Back to school snacks

I can’t believe we’re now in 2023! Although I’m enjoying school holidays with slower mornings and a break from the routine, I’m also aware just how quickly the first day of school will be upon us!

Let’s talk about lunchboxes. I know a lot of us shudder at the word “lunchbox”, so bear with me. As a Naturopath you might think my kiddos have lunchboxes that are filled ‘pure’ and ‘clean’ foods but that’s not necessarily true. My kiddos love a store-bought snack in there sometimes. While it’s ideal to focus on an abundance of veggies + fibre (aim for 3-4 veggie options), fruit (1-2 serves of fruit), protein (1-2 serves of protein like yoghurt pouches, seeds, boiled eggs), and fat (1-2 serves of fat like cheese, avocado, smoked salmon, leftover meat, etc.) in lunchboxes, let’s keep it real and talk about a few tips to picking healthy store-bought snacks for convenience (and sanity!)

4 Tips to Picking Healthy Packaged Snacks:

1️⃣ Minimal ingredients - read the ingredient list and remember it's in order of most used to least used. Most wholefood options have only a handful of ingredients, because it's realfood!

2️⃣ Low sugar - opt for a low sugar option by checking the sugar amounts - aim for less than 15 grams of sugar per 100 grams for any packaged food/snack

3️⃣ Low sodium (salt) - Aim for less than 300 mg per 100 grams

4️⃣ Reduce/remove additives - avoid preservatives, sweeteners and colours - if you see numbers on the back of a packet or ingredients you can’t pronounce, put it back on the shelf!

Here’s a selection of the ones we often have in our pantry for those chaotic mornings when store-bought options in the lunchbox are a must!