Central Coast News

More than 890 Central Coast parents have taken part in the Cancer Council NSW Eat It To Beat It program’s Healthy Lunch Box sessions as part of kindergarten orientation.

The free sessions provide ideas and tips on: quick and easy ways to pack a healthy lunch box; boosting fruit and vegetable content for cancer prevention; and saving money on the weekly grocery shop.

Central Coast Nutrition Project Officer Clare Murphy said favouring fresh foods over packaged goods and boosting fruit and vegetable content were easy ways to make lunch boxes budget-friendly.

“Processed snacks are much more expensive per kilogram than fruit and vegetables, so when it comes to packing school lunches, fresh is best” she said.

A healthy lunch box includes a combination of: breads and cereals; vegetables and salad; fruit; meat and alternatives; dairy; and water. Packing something from each food group gives the lunch box an A-grade.

“A nutrient-rich lunch box gives kids what they need to learn and play all day long,” Miss Murphy said.

“Adding extra veg to family dinners is also an ideal way to refuel kids’ bodies ready for school the next day.”

Eat It To Beat It’s free Fruit & Veg Sense workshops to show parents how to make simple, budget-friendly changes to household meals, such as modifying a stir fry recipe to reduce expensive meat ingredients and increase cheaper vegetables.

“This simple switch will make the meal better for you and your hip pocket,” Miss Murphy said.

Eating more fruit and vegetables was important for good health and cancer prevention.

“A fibre-rich diet including two serves of fruit and five serves of vegetables a day can help prevent one in six bowel cancer cases,” Miss Murphy said.

“Eating the recommended servings of fruit and vegetables also reduces your risk of oesophageal, lung and some mouth and throat cancers.”