Lunchboxes need to hold ‘real food’: Mum

Many parents find it hard to steer clear of lunchbox staples like muesli bars, yoghurt, dried fruit and whitebread sandwiches.

But one mum wants to change that by showing parents how easy — and affordable — healthier lunchboxes can be to prepare.

Auckland mum Claire Deeks gave up her 12-year law career to show parents how to make quick, healthy, paleo-inspired lunches for their kids.

She is touring her Mothers On A Mission For A Kids Lunchbox Revolution event which brings tools, tips and tricks to help transition families into eating real food.

Each event features a guest speaker who specialises in an aspect of women’s wellness and parenting.

Deeks, 39, started her blog Dom’s Kitchen, named after her 5-year-old son Dominic, two years ago to document her family’s journey to eat “real food”.

Now they eat up to nine servings of vegetables a day, very little sugar, no processed food and have around half the average carbohydrate intake.

This extends to Dominic’s lunch. Deeks found the easiest way to make a healthy lunchbox is to use leftovers from dinner.

She said it can cost as little as $2.50 when making a vegetarian lunch. Or up to $5.50 for a lunch that includes meat and uses all organic and freerange ingredients. Her lunch boxes usually cost about $4 to make.

“There are some small steps parents can do for their kids that really don’t take so much time and can have a dramatic effect on the health of their child.”

The hardest thing is when you don’t want your children to miss out at events like birthday parties, Deeks said. But with statistics like 33 per cent of Kiwi kids between the ages of 2 and 4 being overweight, 5000 children a year needing general anaesthetic for severe tooth decay and 260,000 New Zealanders having diabetes, it strengthened her resolve.

“The statistics are scary enough,” Deeks said.

“At this point it’s better to be different. Being normal is not going to pan out that well for a kid.”

Deeks said some of the common things parents put in lunchboxes such as yoghurt, muesli bars, white bread and dried fruit are the worst.

“A lot of kids, when you look at their lunchbox, it’s nearly all going to break down to sugar in their bodies. “It’s a perfect storm for illness and chronic disease.” Nutritionist Abbie O’Rourke loves what Deeks is doing. She said paleo essentially just means whole foods. “It’s the only way to nourish kids without adding harmful additives and preservatives which can hurt their stomachs or give them behavioural issues.” O’Rourke makes two lunchboxes a week for her 16-month-old daughter, Poppy Evans. She includes items like boiled eggs, cheese sticks, cut-up carrot and apple, and beef jerky.