by A. C. O'Brien

Created on: January 01, 2009   Last Updated: February 13, 2009

Getting back to basics means getting back to packing lunches for yourself and for your school age children. With one in five in the USA now battling obesity, it's time to turn our attention to our food intake.

Yogurt, once the choice of root, nut and berry eaters, today it has become more mainstream. This is a good thing too because yogurt is full of probiotics, they boosts our immunity as well as our digestive health in both the young and old. It is a great source of calcium helping to build strong bones and teeth so fdind a flavor that tastes good, choose a few and taste them all. It even comes in kid friendly tubes, as well as more adult flavors like coffee, key lime pie and strawberry cheese cake.

Avoiding soda does not need to be a painful experience for you or your kids. With four or five teaspoons of sugar in each portion of soda (Have you checked how many portions are in each of those cans?) fruit juice, with a slew of healthy benefits, is a much wiser choice. Low fat or skim milk is another good option. Still your best choice is a refillable water bottle. That water bottle can double as a fruit rinse, and a spot remover should you spill. It is a great thirst quencher and the bottle can be refilled during the day for multiple uses. This can save both calories and money while reducing the load you carry in from grocery shopping.

Unsalted peanut butter paired with no added sugar jam makes a tasty sandwich. Put it on whole wheat bread for added nutritional punch. You might want to switch up occasionally with cashew butter or almond butter, both a bit more pricy but they have different nutritional benefits so they offer variety of tastes as well as a switch in nutritional focus. There are many flavors of jam to choose from from lime marmalade to kumquat preserves. The options are endless. Water packed tuna with just a touch of mayo, herbs and some leaf lettuce makes a nice change up, or choose a cheese sandwich with a few thin slices of Swiss cheese or yellow cheese with a slice of tomato, this will offer variety as well as boosting your calcium and vegetable intake. For an inexpensive change up you might do up an egg sandwich on toast with a dollop of tomato rich katsup for added flavor. True eggs may have some fats but they are rich in protein and other nutrients that a growing body needs, if cholesterol is an issue you might try the 'Eggbeaters,' available in the supermarkets.

Fresh fruit is a great choice as a snack or after lunch treat. On Fridays you might want to put in a small zip bag of baked chips. Be sure to choose one that is low in salt. Bananas, apples and oranges all travel easily in a lunch bag.

Carrots, celery sticks or whole nuts make a great nutritional treats and they can add a wake up crunch to the mid day meal or they can be added as an afternoon snack.

Make sure that you and your child gets enough physical activity during your days. Organized sports are a great physical outlet but just riding a bicycle to a friends house after school, it can be a good workout. With the budget crunches that todays schools are facing gym is often an after thought once a week or left out all together. Adults can take a walk on their lunch hour or visit the gym after work.

With a healthy balance of activity and sound nutrition both you and your child can develop habits that will avoid the yo-yo fight with the waist line and the scale.

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