toledoblade.com --

Healthy food choices for school-age children and teens can be a minefield littered with snack foods and soda pop.

Good choices begin with breakfast and continue with lunch, whether brought from home or bought in the school cafeteria.

There are two solutions to midafternoon hunger pangs: Eat breakfast and carry a healthy lunch and/or snack.

Kids from kindergarten to 12th grade need plenty of fuel to keep them going all day, according to the Child Nutrition Foundation and the National Dairy Council. Researchers at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital have found that children who eat a nutritious breakfast have fewer behavior problems and better academic performance than those who skip breakfast.

Kids can have breakfast at home, as a grab-and-go meal on the way to school, and in the classroom.

Pennsylvania State University researchers identified three factors that foil the efforts of high school students to make healthy food choices - early lunch, schools that are reliant on income from soft drink companies, and parents who bring fast food to the cafeteria for their kids. (Toledo Public Schools has no policy on this.)

When lunch periods are scheduled before 10:30 a.m., researchers found that an early lunch start predicted higher a la carte sales in the cafeteria. A la carte foods are those sold in addition to the federally regulated meal program. These foods are often unregulated and may be of lower nutritional value. The kids with early lunches get hungry by midafternoon and are likely to snack.

The researchers also found that when there are more vending machines, there tends to be less participation in the hot-lunch program.

When school policies prohibit parents or students from bringing fast food to the cafeteria, there is increased participation in school meal programs.

As for home-packed nutritious lunches or snacks, kids can try new foods, favorite fruits, or create healthier versions of higher-calorie or higher-fat favorites. If you can't get up in time to make lunch, pack it the night before and store it in the refrigerator.

Parents or older siblings can help stock nutritious lunches by making Breakfast Cookies, Little Fruit Pies, or fruit salad, Mexican Pinwheels, or pasta salad. These recipes are found in The Healthy Lunchbox by Marie McClendon and Cristy Shauck (Small Steps Press, $12.95).

Megan and Jill Carle are sisters who collaborated on Teens Cook Dessert (10 Speed Press, $19.95). The recipes start out fairly simply with Million-Dollar Cookies and Turtle Brownies and work up to Spiral Cake, Peach Cheesecake Chimichangas, and Tuxedoed Strawberries.

But the bottom line for kids, teens, and adults is to eat regularly scheduled nutritious meals at least three times a day in moderate portions. Limit snacks to nutritious high-protein foods or fruits and vegetables. Skip the pop, including diet pop. Drink water, milk, or juice.

When eating at restaurants, remember that big portions encourage overeating. Don't base the amount you eat on the amount you are served. Don't "supersize." Eat only until you feel full. Take the rest for a snack if you are going straight home or can keep it refrigerated.

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