Keep Obesity Out of a Child's Lunch Box
Moneycontrol.com | Jul 20, 2006
Moneycontrol.com
A tasty, lovingly packed lunch box that isn't filled with all the goodies that your child wants? It may be what she wants but not what she needs. Child Obesity is growing in an alarming manner in India. Earlier, it was thought of as a developed countries' problem of plenty. But now it seems to have caught up with slower, fatter Indian kids as well.
Obesity among school kids is on the rise. And this growing concern is due to the fact that busy working mothers find little time to pack healthy snacks in their child's tiffin boxes. So they pack what comes to hand - cookies, chips and other fast foods. Or they give kids money to eat at the school canteen, which is also full of fatty snacks. But thankfully there are options. Nutritionist, Shikha Sharma tells us more on healthy tiffins which are also easy to prepare.
Nutritionist, Shikha Sharma told CNBC-TV18, "You're quite right, because today, as a nutritionist, I'm appalled to see the kinds of tiffins, kids are carrying to school. The most important thing is for mothers to take care not to pack processed food as tiffins for their children."
She elaborates, "They can make very healthy, nourishing tiffins and yet make them look very good and appetizing. So, they can play around with colours; they can play around with shapes also. For instance, if you want to give a stuffed roti to your child, you could cut them with a biscuit-cutter into various shapes like stars and circles. You could also make a spinach dosa, or vegetable poha, with lots of carrots and peas and all that. Which is nourishing, as well as very appetizing. And of course they should make it a point that the food should not be messy to eat, and it should last long, I mean, in 3-4 hours it should not go bad."
Well those were useful tips indeed. Try and follow a few of them, and rest assured that healthy tiffins will soon be the only things you children will throw a tantrum for!
A tasty, lovingly packed lunch box that isn't filled with all the goodies that your child wants? It may be what she wants but not what she needs. Child Obesity is growing in an alarming manner in India. Earlier, it was thought of as a developed countries' problem of plenty. But now it seems to have caught up with slower, fatter Indian kids as well.
Obesity among school kids is on the rise. And this growing concern is due to the fact that busy working mothers find little time to pack healthy snacks in their child's tiffin boxes. So they pack what comes to hand - cookies, chips and other fast foods. Or they give kids money to eat at the school canteen, which is also full of fatty snacks. But thankfully there are options. Nutritionist, Shikha Sharma tells us more on healthy tiffins which are also easy to prepare.
Nutritionist, Shikha Sharma told CNBC-TV18, "You're quite right, because today, as a nutritionist, I'm appalled to see the kinds of tiffins, kids are carrying to school. The most important thing is for mothers to take care not to pack processed food as tiffins for their children."
She elaborates, "They can make very healthy, nourishing tiffins and yet make them look very good and appetizing. So, they can play around with colours; they can play around with shapes also. For instance, if you want to give a stuffed roti to your child, you could cut them with a biscuit-cutter into various shapes like stars and circles. You could also make a spinach dosa, or vegetable poha, with lots of carrots and peas and all that. Which is nourishing, as well as very appetizing. And of course they should make it a point that the food should not be messy to eat, and it should last long, I mean, in 3-4 hours it should not go bad."
Well those were useful tips indeed. Try and follow a few of them, and rest assured that healthy tiffins will soon be the only things you children will throw a tantrum for!













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