WHAT do you pack in your kids’ lunch boxes? In tonight’s episode of Save Money: Good Diet, presenter Sian Williams teamed up with dietitian Liz to reveal how to cut the sugar content in your kids’ lunches by half – and save nearly £200 at the same time. Unpacking a “typical” children’s lunch box, Liz […]
WHAT do you pack in your kids’ lunch boxes?
In tonight’s episode of Save Money: Good Diet, presenter Sian Williams teamed up with dietitian Liz to reveal how to cut the sugar content in your kids’ lunches by half – and save nearly £200 at the same time.
Unpacking a “typical” children’s lunch box, Liz explained a lunch of a ham sandwich, yogurt, apple, one bag of crisps and an orange juice drink contains a whopping 36g of sugar.
With the addition of a chocolate Penguin biscuit bar, the sugar content reaches 46g, which is over double the recommended amount per day for children aged four to six (19g) and just under double for older kids aged seven to 10 (24g).
But, Liz explained there are a number of swaps to half the amount of sugar.
First, introduce brown or wholemeal bread instead of white, with Liz opting for a wholemeal pitta instead.
Liz also swapped ham for chicken and lettuce.
When it came to the snacks, swapping crisps to rice cakes and ditching the sugary orange juice drink for water dramatically cut calories.
Liz also recommended swapping the fruit yoghurt for natural yoghurt with the addition of a portion of strawberries.
Surprisingly, the dietitian explained that shortbread is an ideal substitution for a chocolate biscuit bar, containing 3.4g compared to 10g in the Penguin.
Once the swaps were complete, Liz’s healthy lunch consisted of 21.2g of sugar compared to 44.65g
When you take natural sugars that occur in fruit out of the equation, the sugar content drops even further, with just 8.11g in Liz’s compared to 29g in the original.
What’s more, if you buy supermarket own brands, you’ll save £190 per school year.
But despite viewers being impressed with some of the swaps, several were not happy about the rice cake substitution, with a number of parents taking to Twitter to voice their opinions on the “salty cardboard”.
Would you make these swaps?
Yeah because kids love eating slightly salted cardboard for lunch
#savemoneygooddiet
— Michelle McL (@foopixies) July 2, 2019
Catch up with Save Money: Good Diet now on the ITV Hub.
In other parenting news, we told you how one mum was shamed over her daughter’s lunchbox – because it had two cookies in it.
We also revealed a toddler accidentally bought a £340 sofa on Amazon while playing with her mum’s phone.
And we showed you how a kind-hearted stranger wrote a heartfelt note to a mum after she sent her autistic son, 7, on a flight alone with a letter and £8 to give to his seat mate.
