Healthy packed lunch ideas kids love
I posted on Facebook this week with some ideas for healthy packed lunches for children and the feedback was that you would also love to eat this kind of food.
Healthy and tasty lunch box Ideas for children. Photo Credit - Ella Olsson, Unsplash
The unhealthy stuff…
Let’s take a typical packed lunch… a ham sandwich, a clementine, a chocolate biscuit and a packet of crisps… let’s break that down a bit more… Nutritious or not?
Bread is not healthy nor is it needed in our diet. We do occasionally eat bread but it’s a rarity, it’s not the norm and it’s certainly not the staple food of our diet. Nor should it be of yours if you want to be healthy. Bread is irritating to the stomach lining. The body processes starch exactly as it does sugar. If you were told that the bread you eat was made only of sugar and water, not flour and water, would you still eat it? That’s the truth! Starch and sugar have exactly the same effect on the body! If you don’t want to eat sugar you also need to stop eating bread (and all flour based products).
Ham is definitely a source of complete protein but if it’s shop bought sliced ham it comes with a sugar coating on it and nitrate preservatives.. it’s classed as a junk food because of the additives and the processing. Make your own sliced ham and enjoy it with the fat - this is the most nutritious way to eat it.
Let’s assume that this sandwich has a ‘low calorie’ spread instead of butter on it. These are made of vegetable oils and are very damaging to every cell in the body. There is no place in the diet for vegetable oils - they are pure junk.
Clementines. These are not a healthy fruit. They are high in sugar and low in nutrients. The sugar kick makes them a popular choice and they are bred to be sweeter than their natural, heirloom cousins. They are a better choice than candy of course but as natural food goes, they cause a sharp blood sugar spike. This is the healthiest part of this ‘standard’ packed lunch.
Crisps and chocolate biscuit. Loaded with sugar, chemicals, trans fats, toxic oils and they are anti-nutrient which means that your body uses up essential minerals and vitamins to digest and metabolise them. There is no place for shop bought snacks in a healthy diet, it takes very little effort to make your own. I hope to show you how. You can search for my recipes across this website.
The healthy stuff..
Here are some packed lunch ideas to inspire you…
Vegetarian / High Raw Food
2 soft boiled eggs (in shell)
Cheese cubes
Mixed salad - carrot sticks, celery sticks, pepper sticks, cucumber sticks, couple of large salad leaves.
1 clementine
Home made plain yoghurt
Small tub of berries (to put on the yoghurt if he wants).
Water
WAPF / Innate Diet
Lamb, kale, and root veg casserole (in a soup flask).(slow cooked with bones and made from lamb roast leftovers).
Seed crackers with raw butter
Banana
Home made pork crackling
Water
WAPF / Paleo / Innate
Large 2 egg omelette used as a wrap with home made liver pate, lettuce, cucumber, tomato, sliced red onion and avocado.
Mango hedgehog
Portion of home made apple crumble (sugar and wheat free with a nut crust)
Tub of set cold egg yolk custard.
Water
Vegetarian / High Raw Food
My signature banana, egg yolk & protein smoothie.
Cheezy Kale chips.
Beetroot and Pear salad in a tub.
Spiced cashew nuts.
Water
Please see my recipe blogs for the specific recipes for these ideas.
The bottom line: Lunch boxes are a great opportunity to get a good variety of foods into our kids, rather than throw junk food at them and let them suffer the consequences later down the line. It’s also a great opportunity to broaden their range of tastes and food choices.
