NORFOLK, Va. – News 3 This Morning is helping you win the school year with healthy lunch options for kids.
Virginia Beach mother and nutritionist Ashley Grosch of the Functional Medicine Allianceis giving easy ideas to help make your children’s lunch boxes look a lot healthier without losing the taste.
“We want to always balance protein, fat and carbohydrates,” said Grosch. “Always offer a vegetable even if the children may not eat the vegetable. If we just keep offering it, eventually they’ll eat it.”
When it comes to the traditional sandwich, Grosch encourages ditching white bread and embracing wheat tortillas.
“We like to reduce the bread content in our house by using tortillas instead,” said Grosch. “You get a lot more meat and vegetables in with your wrap if you reduce the bread down [and] just switch to a tortilla.”
Grosch also suggests eliminating bread altogether for some meals.
“My children really enjoy just wrapping deli meat or this is prosciutto ham in some cheese,” she suggested. “Sometimes we’ll even put some avocado or some cucumber inside.”
As for snacks, Grosch recommends items low in added sugar and salt. She suggests items like seaweed snacks, no sugar added yogurt squeezers, potato chips without added flavors or colors, CLIF Kid Zbars, or fruit leathers without added sugar.
“I think what’s important is we always keep offering the healthy foods even if they come home with some of it still in that box,” said Grosch. “The next day, let’s keep asking them to eat those vegetables and presenting [it] to them.”
