So, you have come a long way, and there is hardly any packets in the lunchbox anymore. Lunch consists of: sandwich, apple, banana, yoghurt and a biscuit and muesli bar. Sounds ok huh?
What if I told you that there could be up to TEN hidden teaspoons of added sugar in this lunchbox? The recommended daily intake of added sugars from the World Health Organisation (WHO) is 4 teaspoons for a 5 year old (and a maximum of 8) this has just blown the sugar intake through the roof in just one meal! Let me explain; Fresh and fruity fruit yoghurt: just over 4 tsp sugar*. 2 superwine biscuits: 1 tsp. Muesli bar: around 3 tsp on average depending on the bar. Jam or honey in a sandwich: 1-2 tsp And just like that you have 8-10 tsp of added sugar all packaged up nicely in a healthy looking school lunch. Marmite and even some peanut butters have added sugar in them, it’s everywhere and unfortunately we have to become detectives to scope this out!
So what could you do about this? The trick is not to change everything at once, not only would that be hard work for you, your kids would probably be feeling pretty overwhelmed too if their lunchbox suddenly changed overnight. Make the changes small, easy for you to manage and sustainable – something you can do, and stick to, so you don’t look back. Some small, simple tips (choose one):
- Replace the sandwich filling to something like ham, salami, egg or cheese Spreads: We slowly got rid of things like marmite and jam from the house, so they are not even an option.
- Next time you run out of jam or Nutella, don’t replace it. We make homemade jam by blending up berries and adding some chia seeds and a tiny bit of honey.
- Read the labels, make sure you get a peanut butter with no added sugar.
- Try using plain Greek yoghurt instead of flavoured and add some fresh fruit to it, berries are perfect for that, fresh in summer, or frozen in winter. Even stirring a teaspoon of honey through plain yoghurt will have nothing on the sugar content of a brought flavoured pottle, you could try this with the intention to reduce it completely after a few weeks. For dairy free options, flavoured coconut yoghurt, does tend to have a little less sugar than some other dairy brands, but still check the label and try and choose the least sugar.
The lunchbox I described is one of the better lunches I’ve seen in the classroom, but just because it’s what everyone is packing, does it make it ok? (I’ll leave that to you to decide). There is no protien, fat or vegetables in this lunchbox – some ideal forms of fuel for little bodies to learn and grow. I will share my tips on how to add these in, in the coming weeks.
If you need a hand getting lunchboxes sorted I have created a Lunchbox Planner resource that comes with 70+ healthy, real food, minimal prep or fuss food ideas and 12 healthy lunchbox recipes. You can check it out here.
Come Back next week for tip #2 🙂
*one teaspoon of sugar is about 4 grams.
My kids lick the bowl has a fantastic blog post which shows how much sugar is in everyday items and how it correlates to WHO’s recommended daily intake. It’s been expertly calculated and put into easy to read visuals! I used this to help me with my lunchbox example. I highly recommend checking it out!
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