Lunch box study packs a punch for parents

A Leeds University study has found that lunch boxes are still being filled with crisps, sweets and sugary drinks instead of vegetables, fruit and dairy products.

Researchers examined the contents of 1,300 lunch boxes taken to school by pupils aged eight and nine and found only one in every 100 met the guidelines for meals prepared in schools.

Schools cannot provide sweets, crisps and artificially-sweetened drinks for lunch but there are no rules for meals brought from home by some four million children.

Just one in 10 contained a portion of vegetables, something which worries Family Eating Advisor from Harrogate Louise McManus.

"If there is no fruit or vegetables in a child's lunchbox then it raises the question of what the parents might think is acceptable to give them at home."

Unlike school meals, there are no standards for packed lunches, something the report's author, Charlotte Evans, would like to see.

"School meals must contain a portion of fruit, a portion of vegetable, dairy food, low-fat starchy food like potatoes or bread, and protein-rich food, and there are 14 nutrient standards that school meals have to meet, including energy and vitamins. They are very stringent standards and unprecedented for this country and the rest of the world.

"We are worried about this widening gap between packed lunches and school meals. Roughly half of the children in the UK have a school meal and half have packed lunches."

But for time-poor parents, thinking up packed lunches which children will actually eat every day is a challenge.

"It is tough for parents," admits Louise McManus, "especially as there are a lot of products now designed specifically for the packed lunch market, but which are not necessarily that good for you. They are often high in salt, fat and sugar."

She said the main thing when putting together a packed lunch was to make sure there was a balance.

"A sandwich made preferably of wholemeal bread with ham, cheese or egg. Why not try some hummus and some carrot sticks and some dried fruit. And water; it's free. Children don't need to have chocolate at lunchtime or crisps. A yoghurt is good, although check the label for the amount of sugar."

However how you view the packed lunch depends on how you view your child's daily diet. "Some parents who send their children with a packed lunch may not view it as the main meal of the day and so will make sure they get a good nutritional hot meal in the evening."

She also believes that it is virtually impossible for a packed lunch to have all the same nutritional standards as a school meal.

Many blame peer pressure for the crisps and sugary drinks in lunch boxes, but at one Harrogate school, Louise points that they are rewarded for including healthy items.

"The children are given points for every healthy item in their lunch box. The idea

is to reward them for doing the right thing and ignore

the bad.

"The aim is for the children to pass that on to their parents."

But chair of the School Food Trust, Prue Leith, say it is not always that simple.

"I have never met a mum who could resist putting in a little bit of chocolate or a cake or a packet of crisps.When you pack a lunch for a child, you are trying to remind them that you love them, and so the little treat is in there.

"It doesn't matter how educated or health-conscious the parent is, they always put in something they know the child will love."