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Packed Lunch at school is both nutritionally and socially important. |
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Healthy packed lunch and snacks provide children with energy to stay active. |
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Packed lunch should provide 1/3rd of daily requirements of calories and proteins to the child. |
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Packed lunch gives your child the energy for the second half of the day and helps children concentrate and reach their full academic potential. |
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Packing healthy launches can be a challenging feat! |
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Parents need to educate their children that the lunch box must have something from each of the food groups to stay energetic. Here are some healthful ideas:
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Grains: |
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Include whole-wheat breads and pastas, low fat bran muffins, or whole-wheat flour pranthas/rolls. |
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Protein: |
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Besan preparations (besan puras stuffed with vegetables, soya preparations and hard-boiled eggs. |
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Fruits and Vegetables: |
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Include sliced fresh fruit or a pack of Real fruit juice, carrot and cucumber sticks, or other veggies. |
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Calcium: |
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Include cheese/egg sandwich or calcuim rich fruits like banana. |
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How to Pack Nutritious Lunch for Kids ? |
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Packing lunch for kids is a vital task but at the same time it needs to be handled thoughtfully, skillfully and carefully by the parents in order to achieve 100 percent success in terms of kid eating the packed lunch.
The following suggestions may be helpful:
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The lunch box style: |
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Give your kid a lunch-box that keeps his food warm, looks attractive and is easy to handle by the kid. |
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Variety/presentation style: |
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Try to pack a different kind of lunch everyday with a variation in presentation style to avoid boredom to the kids. For example, Cut the sandwiches in different ways to add interest: for example triangles, squares or strips. |
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Avoid too Dry foods: |
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Try avoid giving dishes that are too dry, else compliment them with tomato ketchup, green chutneys, imli saunth chutneys etc. Also a pack of fruit juice can be a good compliment with the lunch. |
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Avoid Messy and sticky foods: |
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Avoid giving meals that are messy, mushy, fiddly and sticky. For example, don’t put chutney and sandwich in the same compartment of the lunch box but use a separate container for the chutney. |
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Maximize Nutrition: |
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Do not worry if your child does not finish lunch in school some day. Try to at least ensure he has a nutritious breakfast and dinner so that his nutritional requirements are fulfilled. |
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