Take Prefab Lunches With a Grain of Salt

A lot of people are hungry to feed kids. Special kids’ meals are found not only at your local fast-food joint, but also at the supermarket. Bright boxes in the refrigerated section offer kids’ hot dogs, pizza, lunch meats, waffles, you name it.

The main benefit of these processed lunches is convenience. After all, what’s easier than tossing a box in your backpack as you race for the school bus?

The problem is, most of these box lunches contain too much of something: salt. You can tell how much by reading the label. (“Sodium” means salt--most boxed lunches contain more salt in one meal than a kid needs in an entire day.)

Now, salt is one of those things that’s a little tricky. We all need to eat some salt, because it keeps our cells healthy and full of enough fluid, according to nutritionist Joan Carter of the Children’s Nutrition Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

Fruits, vegetables, grains, meats and milk are naturally low in sodium. Much of the extra salt we eat is from canned or packaged processed foods. Meals prepared in our own kitchen from fresh ingredients tend to have less salt than foods made in a factory or fast-food restaurant.

Carter says most Americans eat a lot more salt than they should. Too much sodium day after day may eventually cause serious health problems in some adults.

“What you eat today is going to affect you when you’re an adult,” explains Diana Saikali, a nutritionist who works with kids at UCLA.

Saikali says boxed kids’ lunches are all right once in a while, but she suggests tasty alternatives. Some ideas: string cheese, yogurt, peanut butter, chicken salad, hummus, tuna fish, baby carrots, apples, raisins. Homemade leftovers, like pasta or soup, can be heated up and taken to school in a wide-mouth thermos. (Is anyone else getting hungry?)

We all know adults who shake salt on their food before they even taste it. These people are so used to salty food, they think they don’t like the taste of unsalted foods. But by gradually decreasing the amount of salt in our diet, we can lose the craving.

“You can develop a taste for healthy food,” Saikali says.

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Kids and other readers can reach Emily Dwass at emilydwass@yahoo.com.