The ABC’s of Healthy School Lunches

 

            Summer is winding down, soon there will be a chill in the air and the familiar sight of school buses back on the road. It’s back to school time which means shopping for school supplies, getting a new teacher(s) and the ubiquitous school lunch.

 

            Whether ordering a cafeteria lunch or packing your own, there are a multitude of choices beyond the soggy peanut butter and jelly that has found its way into school lunches for decades. In fact, awareness of peanut butter allergies and the severe life-threatening reaction that peanuts can cause have made many playgrounds and classrooms nut-free zones. Around 11 million Americans suffer from food allergies and the numbers seem to be climbing (Newsweek November 5, 2007).  As with many chronic conditions today, the question remains, are there really more people suffering or do we just have better screening tests and reporting methods?  With food allergies there do seem to be more cases. While “fewer than 1 percent of kids under five suffer from peanut allergies and severe reactions kill between 100 and 200 people a year,” (Newsweek) few schools or parents want to take the risk that a child have a deadly reaction at school.

 

            The question remains: why do allergies seem to be on the rise, especially in the United States. The most interesting hypothesis is that we’ve become too clean. Our immune systems are built to tackle parasites and viruses, dangerous invaders that often kill the body. These are like having an arsenal of weapons that have to be used. But in times of peace, or better yet, times with clean water and antibiotics, the most dangerous invaders never get a chance to attack our bodies, and so our own body is left fighting the more benign invaders, like peanuts, milk and wheat. Some research has even speculated that with the rise of Caesarean sections (which have almost doubled in the past decade) babies are not being exposed to healthy bacteria in their mom’s birth canal, once again a more worthy adversary our immune system should fight. 

 

            While there is no cure for peanut, milk or any type of food allergy and only treatment for the symptoms, it’s best to avoid the triggers. Even children who do not have allergies may need to pack a lunch that has to be peanut-free, in regards to their classmates. Aside from allergies there are plenty of considerations for what to pack in your child’s lunch. Although there will be mornings when the it’s either a Lunchable or nothing, hopefully most days your child will be packing something that is healthy, and most of all appetizing.   Here are some ideas for things to pack in a healthy lunch:

 

Don’t forget basic food safety—keep the hot food hot and the cold foods cold. Leftovers from the night before are usually our daughter’s choice for her lunch and since she’s been in 5^th grade it has been her job to pack her own lunch the night before. This not only ensures that she will eat what she packs, since she made the choices (we do regularly check to see what she has packed), but it offers her a bit more responsibility which is always something to encourage.  Packing an A+ lunch isn’t too difficult, whether your kid thrives on variety or same old—same old.   Remember you are sending a bit of home for your child’s busy school day and your healthy habits can be lessons taken anywhere.