Snack And Lunch

Healthy Lunchbox Snacks

Snacks are an important part of child’s diet as children may not get sufficient nutrients from breakfast, lunch and dinner. It’s important to ensure that kids have nutritious healthy snacks available in their lunchbox to get them through the school day providing them with the extra energy they need.
Avoid filling your child’s lunchbox with items such as biscuits, chips, cakes, chocolate bars and soft drinks that are high in energy, saturated fat, salt and sugar and offer little nutritional value. These foods are known as ‘extra’ or ‘occasional’ unhealthy foods that should not be eaten on a daily basis.

Here a few tips for healthy lunchbox snacks:
Keep it small – they should be just enough to get kids through until their next meal, not a meal for itself.
Make it nutritional – use this opportunity to get extra nutrients into your child’s diet, such as: calcium, vitamins, minerals and fibre.
Think like a child – choose snacks that kids can eat easily without too much fuss, that way they are more likely to eat them!
Keep healthy snacks cool –pack snacks such as cheese, yoghurt and fruit and vegetables or anything containing meat with a frozen water bottle to keep them cool and safe, or use a small insulated lunch bag.
Be creative – display fruit and veg. in a fun way.

Snack ideas:
Popcorn – pop your own without butter, oil and salt. Package it in zip lock or paper bags.
Veggie sticks and dip – experiment with different dips your kids like – hommus is a favorite or tehina.

Fruit yoghurt – you can freeze to keep cold until lunch time.
Wholegrain crackers with reduced fat cheese.