in mind the consequences of eating poorly. Sugar is a brain drain. Consume it in excess and mood swings, energy crashes and restless nights ensue.
Afternoon sugar cravings should be red flags to parents.
Diagnosing and treating the problem early is important. Often, parents wait for advanced symptoms such as gratuitous weight gain before intervening.
A child’s weight, experts say, is not always a dependable measure for how well they are eating. Instead, parents should gauge a child’s energy. Do they have enough energy to finish their homework? Are they engaged or distracted and tired? All of these can be symptoms of eating the wrong foods. “Weight is part of a bigger picture,” Larson said. “Weight is just a symptom.”
*You’ll only be able to avoid these ingredients by becoming an avid label reader. High-fructose corn syrup, especially, is in almost everything these days!
