Don’t worry parents, we’ve got 105 Healthy Kid-Approved Lunch Ideas for this School Year!
Back to School Means Back to Making Lunches. And we know, whether thats for 1 kiddo or 5, that can be a daunting task. Luckily Dr. Lauryn Lax has prepared us parents well this year with 105 Kid-Tasted-and-Approved Healthy School Lunch Ideas.
““KID-FOOD” IS A BUNCH OF CROCK“
“Growing up, what did you like to pack in your lunchbox for school?
Every year, I always had a new kick.
- In kindergarten, I was all about crustless PB & J sandwiches on Iron Kids Bread with a side of Lay’s Potato Chips, Grapes and Oreos.
- In 1st grade, my taste buds matured on to turkey and Kraft cheese singles, or Oscar Meyer’s bologna and cheese, on my Iron Kids Bread alongside some Doritos and Fruit Gushers.
- Come 2nd grade, I reached “cool kid” status when my mom bought me turkey and cheese Lunchables, and on special occasions, Pizza or Nacho Lunchables.
- And by 3rd and 4th grade, I expanded once more to turkey sandwiches on honey wheat bread, other types of fruit and pretzel sticks, and once more, on special occasions, Bagel Bites or Ham & Cheese Hot Pockets with a Capri Sun.
Oh, sigh. The good ol’ days…
As a kid of the Processed Food Generation, I somehow lived to tell about it (although, I KNOW my gut health in future years suffered tremendously). And, chances are, if you have kids (or you eat like a kid yourself), they are somehow living to tell about eating these “kid classic” foods and snacks too.
Unfortunately, in a society where 80% of the foods on grocery store shelves are Man-Made-Food-Like-Products, we’ve raised our kids (and ourselves) to believe that t kids ONLY eat “kid food.”
We tell them (and ourselves) that kids are “picky,” and we’ve trained them (and ourselves) to believe that anything outside of the packaged, processed or sugar-filled version of a food is “yucky.”
In order to get them to eat anything “real” (an apple, broccoli, chicken, sweet potato), we have to dress it up in a sugar-filled peanut butter, fake cheese sauce, breaded coating or ketchup.
And we wonder WHY…
- More than 50% of kids today now have a chronic disease (diabetes, arthritis, obesity/overweight, asthma)
- 1 in 3 children in every classroom (of 30 students) has ADHD
- 1 in 6 kids have sensory processing or developmental disorder , and Autism is one of the fastest growing of the developmental disorders in modern day with more than a 50-percent increase in the past 20 years alone.
Is there something in the water?
Our brains and bodies eat what our mouths eat.
While Goldfish, Gushers and Lunchables are definitely tasty “kid-friendly” foods, we are no longer living in the 80’s and 90’s—when processed foods were way cool.
Knowledge is power, and today, we have the knowledge (and awareness) that what we eat (and what our kids eat) matters for our brain health, gut health and quality of life overall.”
