Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s suggestion of a Marmite sandwich and an apple for lunch wouldn’t keep a child full or feed their brain sufficiently, according to local health and education experts.
“If you’re just doing a Marmite sandwich and an apple, you’re probably not meeting the protein requirements [which depend on age and gender],” paediatric dietician Jenny Douglas explained to RNZ.
“Ideally it would be a Marmite and cheese sandwich at least,” she said, noting that the high salt content of Marmite, which could shape one’s palate, giving a child a taste for salty snacks like pies and chips early on.
OK I admit, the only reason I’m posting this is because earlier I was making a Marmite sandwich and banana lunchbox and apparently that’s not enough.
The idea of putting chicken in a lunchbox to sit at room temperature all day just doesn’t feel right.
Any suggestions for what to put in a school lunch that doesn’t come pre-packaged?
Yeah the food safety aspect of packed lunches is really another reason why providing them at the place of learning is better for everybody.
Having said that, I sometimes feel that western food safety standards are overly broad most likely due to litigation in the former leader of the free world. Take rice for example, its a huge no-no in the west to even contemplate letting rice sit around warm after its cooked, and there are some reasons for why, but I’ve talked to plenty of people who grew up in south-east asia where that was common.
Probably the best home-school-lunch-makers answer to food safety & variety from protein etc is cured meats :) Get your kids a prosciutto sandwich everyone!
Well this is going to turn a bit dark but processed meats are loaded with nitrates (normally sodium nitrate, listed as “Preservative (250)”), which is one of very few things on the WHOs “definitely causes cancer” list. So I try to avoid it if possible.
Outside of occupational risks (and biological ones, like HPV), the “definitely causes cancer” list is very short. The main ones are basically smoking, alcohol, and processed meat.
So it’s not a case of “everything causes cancer” and more a case of specifically avoiding processed meat in lunch boxes/in general.
The list is here: https://monographs.iarc.who.int/list-of-classifications
Group 1 is the definitely causes cancer group. I find it easiest to download and filter in Excel.
The list of groups is here: https://monographs.iarc.who.int/agents-classified-by-the-iarc/
Yeah, IIRC the science on that & the dosage required isn’t quite as settled as the WHO warning suggests. But in any case, you can always cure your own using just salt! I think mostly the nitrate is there to keep it pink.
You can buy bacon without nitrates, but the nitrates are the yummy bit… it does make it pink but if you taste bacon with no added nitrates it’s not the same.
In terms of dosage… this isn’t really a case of benefits outweighing risks. I’m not aware of any health benefits of eating highly processed meat (that you couldn’t get from the unprocessed equivalent). Easiest to minimise consumption to reduce the risk. I’ll still eat it on a burger in the same way I’ll still have the occasional beer even though alcohol is a known carcinogen, but I don’t want processed meat to be an everyday food.
You can get wide mouth thermoses from briscoes/m10 etc. Then you can send yesterday’s leftovers for lunch.
We send ours with curries, spagbol, chilli, dumplings etc. anything that can stay moist and warm.
I like the idea, one day when they actually eat my (delicious) cooking reliably maybe I can consider this 😆
Almost every food has enough protein per calorie so if you’re worried about protein, that basically means they are not getting enough calories and you can just pack more.
you can put an ice pack in with the chicken, you know.
Hmm, that’s a good thought but my kids have these compartmented lunch boxes they got from their grandmother. Not a lot of room for an ice pack. I think I’ve heard of special ones designed for lunch boxes, I might look into that. Thanks for the reminder!
We tried various “lunchboxes” but they all suck, we reverted to what was used in the 80’s and 90’s; just a 2l ice cream container.
Reusable bag for sandwich, a little container for pretzels/nuts/dates…whatever, a reusable squeeze pouch for yougurt, a couple of bits of fruit. The compartmented lunchboxes are often just the wrong shape.
I use the small thin gel ice packs that are like ziplock bags. They’re thin and somewhat flexible even when frozen. easy to tuck one over a sandwich
example
Thanks for the tip, looks like Kmart has something similar.
Couldn’t you just freeze a zip lock bag of appropriate size and lay on top?
boiled eggs boiled potatoes preferably in a german style potato salad (no mayo) Cheese or all sorts including in a sandwich or a wrap Peanut butter sandwiches or stuffed in celery. Cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, celery, etc. Nuts of various kinds. Dried fruits of all kinds Greek yogurt plain, you can add frozen berries in it.