It’s that time of year again.  Backpacks are new, shoes are clean, clothes are still in one piece, and you can almost hear the “creak” of notebooks opening for the first time.  That’s right – kids are going back to school.  I thought this would be a good time to talk about some healthy ideas to fuel our precious children’s bodies.  Recent statistics from the CDC state:

Data from NHANES surveys (1976–1980 and 2003–2006) show that the prevalence of obesity has increased: for children aged 2–5 years, prevalence increased from 5.0% to 12.4%; for those aged 6–11 years, prevalence increased from 6.5% to 17.0%; and for those aged 12–19 years, prevalence increased from 5.0% to 17.6%.

It’s staggering how quickly we are losing hold of healthy eating patterns for our young people.  This is a problem that has been surfacing for a few years now, so it is probably nothing new to you.  Luckily, it is a problem that we CAN work on and solve for our future generations.  I think a key part of infusing a healthful lifestyle into our kids starts at a young age.  Start small.  Just make tiny changes gradually and you can see a difference.  Serve them water every other beverage until eventually they are drinking mostly water during the day.  Avoid the sugar dense juice and make it a once-in-a-while treat.  Even though the labels say juice is a healthy option for kids (“100% juice” or “not from concentrate” or “all natural”) it’s really straight fructose – sugar.  Milk is a nutritious option as long as you don’t overdo the 2-3 servings a day and serve a low fat percentage.  Milk can be loaded with calories, unhealthy animal fats, and sugars as well, so be careful to watch the serving sizes.  We serve Soy milk in our house because of allergies and my daughter loves it!  Another small change can be switching from white bread to a whole grain/high fiber bread.  Think about giving them a snack of low fat popcorn instead of potato chips.  Even serving a small portion of baked potato chips or pretzels is a good substitute for regular chips.  Avoid sodas and artificial sweeteners as well.  Sodas have no nutritional value and the fake sodas are not much better.  See, not that hard to make big changes!

So, once you incorporate healthy choices at home, its time to pack a good lunch for your kid.  If yours is like mine, they are quite picky with what you can send. My little one doesn’t like sandwiches or bread which adds a challenge to my planning.  Today we packed: grilled chicken strips, blueberries, triscuits, and yogurt.  Her snack is a serving of grahm crackers and whole wheat goldfish.

Some other ideas include: Hummus on pita, mini carrots, berries of all types, yogurt, chicken slices (I will cook a batch of chicken breasts on the weekend and just store them in the fridge for the week), lean ham cubes, mozzerella string cheese, lowfat cheese slices, whole wheat roll or crackers, turkey pepperoni…you get the idea.  There are tons of options out there.  Just think of building their lunch as a puzzle – work in a protein, milk, whole grain, and a fruit/veggie choice and you are golden.  I usually use her lunch as her meal that she gets a juice box since they are easy to store.  When purchasing foods, think about buying whoe-type foods instead of overly processed foods.  Sometimes the dyes and additives in foods can cause adverse behavior reactions in kids.  You want them to be well fueled for them to get through the rest of their school day and continue the learning!  No food comas when they are eating healthy.

Don’t forget the after school snack (what is it about school that makes them starving when you pick them up?!).  Again – stick with snacks loaded with fiber and some protein to give them a nice energy boost.  1/2 pb sandwich on wheat works well!  Then send them outside to work off some of that pent up energy.

These lifestyle lessons you are teaching your child through your example will carry them throughout their entire life.  Remember that you are in charge of what you feed them when they are children.  Sometimes it takes a lot of work on the part of the parent to convince your child to eat healthy.  Don’t give up – their lives depend on it!  You wouldn’t let them run in a busy intersection even if it looked way fun, would you?  So why would you let them eat over-processed, nutrient void foods?  Keep on keeping on and they will thank you when they reach adulthood and pass on these valuable lifestyle choices to their children.  We CAN stop this tragic trend.