Today, I’m featuring another important repost from days gone by; this one from about a year ago. It’s so important to make the extra effort in choosing the foods our kids eat. They develop a taste for what we feed them, be it good or bad, homemade or McDonald’s, whole foods or processed. All it takes is a scanning of the label and a refusal to buy garbage. Read on!
I have a confession to make: I got a little spoiled this summer. With three teens and a four-year-old, it was nice only having to make lunch for one of them. The older ones were on their own when it came to making their lunches, and didn’t seem to mind one bit.
Now that school has begun again (for two of them, anyway — one graduated last June), I’m back to my job as chief lunch maker. They do make their own lunches to take on occasion, but I’m still the one who decides which foods will be in the cupboards and fridge to pick from.
The hardest part, for me, is variety — making sure they don’t get tired of the same-old, same-old. The easiest part is making sure they’re not getting junk, and it’s easy for one reason: I read food packaging labels and I know what I’m looking for.
My “dream lunch” to send to school with my kids would be something like this:
Turkey sandwich on whole wheat
Fruit
Veggies with healthy ranch dip
Crackers with no added MSG, sugar, or high fructose corn syrup
Water or milk
But…that’s not always possible, nor what they want on a daily basis. Sometimes I’ll give in (Doritos, cookies), but only a little, and not too often. It’s easy to throw a lunch together with conveniently-packaged snack foods from the grocery store, but it really doesn’t take that much effort to make it healthier.
At the very least, keep an eye out at the grocery store (yes, read labels while you’re shopping) for the usual criminals: monosodium glutamate (a.k.a. MSG), high fructose corn syrup (HFSC), bad fats, and artificial sweeteners.
Why? MSG is a known neurotoxin that never leaves the human body and has been proven to cause allergic reactions in sensitive individuals. HFCS can wreak havoc on the body and is thought to make certain people more prone to developing diabetes, and artificial sweeteners like aspartame, sucralose (Splenda), Nutra Sweet, and others are chemically derived, can cause symptoms like headaches and depression, and can contribute to obesity by actually causing you to actually crave real sugar…after all, you can’t really fool your own body — at least not for very long.
I’m always amazed at how many prepackaged foods contain food additives like the ones mentioned above. (MSG is also known by many other names. Read this post to learn more.)
We parents hold our children’s health in our hands…literally. It is vital to make sure we’re feeding them the healthiest foods possible and are teaching them good habits now. I realize it’s not always possible to keep this stuff out of our cupboards (especially if you aren’t the only grocery shopper in your family), but at least getting started — and making changes, no matter how small — is the important thing.
In the spirit of the highly popular book series, Eat This, Not That, I’d like to share with you some good substitutes for your kids’ school lunches. I’ve compiled a list of common not-so-healthy lunchbox items and their more nutritious counterparts (notice I didn’t say “perfect,” just “more nutritious”). You’ll notice that some of the items do contain sugar, but when it comes right down to it, I’d rather my kids have a small amount of sugar than HFCS or chemically-derived artificial sweeteners. Our bodies at least know what to do with regular sugar (eat it or store it as fat), but simply gets confused by the others.
Peanut butter. Here is a good example of choosing “the lesser of two evils.” I know what you’re thinking…how could peanut butter possibly be evil? I love peanut butter as much as the next kid (I’m a kid at heart), but there are two things to watch out for: calories and fats. Rather than do an all-out comparison, I’ll just recommend two brands that I’ve bought, eaten, and fed to my own family.
The first is Skippy Natural Creamy Peanut Butter. The only ingredients are roasted peanuts, sugar (3 g. per 2 tbsp.), palm oil, and salt. There’s much debate about palm oil, but it’s healthier than regular Skippy Peanut Butter, which contains cottonseed, soybean, and rapeseed oils. (Oops, I guess I just did a comparison.) Skippy Natural has 190 calories per two tablespoons; 140 of those are from fat.
The second I’m going to recommend is Adam’s 100% Natural Creamy Peanut Butter. It has more calories at 210 per two tablespoons, 150 of those being from fat. Yikes. However, its only ingredients are roasted peanuts and salt. Adam’s Peanut Butter is an acquired taste, I’ll admit, especially if your kids are used to regular peanut butter, which is sweeter and more processed.
Jelly and/or Jam. Do NOT buy “low sugar” or “sugar free” unless it’s from the nutrition section of the store. I can pretty much guarantee it will contain artificial sweeteners. (Smucker’s Simply Fruit “Low Sugar” variety has the NutraSweet logo right on the label.) Also, avoid jams and jellies with HFCS. My favorite sweetened-with-sugar-only brand is Danish Orchards.
Crackers. Many store-bought cracker varieties contain MSG and HFCS. There’s no need for it! It’s one of my chief frustrations while shopping to see foods that are full of this garbage being marketed toward our children. Even Cheez-It crackers — the regular variety contains MSG. The same brand’s whole grain variety does not, so if your kids like Cheez-Its as much as mine do, get the whole grain ones. They don’t taste ANY different.
Update: You can also try making your own crackers that aren’t full of the preservatives and flavor enhancers like many of the store brands are. Do a Google search for “healthy cracker recipes” and you’ll find more than you can possibly use.
Capri Sun. Ah, memories. My mom put Capri Sun pouches in my lunch when I was in junior high school (back in the…ahem…early 80s). There are more varieties of Capri Sun now, so being a vigilant parent is very important if you buy them for your kids. Depending on the variety, you could be giving your kids HFCS or artificial sweeteners (sucralose, in this case, which caused serious depression in me last year…so I know first hand how bad it is). Stay away, for example, from the Roarin’ Waters variety. It’s clear in color, so it makes you think it’s healthier. NOT. Roarin’ Waters contains sucralose, identified as “Splenda brand sweetener” on the ingredients list. If a child can’t have sugar, I can understand why a parent might need to buy items with artificial sweeteners once in a while. HOWEVER, Roarin’ Waters also contains sugar along with the sucralose. If someone could explain the reasoning behind that, go ahead: I’m all ears!
Instead of Roarin’ Waters, buy instead the Original Capri Sun, which is sweetened only with sugar and real juice concentrates. Their Sunrise variety is also sweetened only with sugar, and their 100% Juice line is just as it says…100% juice. See my previous post on Capri Suns here.
Of course, my favorite (and usual) drink to send along with my kids in their lunches is bottled purified water.
I hope this article has given you some “food for thought.” If you remember none of what you read here, at least remember this: READ LABELS before you buy. Steer clear of MSG, high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, trans fats (and saturated fats, when possible). If it doesn’t sound natural, it most likely isn’t. Also, when you can, avoid unnecessary sugar. A good rule of thumb to keep in mind when reading labels is this: A long list of ingredients gives you a long list of reasons to not buy that particular product.
©2010 Sally Dinius
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Sally Dinius is writer-in-chief here at CrazyBusyMama.com, a blog created to inspire and motivate busy mamas everywhere to feel healthy, fit, and in control of their lives. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/sdinius, and come join the CrazyBusy Mama Facebook page by clicking here.
