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Jerry the Blogger
Mission: Nutrition
Follow Jerry as he starts making healthier nutrition choices using the Balanced Life™ Plan.
What's in Your Child's Lunch?
This legislation governs how the National School Lunch Program, a federally assisted meal program, operates in public and nonprofit private schools and residential child care institutions. It provides nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches to children each school day.
Now it's time to update the program, including making more healthy, fresh foods available to school children and getting rid of more of the junk food that's all too readily available. The reauthorization should also help make healthier breakfast available to 10 million children who rely on schools for their daily morning meal (through the National School Breakfast Program).
A recent Washington Post editorial urged lawmakers to get behind the act and provide the funding necessary to give kids what they need to succeed. I'm all for making sure every student can have healthy meals to feed their bodies, so schools have a better shot at feeding their minds. Let's hope Congress strengthens the Child Nutrition Act soon and cooks up something healthier for America's youth.
Setting a Good Example: Does It Matter?
Still, I found this new study reported on in today's New York Times worth considering, at least.
Researchers tracked the eating habits of parents and their children using thousands of questionnaires. Their discovery? As much as we parents hope we are setting the right nutritional example for our kids (or fear we are showing the wrong way to eat), the next generation simply isn't following suit. "They found little resemblance between the consumption of total energy, carbohydrates, saturated fats or polyunsaturated fats by children and their parents," the Times article said.
Younger kids tended to show more similarities to their parents, while older kids strayed more. That's not surprising, as we all know teens have minds of their own -- particularly when it comes to what they eat. Peers tend to have much more influence on older kids' eating habits, so perhaps the best thing we can do is steer them toward friends who eat their veggies?
In any case, I certainly hope our efforts to provide our daughter with a mixed menu of better-for-you options aren't for nothing. At least while she's young, we have more say over the food she consumes, whether it's fresh fruit or Orville Redenbacher's SmartPop microwave popcorn (one of her favorites). And as she gets older, we'll have to do everything we can to teach her why healthy eating helps her feel better. I simply won't accept that my example means nothing -- study or no study.
Keeping Nutrition In The Bag
When I was a child the school cafeteria had two types of people: kids who bought lunch at school and kids brought bag lunches from home. I used to think that kids with bag lunches had healthier food, but according to researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, preschool children who bring bag lunches to school may be at a nutritional disadvantage.
Due to the increasing cost of food preparation and storage, more and more childcare centers are requiring parents to provide food for their children. Researchers discovered some interesting trends after studying 74 children ages 3-5 who attended full-time childcare centers that require parents to provide lunches.
The study, published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, found more than 50 percent of bag lunches provided less than minimum amounts of calories, carbohydrates, vitamin A, calcium, iron and zinc. Also, 96 percent of lunches provided less than minimum recommended amounts of dietary fiber. When bag lunches exceeded recommendations it wasn't for the better. On average, the lunches contained 114 percent of the recommended amount of sodium.
When researchers asked parents if lunch provides an important opportunity for their children to receive nutrients, all 97 parents agreed, but 63 percent responded that they tend to pack only foods they know their child will eat ... even if those foods aren't healthy.
As a parent of a two-year-old girl who rarely eats the food her mother and I prepare, I know what it's like being a parent who just wants a child to eat. There are days when I feel like the only way to get my child to eat is if I give her food that isn't particularly healthy. That said, it's important to find healthy foods and snacks that your child is willing to eat. Maybe it's fat-free Snack Pack pudding or DAVID sunflower seeds. Maybe it's as simple as using reduced fat Peter Pan peanut butter on your kid's PB and Jelly sandwich. Whatever the case may be, it's important to keep nutrition in mind when packing those bag lunches for our children.
What ideas or solutions have you tried with your kids' meals? Share your comments and let others know what healthy choices you've made.
Jerry
My name is Jerry, and I'm a father, editor, and photographer. I've gained too much weight recently, and in 2006, my wonderful daughter was born... Read More |
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