Packing lunches, day after day, can quickly become tedious. After all, there are only so many different ways you can pack a sandwich and even if your child is devoted to the traditional PB&J, banana and milk combo like one of my children, you may decide that you want to switch things up a bit.
Maybe you need to pack lunches in a hurry. You need some packaged foods to toss in the lunch bag, and you want foods that are yummy AND good for your child. Look for foods that are low in sugar, all natural, with no high fructose corn syrup and no chemical additives. It’s a tall order, to be sure, but here are a few of our favorite lunch box choices that meet our tough criteria.
Whole Grain Goldfish – Every kid loves to snack, and these childhood favorites have worked hard to make themselves a healthier choice. With 140 calories for about 55 goldfish – a perfect serving size to go with your child’s lunch – 5 grams of fat and 2 grams of fiber, these whole grain, tasty cheese crackers are both fun and a good dietary choice.
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By Jennifer Gregory
It’s a scene that plays out in many houses each afternoon: The kids come home from school and they are starving. Not just merely hungry, but absolutely famished and they want something to eat this very instant.
While it is tempting to reach for cookies, chips or ice cream to satisfy their munchies, with just five minutes of preparation you can give your kids a snack that you can feel good about serving.
Here are five quick and healthy ideas that you, and more importantly, your hungry kids, will love:
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Warm bread fresh out of the oven, mom’s homemade spaghetti, and chocolate chip cookies could make anyone have a good day. While it’s no mystery that fatty or sugary foods can alleviate just about any bad mood, hardly anyone questions why while reaching for that next Oreo.
Dr. Lukas Van Oudenhove’s study at the University of Leuven in Belgium discovers that the fatty acids in comfort food may be what is making us so happy when we’re consuming junk food. The study examined 12 non-obese volunteers the morning after a 12-hour fast. The volunteers were hooked up to a gastric feeding tube that gave either saline solution or fatty acid and their brain activity was recorded during a 40 minute fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) scan.
Before the participants were given either the saline or fatty acid, the researchers played sad classical music and displayed sad faces on a screen. The results of the study were that the participants who were given the fatty acid were 50 percent less sad than those given the saline solution.
Dr. Lukas Van Oudenhove and his team proved that the fatty acids in comfort foods were able to give the participants the same feeling without the visual and oral stimulation of eating the food.
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For many people, snacking can be part of a healthy diet that can lead to effective weight loss. However, according to research presented at the 2011 Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Annual Meeting & Food Expo, snacking, as well as beverage consumption outside of a regular meal, continues to increase among Americans, accounting for more than 25 percent of calorie intake each day.
Between 1977 and 2006, snacking in the American diet has grown to constitute “a full eating event,” or a fourth meal consisting of about 580 calories daily, according to Dr. Richard D. Mattes, Ph.D., professor of foods and nutrition at Purdue University.
While overall, snacking has increased, “there has been a significant increase in the amount of calories consumed through beverages,” said Mattes. Beverages are estimated to account for 50 percent of all calories consumed through snacking.
According to Mattes, many Americans don’t equate beverage intake with calorie intake so they are less likely to count these calories or make up for the excess by cutting back elsewhere in their diets.
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Mary Hartley, RD, MPH, is the director of nutrition for Calorie Count, providing domain expertise on issues related to nutrition, weight loss and health. She creates original content for weekly blogs and newsletters, for the Calorie Count library, and for her popular daily Question-and-Answer section, Ask Mary. Ms. Hartley also furnishes direction for the site features and for product development.
Not only did Dr. Oz inherit Oprah’s timeslot, he also snagged “The Oprah Effect,” (When Oprah endorses a product, business explodes.) Case in point: Inca Peanuts. Had you heard of them before?
Here’s what Dr. Oz wants you to know.
“Inca Peanuts are the best snack for weight loss,” according to Dr. Oz. That’s because they control your appetite. They don’t suppress it like diet pills. Inca Peanuts are loaded with protein, fiber and fat, three nutrients that promote satiety. Inca Peanuts take the edge off hunger.
The protein in Inca Peanuts has all the essential amino acids, just like in animal foods. And the protein is highly digestible, as plant proteins go. Inca Peanuts are high in fiber with 6 grams of fiber per ounce. As a point of reference, one ounce of regular peanuts has only 2.4 grams of fiber.
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