Infinite Ideas - Instant vitality: shortcuts to a healthier life

Instant vitality

Shortcuts to a healthier life

Infinite Ideas with Kate Cook & Sally Brown

7. Moveable feasts

If youve run out of lunch box ideas or simply dont know where to start this chapter will give you the inspiration youre looking for.

A well-balanced packed lunch will provide your child with all the energy and nutrients she needs for a busy day at school or nursery.

Have you been making nothing but processed cheese sandwiches for the last few weeks? Do you always end up packing your little angel off to school with crisps and chocolate bars because youre worried she wont eat anything else? You are not alone.

According to a recent survey of childrens lunch boxes, carried out by the Food Standards Agency, the contents of most packed lunches are way too high in saturated fats, sugar and/or salt. The same survey also showed that almost half of the lunch boxes examined did not contain fruit and that most of the lunches included heavily processed snacks, crisps, chocolate, biscuits and sugary fizzy drinks.

Whilst its tempting to include junk food treats in your childs lunch box or hip, processed foods that have been heavily advertised on TV dont. A meal thats poor in nutrients and high in salt, sugar and fat will sap your childs energy levels and mental alertness and over time could even set the foundations for future health problems and obesity.

So if youre now at a loss as to what to give your child, dont worry it really is quite simple to put together a healthy packed lunch. Heres how:

A healthy lunch box should contain the following four basic elements. Try to vary the contents from day to day to ensure she gets a broad spectrum of nutrients.

1A portion of protein (e.g. meat, fish, egg, cheese, beans, lentils, soya products, nuts, seeds and Quorn). Fill sandwiches, wraps, pitta bread or rolls with good quality roast chicken, turkey, ham, tuna, salmon, nut butter, cheese or egg or add meat, fish or tofu to a pasta or rice salad.

2Some complex carbohydrates. Complex carbohydrates are foods that offer a slower release of energy than refined carbs like white bread, white pasta, biscuits and cakes. Make sandwiches with wholegrain, multigrain or pitta bread and choose wholemeal pasta and brown rice for salads if possible.

3A calcium-rich food. Cheese, yogurt, yogurt drinks, fromage frais and milk are all good sources of calcium the mineral essential for healthy bones and teeth. Stick to whole milk dairy products for children under five. If your child cant tolerate dairy foods, consider alternative sources of calcium such as calcium enriched orange juice and soya milk.

4At least one portion of fruit and/or vegetables for fibre, vitamins and minerals. Fiddly-to-eat items will tend to get left, so fill a small pot or freezer bag with peeled clementine segments or fresh pineapple pieces, grapes, sliced strawberries, carrot and cucumber batons, dried apricots or raisins

Avoid

• Ready-made cereal bars, muffins and flapjacks. They may sound healthy, but theyre often high in sugar and fat and come in big portion sizes. Make your own smaller, healthier flapjacks or muffins instead, or choose fruit bread, fruit scones or malt loaf.
• Savoury snack foods. Over-processed cheese and ham snacks and crisps are usually high in saturated fat and salt. Some savoury snack foods can contain a childs entire salt allowance in just one portion.
• Fruit juice drinks and fizzy pop. Anything thats labelled as a juice drink is often little more than a fruit flavoured sugary drink which, like fizzy pop may also contain artificial colourings and preservatives. Fruit juice thats made with 100% fruit, diluted 50:50 with water, is a better option otherwise plain water, low sugar flavoured water, milk or a fruit smoothie.

A healthy lunch box may sound boring but it doesnt have to be. Cut sandwiches into stars or animal shapes, then wrap in brightly coloured sandwich bags, sealed with stickers. Buy brightly coloured pots to store small quantities of fruit or snacks and think variety. If your child has a different fruit/sandwich filling/yogurt or drink most days, she wont crave over-processed, salty, sugary, ready-made snacks.

Its also important to keep food cool until its ready to be eaten, so an insulated lunch bag is a good idea. If youre organised, make the lunch the night before and store it in the fridge so everything is thoroughly chilled by morning. Alternatively freeze a carton of juice and add it to the lunch bag just before your child leaves the house. It will keep sandwiches cool and be defrosted and ready to drink by lunchtime.

How did it go?

QI feel like a real killjoy taking the crisps out of my sons lunch bag especially when all his friends take crisps to school. Any suggestions?

AWell, lets be realistic most foods are OK in moderation. If you really want to give him some crisps I suggest you just dont give him the whole bag. Decant a small portion into an airtight tub instead.

QIts the salt content I worry most about are some crisps a better bet than others?

AYes, I suggest you buy salt and shake crisps, the type that come with a separate bag of salt and discard the salt.

Heres an idea for you

If you want to add a healthier sweet treat to your childs lunch, try making these banana and date muffins. Preheat the oven to 220C/400F/Gas 6. Line a twelve hole muffin tin with paper cases. Beat together 225 g/8 oz self raising flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 110 g/4 oz light muscovado sugar, 50 g/2 oz stoned, chopped dates, three mashed bananas, a large egg, 150 ml/1/4 pint skimmed milk and 4 tbsps sunflower oil. Pour into muffin cases and bake for 2025 minutes until cooked through. Cool on a wire rack.

Defining idea

Ask not what you can do for your country, ask whats for lunch.

ORSON WELLES, actor, director

8. Game for a laugh

Laugh up to fifteen times a day and live up to eight years longer. True!

Laughter reduces stress, lowers blood pressure, relieves pain, oxygenates the blood and strengthens the immune system. So go on, have a chuckle.

Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesnt seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other guy whips out his phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps, My friend is dead! What can I do? The operator says, Calm down, I can help. First, lets make sure hes dead. There is a silence, then a shot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says, OK, operator, now what?

That is officially the worlds funniest joke and if you laughed when you read it, youve given your immune system a huge boost. It seems laughter really is the best medicine and theres a raft of scientific studies to prove it.

If youve ever been stuck in a lift when someones made a funny remark, youll know that nothing relieves tension like laughing. Both physically and psychologically, laughter acts as a safety valve for the discharge of nervous tension. Researchers have shown that laughter reduces the levels of the stress hormones cortisone and adrenaline and boosts the number of infection-fighting white T-cells in the body. During laughter, the heartbeat quickens and blood pressure rises; after laughter, both heart rate and blood pressure drop to a point that is lower than its initial resting rate. Its also thought that laughter may have evolved as a way of helping us to connect with fellow human beings and dissipating conflict. As comedian Alan Alda put it, When people are laughing, theyre generally not killing one another.

Doctors are now realising just how important laughter is to our health and are beginning to take jokes, er, seriously. In the 1960s, the award-winning writer Norman Cousins put his full recovery from a usually irreversible and crippling connective tissue disease down to a regimen that among other therapies included laughing at Marx Brothers movies every day. The book about his experience was an international bestseller.