As many of you may know, I have always taken a particular interest in nutrition and childhood obesity. In particular, it pains me to see so many children adopting poor eating habits and to see so many kids already dealing with the struggles and health consequences of being overweight or obese.
I have recently been attempting to do more research in this area as well as to advocate for our children's futures. I strive to encourage families to make positive changes and hopefully alter the trajectory of the current obesity epidemic.
The following is an article I wrote about packing healthy school lunches. Though initially intended for parents at my children's preschool, I thought it might be useful to a broader audience.
Better Lunches for Brighter Futures
Today’s generation of children is projected to be the first generation in American history to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents. While this is a striking and tragic statement, taking a look around our community makes it rather easy to believe.
Currently in America nearly 36% of adults are obese. Even worse, a third of school aged children are considered obese and 25% of 2-5 year olds fall in to this category. These statistics do not even account for the number of children considered overweight. We have become a nation of overfed and undernourished people. While the scientific, socioeconomic, and psychological factors which contribute to this epidemic are myriad, there are some simple steps we as parents can take to better nourish our children and set them on the path to healthful living as adults.
As a pediatrician and mother of four kids under the age of 7, I understand the challenges of feeding small children. For many of you, the idea of your child becoming obese may seem laughable. “He never eats!” or “He’s so picky!” are common concerns for parents of toddlers and preschool aged children. It can be stressful to watch your child refuse to eat, and as a result many parents give in to the temptation to continually serve their child the same few foods that they know they will eat. This practice, while keeping our children loaded up on calories, effectively eliminates what is the key to any healthy diet: variety. It’s not hard to see how these habits can eventually translate into an adult diet high in quantity and low in quality.
Research in child feeding strategies, however, has shown that the best way to improve the variety in your child’s diet is to continue to offer them a wide range of foods and not default to feeding them something else if they refuse what is offered. The repeated exposure to these foods makes them seem more familiar and increases the likelihood that your child will not only try, but will actually enjoy them. Even a very strong-willed child will not starve in a house full of food. Go ahead and let them refuse their dinner -- they will be that much hungrier at breakfast time! Lunch at school is a great time to put this idea into practice as you are not with your child. Thus, they cannot try to coerce you into trashing their healthy lunch and making them another bowl of mac and cheese.
Adding to the stress that can come from trying to feed persnickety toddlers is, of course, the time and money required for eating healthfully. Trying to pack a healthy school lunch for your child during the morning rush or when you are exhausted at the end of the day can be, at times, overwhelming. For this reason and the fact that processed, pre-packaged “convenience” foods are frequently less expensive than fresh, whole foods it is easy to get sucked into the temptation to throw a Lunchable in a bag and call it good. However, research has repeatedly demonstrated that children who eat a NUTRITIOUS lunch have more energy, learn better, score higher on standardized tests and are better behaved at school. So, in other words, it’s worth spending a little more time and money here.
So what does a nutritious lunch look like? Most of us probably have a good idea, but a little refresher never hurts.
For those of you less familiar with the new “My Plate” dietary guidelines, it’s similar to the “food pyramid” we all learned about in health class as kids. The main difference is that fewer grains and relatively more fruits and vegetables are recommended. Also, they have done away with suggesting a specific number of servings from each group and instead recommend a relative proportion each food category should occupy in terms of one’s total diet.
The approach I generally take in packing my children’s lunches (or in preparing any meal for my family, really) is to try my best to adhere to a “rule of 5” ---namely that each of the 5 food groups listed on My Plate are represented. This often translates to me packing 5 separate items in my child’s lunch box. For example, a typical lunch may be:
Cut strawberries (fruit)
Sliced cucumbers (vegetables)
Whole grain crackers (grain)
Turkey lunch meat (protein)
Yogurt (dairy)
Five items, five food groups represented. And no, I don’t make my own yogurt nor do I raise organic turkeys in my backyard. I do, however, try to choose minimally processed foods and feed my kids as much fresh and home-made food as possible. I choose organic foods when available.
So, my challenge to you is to join me in fighting the overfeeding and undernourishing of our kids by improving their school lunch. Try to adhere to the “rule of 5” to ensure that your child is getting a well-balanced meal. Do your best to reduce the amount of processed and pre-packaged food you pack and try to vary the foods you offer in each category as frequently as possible. Taking these simple steps can make a huge difference in improving the quality of food that nourishes our children and as a result improve their well-being, enhance school performance and set them on the path to making better food choices as healthy adults.
Do you have a particular strategy for packing healthy school lunches or feeding a finicky toddler?
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