How Healthy Lunches Keep Kids from Packing on the Pounds

Remember when packing a school lunch was as simple as slapping together a PB&J and bagging a Twinkie™? With the percentage of obese children doubling during the past 20 years, times have changed. And the best way to keep kids fit, says Netty Levine, a registered dietitian with Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, is to pay more attention to what's for lunch.

Many schools' meals contain more fat than the government recommends, according to Levine. And many campuses feature vending machines and programs from local restaurants that offer unhealthy temptations.

"Given that kids spend most of their day in school, the only way you can ensure that they're going to eat healthfully is to help them pack a healthy lunch from home," Levine says.

Along with providing a healthy breakfast before school, and having healthy snacks at the ready after school, Levine says parents need to teach kids to bag a lunch with all the essentials:

• Protein -Ideally from lower-fat and lower-cholesterol meats, such as chicken, turkey or tuna, or even from lower-fat peanut butter.
• Grains -From whole-grain breads, bread sticks, rice cakes, crackers, tortillas or cold pasta salad.
• Vegetables -On a sandwich (packed separately so they don't make it mushy), or cut up in bags. Color is the key to appeal here, so think cherry tomatoes, carrots and yellow peppers.
• Fruits -Fresh is best, but canned fruit in its own juice will do. Juice drinks, which have the same amount of calories as soda, lack fiber and are a poor substitute, says Levine.
• Dairy -From low-fat or non-fat milk, cheese, cottage cheese or yogurt.
• Water -If your child does not like drinking from the school water fountains.

Pack all of this into a thermal-lined lunch box, and throw in a freezer pack or small frozen water bottle to keep the food safely chilled. If your child still pines for potato chips or misses m&m's®, you don't have to deprive him entirely. Just set reasonable limits. "Limit the number to the child's age, like seven chips and seven m&m's," suggests Levine.

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