Back to school is around the corner, so it’s a good time to revisit your children’s diet. Choosing healthy meals now will help them prepare for the next school year and continue to benefit them well into adulthood. Here are some simple reminders about healthy lunch options.

Good Nutrition

When it comes to a healthy lunch, it is important to include a wide variety of fruit and vegetables. It is also important to drink plenty of liquids, including water. Milk substitutes, such as Oat Drinks, are also an excellent choice. Having a meal with these components can help you feel full and satisfied until you are ready to eat again.

Home-Lunch Options

Providing a healthy lunch is an easy way to teach your kids responsibility. Your child can help you make the meal by helping to choose the foods you pack. You should include fruits and vegetables, lean proteins, whole grains, and dairy products in the lunchbox. For example, your child can pack a turkey and cheese sandwich on whole grain bread with grapes or carrot sticks dipped in hummus. Make sure you pack the lunch in a cooler filled with ice packs and refrigerate it within two hours.

Another healthy lunch option is a salad. A great salad contains plenty of vegetables and protein. A delicious salad of mixed greens can be served cold or in the room. You can also try a Mediterranean chicken salad full of fresh flavors.

Balanced Meal Options

The USDA’s ChooseMyPlate resource reminds people to eat balanced meals and offers healthy eating tips. A balanced meal should contain a range of carbohydrates, protein, and fat. It is important to avoid fad diets that limit one or more of these nutrients. These diets tend not to help people maintain a healthy weight.

Nutritional Value of Foods

To pack a nutritious lunch, you should know how many calories each food contains. A calorie calculator can help you determine how many calories each of your favorite foods contain. The calculator uses gram values like those used on Nutrition Facts labels. To find out how many calories a particular food contains, type the number into the ” cup ” column or “value per 100 grams.”

Fun Ways to Teach Kids About Nutrition

There are many ways to make your kid’s lunch a healthy one. You can also teach them how to recognize the different types of food. For example, you can cut out pictures of food and label them as ‘farm fresh’ or ‘factory food.’ Kids will learn the difference between these two types of food and how they affect different body parts. You can even show them how the macronutrients in different foods help our bodies function.

You can also play games with them to help them learn more about nutrition and healthy food. For example, a “Red Light, Green Light: Healthy Food Edition” game is a fun activity for kids to play. Children can go fast for “healthy” foods, slow for “so-so” foods, and stop for those that aren’t healthy. In addition, you can use a “Yay or Nay” game to teach kids about food labels and what they are.