Bento Nutrition and Alternative School Lunches for Children and Adolescents
“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,” said Piglet at last, “what is the first thing you say to yourself?” “What’s for breakfast?” said Pooh. “What do you say, Piglet?” “I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?” said Piglet. Pooh nodded thoughtfully. “It’s the same thing,” he said (Cooper & Holmes, 2007a, p. 115).
It is an imperative to change the way America feeds it’s children. Understanding child nutrition is the first step in creating healthier meals for children and adolescents in the U.S. where diseases of affluence such as heart disease, type II diabetes, obesity, and cancer can be directly related and prevented by diet. Food is no longer respected for it’s cultural heritage and wholesome value in creating character and morals. Food education for all people, especially children, and the connection between diet, lifestyle choices, and health/ disease must be stressed. This pandemic issue can easily be solved by adequate nutrition, proportion sizes, and just a little more attention. Bento lunch boxes address all of these tasks and are a fun and enjoyable way to engage children in a way that makes them love to eat healthy whole foods.
More and more studies and long-term research has shown the connection of diet, disease, and how easily health issues could be prevented or even reversed when supplied with adequate nutrition. The most freighting epidemic ravishing today’s children is obesity and type II diabetes, “thirty to forty percent of children born in the year 2000 will develop diabetes, and a great many of them will have other health problems resulting from obesity” (Cooper & Holmes, 2007b, p. ix) Horrifying studies have predicted that this generation is the first whose life expectancy will be shorter than their parents. Food advocates and very concerned authors of Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children state,
The percentage of obese children in America today has more than doubled since 1970. More than 35 percent of our nation’s children are overweight, 25 percent are obese and 14 percent have type 2 diabetes, a condition previously seen primarily in adults (Cooper & Holmes, 2007b, p. xiv).
These overwhelming statistics are inextricably linked to the lack of nutritious whole foods provided to children and adolescents both at home and at school. It has become well known that our public schools have lost substantial funding over the last decade and have had to revert to corporate sponsorship to make ends meat, “a full 78 percent of the schools in America do not actually meet the USDA’s nutritional guidelines, this is no surprise considering the fact that schools keep the cost of lunch between $1 and $1.50 per child” (Cooper & Holmes, 2007b, p. xv)
The dramatic loss in funding usually involves allowing fast food chains to usurp lunchtime menus to promote and increase their customer base. Sometimes students are not given a choice, “a recent study showed that teenagers served a fast-food lunch ate an average of 1652 calories during the single meal- more than 60 percent their estimated daily energy requirement (Cooper & Holmes, 2007a, p. 82). There can be no doubt of the causes behind a child’s poor food choices when faced with such overwhelming dominance of corporations (especially their direct advertising to entice and lure children) in their daily lives. For the first time it is being recognized that affluent countries with access to these processed foods are not only obese but malnourished as well exacerbating other health related issues.
Providing a child with a home packed nutritionally balanced meal may save the child’s long-term wellbeing and in some cases their life. The greatest challenge is to fight the intoxicating fatty and sugary foods provided by schools. Bento lunch boxes help provide a solution to this. Not only is it important to keep bento box lunches nutritionally balanced but it is just important to keep them fun and appealing to all of the senses. Famous bento author of Just Bento, Itoh, believes that,
The main thing to keep in mind that you should always aim for a good balance between the main food groups: carbs or starches, protein, and vegetables and fruit. I always try for a 1:1:1 ratio between carbs, protein and vegetables - if there are more vegetables, all the better, but never too much carbs or protein (“Getting started with bento making,” n.d.).
