Making Lunch Staples Healthier

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I was really disappointed when I started reading ingredient labels and discovered that most of the lunch staples I'd been giving my kids were filled with things like sugar and high fructose corn syrup. There is hope, though! With a little thought and creativity, you can still send your kids a healthy lunch without all the sugar...and without spending a fortune!

Let's look at some lunch staples that tend to be filled with sugar:

Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich

I love these things as much as my kids do, but when I started looking at food in a new way, I realized that these things can be nothing more than a cleverly disguised plateful of sugar, with a side of damaged fats, if we're not careful.


Peanut Butter
Check out the ingredients in two popular peanut butter bands (from foodfacts.com):
JIF: roasted peanuts, sugar, molasses, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, fully hydrogenated vegetable oil, salt
SKIPPY: roasted peanuts, sugar, hydrogenated vegetable oil, salt

We know the problems with sugar, but the oils are a huge problem, too. While I am not a proponent of avoiding good fats, anything hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated is a damaged fat and should be avoided.

Make it better: Find an all natural peanut butter that contains no added sugar or oils. I actually buy a store brand peanut butter that contains only peanuts and salt and isn't very expensive at all.

Go even further: Almond butter is much healthier than peanut butter, but it poses two potential problems. #1: It's a lot more expensive. #2: Your kids might not like it! Raw almond butter is the best, but I can't get my kids to eat it. I find it for a decent price at Trader Joe's, then I mix together a jar of all natural peanut butter and a jar of raw almond butter for our spread. Nobody notices the difference, and it makes our nut spread better for us.

Jelly
Smuckers jelly contains high fructose corn syrup, along with corn syrup. Basically, if you pull a jar of regular jelly off the shelf, you're going to get added sugar, and probably high fructose corn syrup to go along with it.

Make it better: Look for all fruit spreads. Be careful for jellies labeled "sugar free," as they probably contain harmful sugar substitutes. This doesn't need to be an expensive venture. I buy a store brand jelly that is "just fruit."

Go even further: Make your own jelly.

Bread
This is the part that gets really frustrating. You don't have to look particularly hard to find peanut butter and jelly without added sugar, but finding bread that doesn't contain damaged oils, high fructose corn syrup, or plain, white sugar is a daunting task. Almost all commercial breads contain these ingredients, even the more expensive ones you think are healthy.
Make it better: If your grocery store carries a lot of natural foods, it may carry bread sweetened with honey or a less refined sugar. Resign yourself to the fact that you may have to stand in the bread aisle for a little bit, reading ingredients. I have found a couple of brands of bread at Whole Foods made without added white sugar (sweetened with honey) or hydrogenated oils: Big Sky bread, and Great Harvest bread. Great Harvest also sells their bread straight from their bakeries for a lower price, if you have one in your area.

Go even further: Food for Life makes Ezekiel bread from sprouted grains. This is the best bread for you, but I don't particularly care for it as a sandwich. We do use it to make toast and grilled cheese, however. (Ezekiel bread is sold frozen.) You can also bake your own bread to save a lot of money and avoid harmful ingredients.

Yogurt

I used to buy the yogurt labeled "25% less sugar" and thought I was doing so great as a mom. Not so much. First of all, most yogurt in the store is made with low fat milk, which means it is more processed. They have to process it more in order to remove the fat that naturally comes in the milk. Doing so also raises the sugar content.

Full fat dairy contains good fats we need, and it is less processed. However, because so many people are convinced that low fat is better, you'll be hard pressed to find yogurt that isn't low fat. Kroger sells 1 kind of whole milk yogurt that I can find. It's hidden over in the natural foods section, and it's plain.

Besides the problem with the low far milk, there are the other ingredients...
Many yogurts, especially the ones marketed to our kids, contain sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and harmful dyes.

Make it better: Chobani Greek yogurt is not perfect--it's still made with low-fat milk, and it's still sweetened, but with evaporated cane juice instead of high fructose corn syrup. It comes in kid-sized multi-packs, or in single adult sized servings. It is more expensive, but it does go on sale.

Go even further: Consider buying the plain whole milk yogurt and flavoring it with some berry sauce.

Fruit Cups

Most of the cute, convenient cups of mandarin oranges, pears, and other fruit seem like a decent thing to send with your kids, but they're often packed in a sugary syrup.

Make it better: Look for the light versions, which are packed in fruit juice, instead of syrup.

Go even further: Buy the fruit you want to send, like mandarin oranges, and peel it into sections. This way your child will get fresh fruit.

Other Lunch Ideas

Fruit chews: Instead of sending fruit gummy snacks, which are basically nothing more than candy, consider buying fruit snacks made with all fruit. Target has quite a variety of Market Pantry fruit snacks in all sorts of shapes and flavors. They're organic, made with all fruit, contain no added sugars and syrups, are decently priced, and by the way, are super good.

Crackers: Make your own cheesy crackers instead of sending goldfish, or consider sending air popped popcorn flavored with real butter (if your children are old enough for this to not be a choking hazard).

Cookies: Every kid likes a little dessert, right? Try making flourless chocolate chip cookies, made with
raw almond butter and whole grain oats. This recipe is fast, easy, and not filled with refined ingredients like most cookies are. It's a great ending to a healthier lunch.