Back-To-School Nutrition Guide

By Larissa Lytwyn

August, it seems, is the calm eye of the storm in a typical American’s hustle-and-bustle year. Before long, however, the time of fresh summer salads and leisurely barbecues may give way to school-day lunches of convenience food and prepackaged meals, items picked up in a last-minute supermarket run the night before.

According to a study conducted by a Canadian panel of registered dieticians and provincial Board of Health, children typically eat up to ten times more sodium than needed. Culprits include packaged oriental noodles with dry soup mix, bologna, pepperoni, and other high-fat luncheon meats and sugary fruit “drinks” and “punches,” many with no more than ten percent real fruit juice. Two-thirds of calories in prepackaged “make your own sandwich” packs are derived from fat and sugar.

Nutritionists recommend building your own “make your own sandwich” pack by purchasing a reusable food saver with compartments and having your children pack it with vegetables, lean meat, such as roast beef or turkey, cheese, and whole grain bread. Include at least one serving of fruit in each lunch. Sneak vegetables, such as spinach, tomato, and cucumbers, into sandwiches. Vegetables can also be added to pasta, potato, egg, tuna, or chicken salads. Flavor raw vegetable sticks with salad dressing and add fruit pieces to yogurt.

Pack pretzels, dry cereal (such as Cheerios), or breadsticks instead of potato chips, Doritos, or Fritos. Try bagels, English muffins, pita tortilla wraps, and whole grain breads as interesting alternatives to sliced white bread. To keep foods cool, try an “edible ice pack” — freeze an orange and use it as an ice pack. By the time lunch rolls around, the orange will be thawed out and lunch will still be cold!

Sodexho, an international food services company, serves Newtown Public Schools. For more information, visit www.newtown.k12.ct.us and select the link to lunch menus or contact Karen Cook, general manger of food services, at Newtown Public Schools at 426-7637. She may also be emailed at newtown.ps.ct.food@sodexhousa.com.