Healthy school lunches

Watch two videos on healthy food at school.

A balanced diet is a crucial part of healthy living. It provides children with the energy and nutrients they need to grow and helps them maintain a healthy weight. This is important because overweight children have an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer as adults. At the moment, one child in five in England is overweight or obese.

There’s also evidence from teachers to suggest that a bad diet at school leads to poor results. A bad diet could mean children are less able to concentrate and more prone to difficult behaviour, which means less learning.

The good news is that it’s easy to help your child eat healthily during the school day. The School Food Trust is trying to improve the quality of food provided by schools. You can learn more at the School Food Trust website.

If you prefer to send your child to school with a lunchbox, make it healthy as well as delicious.

A balanced lunchbox

A healthy lunchbox is nutritionally balanced and contains food from each of the five food groups. The five food groups are:

• Bread, rice, potatoes and pasta.
• Fruit and vegetables.
• Milk and dairy foods.
• Meat, fish, eggs and beans.
• Foods high in fat and sugar.

Follow these guidelines to make the lunch nutritionally balanced:

• Around one-third of the calories in the lunchbox should come from starchy carbohydrates such as bread, rice, potatoes or pasta. This could be the brown bread in a sandwich or roll, or the pasta in a pasta salad.
• A lunchbox should contain a portion of protein from lean meat, fish, eggs or beans. This could be the lean ham or tuna in the sandwich or salad.
• Include a portion of fruit or vegetables. One portion is an apple, a handful of grapes or a cup of chopped carrot.
• Add a portion of dairy food. This can be a slice of cheese (about the size of a small matchbox) or a pot of yogurt. Dairy foods provide calcium, which is important for children because it helps them to grow strong bones.
• Finally, don’t forget a drink. Still or sparkling water, milk or unsweetened fruit juice are best.

Chocolate, crisps and fizzy drinks are high in calories and have little or no nutritional value. If eaten regularly, they can contribute to obesity. It’s best to serve small portions of these foods and eat them only occasionally.

Instead of sandwiches

A sandwich made with wholemeal brown bread, ham and salad is great for a lunchbox. It contains starchy carbohydrates, a portion of protein and a portion of vegetables.

If your child is getting bored of sandwiches, try the following.

• A salad made with pasta or brown rice, chicken or tuna and vegetables such as carrots, peppers, tomatoes and green beans.
• Vegetable omelette. This includes protein from the eggs and a portion of vegetables if you add some broccoli, courgette or tomato.
• Homemade pizza. Kids love pizza slices and you can add chopped vegetables for a healthy treat.
• Homemade soups. During the winter, homemade vegetable or chicken soup, taken to school in a vacuum flask so it stays hot, is a perfect lunch.

Healthy swaps

We all know that children love sugary foods such as sweets, chocolate and cake. It can be tempting to put a chocolate bar or piece of cake into your child’s lunchbox.

But high-calorie, low-nutrient sugary foods are not good for your child and many schools ask parents not to put them in lunchboxes.

If you want to stop sending your child to school with these foods, it can help if you pack a healthy alternative that they will still love to eat. Try one of the following.

• Fruit salad. Mix grapes, banana, apple and blueberries for a tasty pudding that will count as one portion of fruit.
• Dried fruit. A box of raisins or a handful of dried apricots can be as much fun as a packet of sweets.
• Fruit bread or malt loaf can replace cake or iced buns.

More information

There’s a lot you can do to send your child to school with a lunchbox that's both healthy and delicious. Read our article on Lighter lunchboxes for more details.

The Food Standards Agency’s Eatwell website has tips and month-long menus for younger and older children. The Netmums website also has some useful tips and lunchbox fillers.