Here's a list of tips to make sure your child has the right fuel for academic success.
Remember the good 'ole days in grade school when your parents packed your lunch? Perhaps you were like a lot of kids who rummaged through their brown bag, designating some items for consumption and others for the trading block.
It's certain that this practice still goes on today, but the content of the school lunches, school officials say, should have some parents concerned.
About half of children in Tulare schools bring a decent lunch to school and about 25 percent bring lunches that would be categorized as unhealthful, said Angie Tazio, the Coordinator of Food Services & Nutrition for the Tulare City Schools District.
With that in mind, here's a list of tips to make sure your child has the right fuel for academic success.
Lunch box do's and don'ts
• DO try to include food from at least three of the five main food groups. Because of the variety of metabolic processes required to digest complex carbohydrates found in whole grains, fruits and veggies, your child will have a longer window of sustained energy with which to focus and learn.
• DON'T send items high in fat, sodium or sugar. Candy bars will provide a short-term high, but kids will crash hard later.
• DO pack lean protein such as turkey, tuna or peanut butter.
• DON'T send soda. While the occasional soda won't hurt, frequent soda consumption has negative effects. The phosphoric acid in soda prevents calcium from getting into bones — an important process for growing kids.
• DO check your peanut butter. While it is a good option to pack some protein into a child's lunch, not all peanut butters are created equal — check the label.
Many popular peanut butter brands come with a lot of extra sugar and chemicals. If peanuts are the fourth or fifth ingredient on the ingredients label of your favorite spread, perhaps you should consider a natural peanut butter.
• DON'T let your kids pick what goes in their lunch. "Don't ask what they want," Tazio said. "You're the one with the wisdom."
• DO let kids help make their lunch. There are benefits to kids helping in the kitchen. Make it a nutrition exercise. Kids will often choose what's modeled in the home.
Source: Angie Tazio, Coordinator of Food Services & Nutrition for Tulare City School District