Healthy Lunches for Children

Children want lunches that taste good and keep them full, and parents want a healthy meal for their growing, active children. Children learn and focus better when they eat foods from the four food groups in Canada’s Food Guide. Nutritious lunches and snacks are best when they are tasty, handy, fun to eat, and safe from bacteria. What is a healthy lunch for children? Include a variety of foods from at least three of the four food groups: Vegetables & Fruit, Grain Products, Milk and Alternatives, and Meat and Alternatives. Children are eating too much fat, sugar, and salt, and not enough vegetables, fruit, milk products and whole grain foods. Unhealthy lunches at school are part of the problem.

Preparing a healthy lunch for your children No meal is a good meal if it is not eaten. Work together with your children to make a tasty and healthy lunch that they will enjoy eating.

• Involve your children in grocery shopping and planning their lunch.

• Let your children make their own lunch, choosing foods from Canada’s Food Guide..

• Add interest by combining new foods with old favourites.

• Everyone enjoys a surprise. How about a secret note, sticker or cartoon with lunch?

• Take time after dinner to prepare a healthy lunch with your children for the next day.

“My children eat the same food every day!”

Your children are developing their tastes and may be very choosy about what they will eat. The more often they see new foods, the more likely they will taste them and learn to accept them. Don’t give up if your children refuse a new food. Sometimes it takes up to 12 attempts before a new food is accepted. Help your children to accept a wider selection of foods by:

• Being a role model. Set an example by trying new foods yourself.

• Offering small amounts of the new food with a familiar one.

• Encouraging children to get to know new foods by including them in growing, buying, preparing or serving these new foods.

• Respecting that children have their own likes and dislikes