Back-to-School With Whole Grains

About author / Christine Gable

Culinary enthusiast; kids cuisine and slow cooking; magazine recipe developer; professional writer. Her simple recipes are great for family dinners.

Are kasha, oat groats and brown rice common fare at your house? Probably not. Yet starting this school year, your kids may get an extra healthy lunchtime boost from just that: yep, whole grains. That’s certainly a boon when you’re on the watch for ways to help kids eat better and maintain a healthy weight.

And obesity and healthy eating are no longer subjects only for adults. Over 22 million children under age five are severely overweight, according to a recent article from FOOD Navigator.com.

Our modern world’s steady diet of refined, empty carbohydrates and packaged foods not only packs on the pounds, it can contribute to hyperactivity and unfocused attention in kids. That same blood that is signaling their bodies to take a nap or run around is feeding their brains.

Yep, that lunch they’re munching can definitely play a role in making the most (or worst!) of the remainder of their day.

Think about it: Is that Wonder Bread sandwich of peanut butter and marshmallow fluff really brain food? Or those potato chips and Oreos? Humankind did not subsist on this fare for the past thousand, two thousand, even ten thousand years. Nope. We might not even be here to think about it: Food was wild foods and whole grains.

Perhaps that’s the least of your worries: between work, errands and the house, you don’t pack school lunches and don’t plan to. Life probably was simpler and easier when we were hunter-gatherers.

Enter the School Lunch Program.

There are 29.5 million children eating lunch through the National School Lunch Program. New federal rules will affect what’s being served up in your local school’s cafeteria, along with the available offerings in vending machines. Not only are schools growing minds, they’re growing bodies, especially since another 9.3 million kids eat school breakfasts also.

According to the Whole Grains Council (WGC), schools are seeking their support and advice to help make whole grain choices more appealing. With this new approach in encouraging kids’ eating habits, whole grain products are being packaged and designed to appeal to kids in fun colors, shapes and sizes.

“All schools are NOT yet required to offer whole grain products,” said Cynthia Harriman, Director of Food and Nutrition Strategies of Oldways/The Whole Grains Council. “It's recommended, and as of July 1 schools must have instituted a local wellness policy that sets community standards for all food served at schools -- in the cafeteria, in vending machines, at bake sales, etc. In the course of working up these policies, many communities have individually decided to require their schools to serve whole grains.”

Why all the hubbub about whole grains? Well, for one thing, they’re complex carbohydrates. Complex carbs are treated differently inside the body than simple carbs—not only do they provide more fiber and nutrients, they stabilize blood sugar to provide longer-lasting energy, which is what kids need to make it through the day. Grains and legumes are the only foods that contain carbs, protein, fats, vitamins, minerals and fiber—all the major nutrients needed by the body, according to Rebecca Wood in The New Whole Foods Encyclopedia.

So when it’s back-to-school time, it’s not only time to feed their minds, it’s prime time to feed those growing bodies with whole foods. And, who knows, maybe one of these days your kids’ll cook up a pot of oat groats or kasha for breakfast. It’s never too late to start.

If you’re curious about what may be available at your kids’ school, check out the complete list of whole grain products at
http://wholegrainscouncil.org/Schools.html.

Here’s a quick and easy roll-up that packs into lunches in less than a minute—or does double-duty as an after-school snack when cut into 1-inch slices and served with apple slices. Try it on a whole-wheat tortilla next time: they’re just as tasty, with that extra fiber that does growing bodies good.

Serves/Makes: 1

• 1 flour tortilla
• 2 slices American cheese
• 2 slices turkey
• 1 cup chopped lettuce
• 1/2 cup chopped tomato (optional)
• 1 tablespoon ranch salad dressing