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MURRAY — Back-to-school time means new clothes, books and thinking about what to pack for lunch.
Lunch is fuel for school, but packing that meal can be a daunting task for parents.
Intermountain Healthcare dietitian for The Orthopedic Specialty Hospital Ashley Hagensick said parents should make it fun for the kids and remember the ABCs. "'A' being for added sugars, 'B' for balance and 'C' for color," she said.
When it comes to A, added sugar, the American Heart Association reports children should eat less than 25 grams of added sugars daily.
That means parents need to read the labels.
"Juice for kids should be 100 percent juice and stick to the 4 ounces. And then with the fruit cup, we do no sugar added or if it's sweetened in its own juices," Hagensick said.
Look for unsweetened apple sauce and stay clear of most sports drinks and sodas, as they will put kids over the recommended add-sugar limit.
"You can see here that the Dr. Pepper this 20-ounce container has about 64 grams (of sugar), so that's really too much for kids," said Claire Siekaniec, Intermountain Healthcare dietitian for The Orthopedic Specialty Hospital.
The American Heart Association reports 91 percent of U.S. children have a poor diet. And children who eat foods loaded with added sugars tend to eat fewer healthy foods. These habits lead to an increased risk of heart disease.
For B, balance, Siekaniec and Hagensick prepared five different examples of possible lunches. "You can kind of look at the lunches that we've prepared and in each one, you'll find a whole grains," Siekaniec said. "So in these on, for example, we have pretzels, crackers, whole wheat bread, bagel and then a whole wheat tortilla."
Part of the balance also includes including all four food groups.
For dairy, you can throw in chocolate milk or a squeeze yogurt.
And then for C, color. Siekaniec said, "The color's important because that's where you're getting different vitamins and minerals that are present in the different colors of the fruits and vegetables."
If you have a picky eater, Siekaniec and Hagensick suggested getting creative. You can do peanut butter on celery with raisins and call it ants on a log. Another option is an apple peanut butter sandwich.
"There's lots of options, but keeping it so they have fun with it, they're less likely to get the Snickers bar and the bag of chips at lunch," Hagensick said.
A healthy lunch makes sure they're refueled for classroom success.
A few other quick tips:
Freeze that juice box to multitask as an ice pack. Purchase the Bento- Style lunch boxes with separate compartments to keep things separated and inspect what comes home so you know what's working and what's not.
