Our mission is to Transform Children’s Health, One Lunchbox At A Time. The reason why I focus on lunchboxes goes back 4 years ago to when my daughter was getting teased for not having sandwiches and packet foods in her lunchbox. She was getting called poor because she didn’t have packets in her lunchbox.
As a family, we had transitioned to this way of eating because we just found our household functioned better without gluten and without additives and preservatives. It was still early days then and I hadn’t developed the system I now teach as part of The 5 Minute Healthy Lunchbox System™ and I hadn’t learnt how to shop smartly at farmers markets. So it wasn’t a cheap way of packing lunches at all, and it wasn’t easy to do (now days, this is different). I just couldn’t understand how kids related being poor to not having packet foods. When had it become normal to have a lunchbox full of packet foods? When had it become a sign of wealth to have packet foods? Like any mum, I went into protection mode. I spoke to her teacher and she suggested as I was a health coach, perhaps I could come in and talk to the kids. The Mad Food Science Program™ was borne out of this time – and the response from the kids and parents are what now drives me to take this program around the country as part of our Australian Tour to Transform Children’s Health.
One of the goals of our mission is for it to be normal for kids to eat real food lunchboxes. This is why most days I try to remember to photograph our lunchboxes and share them widely. To help inspire people with ideas they can include in their children’s lunchboxes. Lunchboxes can be colourful, fun, cost effective, healthy and simple without needing to resort to packaged convenience foods laden with sugar, and additives and preservatives.
From time to time, I get asked:
- Do your kids really it that food; or
- I’d like to see a photograph of what your lunchboxes look like at the end of the day.
In 2014, I wrote this post Your Kids Eat What You Let Them Eat in response to these questions. This week they have popped up again. Although my response hasn’t changed, I thought I would write a fresh post about it. Quite simply the answer about whether our kids really eat this food, is this:
Yes – this is the way we eat.
In our house we make a habit out of eating real food – every day – breakfast, lunch and dinner. This is the way we eat, so this is what the kids know and expect. When I pack our lunchboxes, it is full of food we normally eat at dinner or even at breakfast.
Do our kids ever ask for packet foods?
Of course, they are kids. They try it on, they ask, but they understand when I say no, it’s no. But most times, instead of saying no, I ask them this simple question “what do you think? what’s in it?”. And together we look at what’s in it. Most times, they make up their own No answer after we read what’s in it. Sometimes even after reading it, they will say they still want it, and so I ask them this: “think about your cats. If you knew there was something in a type of cat food that could make them sick overtime, would you feed it to them?”. Again, they formulate their own No. Except recently when our 10 year old daughter was in a real mood and she said “well yes I would give it to them if I knew they would be happy, even if they could get sick from it.” Well I had no choice then but to give her my firm No.
Sometimes you have to just say NO. That’s my power as a mum – that’s your power as a mum (or dad). We control what goes into the trolley, we control what gets put on the dinner plate or in the lunchbox. At the end of the day, it is our responsibility.
Does this mean I don’t have packet foods in the house? No, it doesn’t mean this. I am a busy working mum and I have days where there is nothing left in the tank. Most often or not, because I ensure our house is equipped with real foods in the fridge and pantry, I can turn out a real food meal in 20 minutes or less – even if I feel like cr**. I do have my back up or go to meals and packets for those days when I haven’t had time to prepare ahead or I just can’t get myself sorted.
I have back up packets in my pantry, and in fact, I feel these are an important part of any pantry. BUT the packets I have are consciously selected after reading the packet and understanding what is in it.
Back Up Packets In My Pantry
If you were to look in my pantry, this is what you may as my back up packets. Please note, these are choices I have made for my family. I am not a doctor, dietician, nutrionist, just a mum who has done her own research of the ingredients and am satisfied these are products I am comfortable as having in my pantry for a back up.
- Peckish Brown Rice Crackers – No Salt. Ingredients : Brown Rice Flour, Rice Bran Oil (10%). These are kind of my fall back if I have not had time to make my own GF Crakers or Quinoa Crackers
- Sakata Plain Rice Crackers – Ingredients: Rice (97%), Vegetable Oil, Salt. I don’t buy these often because of the salt content, but it’s one of those products that if the kids ask, rather than saying No, it’s a yes product because there are no additives and preservatives in them.
- Pure Harvest Organic Rice Cakes – Ingredients: Organic whole brown rice (99%), sea salt. These are great for something a bit more substantial. I like to spread with some avocado and top with cheese, and because they are quite chunky, sometimes I pop them under the griller to melt the cheese. The kids love this.
- Real Foods Organic Corn Thins with sesame. Ingredients: Organic Maize (97%), Sesame (2%), Sea Salt (0.5%)
- Whole Kids Organic Farm Biscuits Cocoa. Ingredients: Organic Wheat, Organic Raw Cane Sugar, Organic Vegetable Oil, Organic Corn Flour, Organic Cocoa Powder, Organic Sweet Whey Powder, Organic Vanilla, Baking Soda. These are for when I have had not had time to bake for a few weeks. This is not often because using The 5 Minute Healthy Lunchbox System™, I usually have some kind of homemade treat frozen to pull out anyway.
In addition to these packets, I usually have eggs, bottled passata sauce, canned beans and tomatoes, plus tuna. For breakfast as a back up, I have rolled oats to make porridge, bircher muesli or a breakfast slice (like this Blueberry Breakfast Slice one from Natural New Age Mum). And of course, a variety of different flours for all my baking.
So my message to you is this
It does take time to transition your family to eat all real foods and only have packets as a back up, but it has to start somewhere. That somewhere is with you. I know that’s an in your face kind of statement, but it’s the truth. Big business and government aren’t going to do it for you. I mean, That Sugar Film haven’t been able to get Australian politicians to watch a screening of That Sugar Film despite all the research showing sugar is now at the heart of many illnesses. If they can’t even watch a movie, we can’t expect them to change what’s available in packets and on the super market shelf.
So it’s up to you. The recommendation I give all parents is choose 1 thing you would like to replace and replace it. Make that a way of life, then tackle the next thing. Of course, if you have a health issue in your family, you may need to make changes more dramatically. If not, 1 change at a time is more sustainable and will become a way of life.
If you would like support in making these changes, particularly to your lunchboxes, you may like to join the community of graduates and participants of The 5 Minute Healthy Lunchbox System™ eCourse. It is a 4 week self paced online course which includes menu plans, shopping lists and recipes to help busy parents get started in packing real food lunchboxes. And support from other like minded parents who are making the same changes you are.