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Lunches deserve as much attention as other main meals, given their significant contribution to our daily energy and nutrient intake.
However, the challenge in creating healthful school and work lunches is the need to have portable and convenient foods that will remain fresh and safe over the day while sitting in a school bag or office desk. So, is sushi or a Marmite sandwich the better option?
Act leader David Seymour made headlines when he announced on X that the government will “be feeding kids in schools the fruit and sandwiches their parents would give them, not woke food like quinoa and sushi”. Seymour’s statement is incorrect on multiple levels, but I appreciate his sentiment in calling out the types of performative food choices that now permeate our culture.
However, many New Zealand children are not brought up on European fare, such as sandwiches. We are an ethnically diverse country and eating foods from different cultures is also now fairly standard. Moreover, I am confident my NZ friends of Japanese or Chinese ethnicity do not consider their cultural staple foods of sushi or dumplings, respectively, “woke”.
Still, Seymour’s comment deserves consideration, because what we eat becomes a powerful symbol of who we are or who we want to be seen as, according to food anthropologists. Choosing a vegetarian quinoa salad and a matcha almond latte sends a different social message than a mince pie and doughnut.
Food choices can be used as a form of virtue signalling to show how woke one is or as a display of social standing. But when it comes to school lunches and work lunches, whether food is woke or not is unimportant. What matters is that a nutritious meal is provided that contain foods the child will eat.
Ideally, we should aim to include fruit or vegetables, whole grains and some protein in portable lunches. Protein is the most satiating of the food groups, so including protein-rich lean meat, chicken, seafood, boiled egg, beans or lentils, or a yoghurt or a dairy-based drink will make your lunch more satisfying. But if your child loves a classic Marmite sandwich, all is not lost.
Choose a wholemeal or wholegrain bread, include a piece of fruit (or some vege sticks) and a pottle of yoghurt, and you have ticked plenty of boxes for a healthful lunch. Still, while we might aim for more nutritious school lunches, containing foods closer to their natural state, such as wholegrain bread rather than highly refined white bread, it is more important that children have food they will choose to eat to fuel their bodies and learning during the day, rather than food that ticks off some magical nutrition trifecta but remains in the lunch box, uneaten.
Some people dedicate their Sunday afternoons to prepping lunches for the week. Others take it day by day. However you choose is fine, as long as you plan – studies show planning increases the nutrient content of meals.
So whether you keep a spoonful of leftover meat from the night’s dinner for tomorrow’s sandwich, or some leftover stir-fry, or you provide sushi, bento boxes and rice bowls, it is all good – rice may fall into the woke category for some but the combination of rice, lean meats or fish, vegetables and dressings makes them a nutritious, portable lunch.
Moreover, there are good reasons why wraps, sandwiches, sushi, bento boxes and fruit muffins often appear in school lunches – they are tasty and nutritious, and many kids love them. So, forget the woke labels. Choose what works for you and your children while considering the basic guidelines of including more foods closer to their natural state and fewer highly processed foods and snacks.
Jennifer Bowden is the nutrition columnist for the NZ Listener magazine and listener.co.nz
