How to pack a healthy lunchbox

Overview

We often get asked a lot about ‘how to pack a healthy lunchbox’ when we are out in the community talking to parents and child about nutrition topics. Providing your child with a healthy lunchbox will support their growing body and brain. Good nutrition during childhood is linked to improved concentration, better grades and higher attendance rates at school.

Preparing lunchboxes doesn’t need to be a daunting task. Follow these nutritionist and dietitian-approved tips so your child can be happy and focussed at school.

1. Keep it balanced

The Dietary Guidelines promote the enjoyment of a wide variety of nutritious foods. To make sure your child achieves this, it is important that their lunchbox includes all five food groups. The table below provides some examples of healthy lunchbox additions.

2. Mix it up

Try to rotate the types of foods that are included in your child’s lunchbox every day. This will prevent your child from getting bored and tempted to buy less healthy foods from their school’s canteen or swap with their friends.

3. Involve your child

Give your child some control over the foods included in their lunchbox by letting them make choices within a set of healthy options. This will build your child’s knowledge and skills around healthy eating from an early age. After foods have been selected, including your child in their preparation and/or cooking process is good fun and will make them more interested in eating it when lunch times arrives.

4. Don’t forget water

Including bottled water in your child’s lunchbox and encouraging them to refill it throughout the day will keep your child hydrated. There is no need to include soft drinks, sports drinks or large quantities of juice in your child’s lunchbox, as all these drinks are high in sugar and not good for their teeth.

5. Practice food safety

In hot weather, use an insulated lunch box with an ice brick to keep food cool. Including frozen fruit, yogurt or water in your child’s lunchbox will also help to ensure perishable foods stay safe to eat.

References

1. Health and Academic Achievement. Atlanta; CDC: 2014. Available from; https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/health_and_academics/pdf/health-academic-achievement.pdf

How to pack a healthy lunchbox
Posted by Genna Vlitas, BSc, undertaking MDiet.
Nutritionist & Student Dietitian from Daley Nutrition

Daley Nutrition is a community nutrition team based in Melbourne Victoria, we run a range of nutrition based programs such as cooking demonstrations in Australia to raise people’s awareness of what they are eating and empower them to change certain eating habits.