Summary: Elizabeth Ward shares some innovative ideas for back-to-school lunches and snacks.<br> <br> Host: Gloria Tsang, RD<br> Guest: Elizabeth Ward, MS, RD<br> <br> The million dollar question for many parents dealing with back-to-school season has got to be "What am I going to feed the kids?" By now, the kids are back to school for a week, are you running out of ideas already? Elizabeth Ward, mother of 3 and author of a new book Expect The Best is here today to share some innovative ideas for back-to-school lunches and snacks.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Transcript:<br> Gloria Tsang, RD: The million dollar question for many parents dealing with back-to-school season has got to be "What am I going to feed the kids?" By now, the kids are back to school for a week , are you running out of ideas already? Welcome to the Nutrition Tidbits podcast. This is Gloria Tsang, Editor-in-Chief for HealthCastle.com. Joining me today is nutritionist Elizabeth Ward, mother of 3 and author of a new book Expect The Best. She is here today to share some innovative ideas for back-to-school lunches and snacks. Thanks for joining us again, Elizabeth.<br> <br> Elizabeth Ward, MS, RD: Thanks for having me.<br> <br> Gloria Tsang, RD: One of the main challenges for parents is to ensure the lunch they pack ends up in the kid's tummy instead of in the trash can. What are some of your favorite lunch box staples?<br> <br> Elizabeth Ward, MS, RD: Well the first thing I do at the beginning of every new school year and periodical throughout is ask my child what they like for lunch. And I give it to them within reason. So I definitely have some favorite staples based on what they would like to eat and what I would like them to eat. I think that there is always a happy medium. That is always the trick is to find the happy medium between those two things don't you think?<br> <br> Gloria Tsang, RD: Yes, exactly. So what are some of the staples that you will pack for most of the days?<br> <br> Elizabeth Ward, MS, RD: Well, here is what I have in my house right now. I do have 100% fruit juice containers that will actually get you two servings of fruit in one container. I have milk, flavoured and plain, in eight ounce containers. I have fruit bars in the house, like a Nutri-Grain bar. I have hard-cooked eggs on deck and ready to go. I have things like yogurt and of course, all the traditional sandwich fixings, which you can just do a variety of things to make a lunch.<br> <br> Gloria Tsang, RD: Some of our audience may have little ones heading off to pre-school for the very first time. Any recommendations for toddler friendly snacks?<br> <br> Elizabeth Ward, MS, RD: Definitely limit the amount of sugar in the snacks. You know, these kids need to concentrate in their new environment. They need to pay attention and not be bouncing off the walls because they just had a juice drink or sugary drink and a few cookies. So focus on foods that you would actually give them at a meal. That's what I always say about snacks. Snacks should be me mini meals and not meal wreckers. So whatever you might give them at a meal, give it to them as a snack. It could even be a quarter of a sandwich or a small yogurt. Give them healthy foods so that they can actually concentrate in school, in that new environment.<br> <br> Gloria Tsang, RD: Let's talk about yogurt. It's a very popular item in a lunch box. Recently, when we did our review for the GoUndiet Review tool, we know that not all yogurts are created equal. Could you share some tips for picking out the healthy choices?<br> <br> Elizabeth Ward, MS, RD: If you taste it as a parent and it tastes super sweet, believe me, it has a lot of added sugar. The more added sugar you have in a food, the less nutrition you are going to have in general speaking because the sugar displaces the other nutrients. So take a look and go for the lowest sugar ones that you can fi...
