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Packing Healthy Lunches By Melissa J Wantuck  |
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 Whether you go to school or work everyday, packing your own lunch is the best way to insure you’re eating a healthy diet and it will save you money too. Saving calories AND cash, how much better can that be?
Here are some tips we recommend for what to pack in your lunch:
Sandwiches
If you enjoy sandwiches and they’re your lunch staple, make sure you’re starting with whole wheat bread. Check the ingredients label to make sure the bread is made with whole wheat flour. Eating whole grains versus bread products made with processed white flour will give you more nutrients like fiber and protein. An alternative to using bread is a wrap. These offer less carbohydrates if you need to keep your intake of those at a minimum.
Turkey and tuna are good choices for sandwich meat or peanut butter for protein. Egg salad and chicken salad are also good sources of protein but stay away from salami and bologna as there are no health benefits from them.
Add two other food groups to your sandwich with cheese, lettuce, tomato and onions. If you like a dressing on your sandwich, mustard has no calories.
If you don’t want a sandwich, a couple of hard boiled eggs will provide you with protein. Pre-peel them ahead of time if you want but store them in a hard container so they don’t get squished. Another option is a salad. Add some meat to it like ham, turkey or grille chicken for extra protein. Adding a hard-boiled egg instead of meat will also provide necessary protein.
Yogurt makes an excellent meal and adding fruit to it or granola will spice up its nutritional value. Start with plain yogurt that doesn’t contain any added sugars or flavorings and add your own healthy ingredients.
Fruits
There are many options to get your daily servings of fruit that are convenient for brown-bagging it. There’s the easiest choice of whole fruit like apples, pears, bananas, cherries, strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries that need little or no preparation other than washing before eating. Oranges, pineapple, kiwi, mangoes, avocadoes, peaches and melons require some preparation before eating but are well worth the effort.
Mix up taking whole fruit to work with cutting up others, even making your own fruit salad that will last you three to four days.
Some canned fruit makes for a quick pack just by opening the can and pouring the fruit into a container. Applesauce, mandarin oranges, pineapple, peaches and pears are a few options that can well without preservatives that lessen the health benefits of the food.
Vegetables
Raw vegetables are excellent to get the most nutrients out of your daily servings. Carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, cherry tomatoes, celery, peppers and cucumbers are a few examples. Cut up a bunch of these and take a mixture of them each day. It’s like having your own personal veggie tray and a little bit of dip with them won’t hurt and will give them some extra zip.
Beverages
Water can’t be surpassed as the healthiest drink for you to have. It provides your body with necessary nutrients and doesn’t have any calories. Energy drinks and flavored water may sound beneficial, but they require additives to make them that aren’t all beneficial. Milk and juices are better choices because they’re natural but even they have their drawbacks. The best advice is to balance what you take for your drink. Don’t take any one item every day (except water of course). Above anything else, stay away from soda. It’s loaded with sugar and additives that hurt your body’s health.
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