A cultural phenomena that is spreading all over the globe to make eating healthy bento box lunches is charaben or character bentos. Character boxes incorporate pleasurable shapes of flowers, landscape scenes, animals, television and book characters, and holiday themes into the lunch box. Tools such as cookie cutters, face punch outs, silly food picks, and shapely molds are used to cut out vegetables, proteins, grains (especially rice) or breads into delightful scenes that make eating an exciting task for children. Who would not want to eat their vegetables when they were used as flowers and tree garnishes around their favorite anime character? Face Food The Visual Creativity Of Japanese Bento Boxes, Author, Salyers says, “some of the parents I spoke to made charaben to improve their children’s nutritional health (a serious matter in light of Japan becoming increasingly overrun with McDonalds, Starbucks and scores of non-Western fast-food chains) (2008, p. 6).
However changing a child’s diet is no easy feat, “according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, many children will not accept a new food until it has been offered at least ten times” (Hemmert & Pelstring, 2002, p. 44). This difficulty can be overcome more easily if we involve the child in the cooking and preparation process so they can learn a healthy diet from early on and develop a joy in cooking. Teaching our children where our food comes from and what foods are healthiest and tastiest to eat will set the foundation of healthy choices as adolescents and adults. Authors of The Laptop Lunch User’s Guide, Hemmert & Pelstring, show that a nutritious and attractive bento lunch box should have many attractive colors, appealing textures, pleasing shapes, and manageable sizes (Hemmert & Pelstring, 2002, p. 49). Try to use as many unprocessed whole foods as possible to reduce the child’s intake of sugars, hydrogenated and regular oils, salt, preservatives and other questionable ingredients. Portion sizes in schools and restaurants are deceiving by clever packaging and do not teach children proper proportion sizes. Balanced portion sizes reduce overeating especially when high fiber foods and whole grains are supplied.
Simple bento boxes are easily constructed by planning ahead and making large batches of staples like rice to be frozen and easily accessed later. Adding fruit and vegetable cut-outs are a wonderful way to add extra flavor and flourishes that will keep a bento box more densely packed and keep it from shifting around during travel. Children and adolescents who eat the healthiest food not only have healthy bodies and get sick less often, but also have healthy minds, do better in school, and have less behavioral issues (Hemmert & Pelstring, 2002, p. 8). Most importantly it is important to set an example for your children. You cannot expect them to eat anything that you will not, nor will they be encouraged to try new foods.
For some parents this may seem like an overwhelming and daunting process and it is important not to overwhelm yourself or you child by changing diets too quickly. Slowly experiment and see what your child responds best to while encouraging them try new foods and flavors. Keep the foods simple and light because a child’s palette is not as developed or refined. This will teach them how to enjoy the natural innate flavors of foods and make sweets and fats less enjoyable or satisfying over time. If at all possible take your child shopping with you, especially in the fresh produce isles, and let them pick out a food of their choice to make them feel engaged and excited. They may not like the food at all but giving them a choice will help them make more responsible food choices in the future. Also keep in mind that organic and preferably local foods are more nutritionally dense and help the environment and local more ethically oriented businesses. Enjoy eating and do not scold a child for their eating habits as their body perceptions are evolving and peers and the media already put them under so much pressure.
Bento is an amazing solution to inadequate nutrition and diseases of affluence. The undoubted increase in bento box lunches in all cultures is living proof of this. Bento boxes are an exciting food experiment and can be used to show deep love and gratitude for your child’s wellbeing and optimal health. Give thanks for the opportunity to show your children that by showing cultural food traditions you not only bring them closer to their heritage but to their identities. Bento may not be a cure all solution but it is a wonderful start to long term lifestyle choices.
Bibliography
Cooper, A., & Holmes, L. (2007b). Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children. Collins Living.
Getting started with bento making: Aim for balance. (n.d.). . Retrieved October 31, 2010, from http://justbento.com/handbook/getting-started-bento-making/aim-for-balance
Hemmert, A., & Pelstring, T. (2002). The Laptop Lunch User's Guide: Fresh Ideas for Making Wholesome, Earth-friendly Lunches Your Kids Will Love. Morning Run Press.
Salyers, C. D. (2008). Face Food:The Visual Creativity of Japanese Bento Boxes. Mark Batty Publisher.
