As the new academic year is just days away, families as well as educators have accelerated their preparations.
Stating that school preparations should not only consist of clothing, stationery and academic preparation for families, Timur Erk, President of the Turkish Kidney Foundation, said: “Preventive medicine is one of the first conditions for healthy generations. In preventive medicine, correct and balanced eating habits are of great importance. Healthy nutrition during the education and training period of our children, who are our future, covers a chain that extends to a strong immunity and indirectly to protection from diseases and academic success. We should not entrust the health of our children to malnutrition and malnutrition. We have a great power in our hands: lunchboxes. We should establish the nutritional habits they need to acquire with the healthy lunchboxes we offer them and prevent many diseases, including obesity, which is progressing like an epidemic. Come on families, academic success is not enough, healthy generations are in your hands.”
Stating that a new order awaits children with the opening of schools, Dietitian Gökçen Efe Aydın said, “When we consider that students spend at least one main and one snack a day at school, the foods that students can access at schools should also be healthy. However, students can easily access unhealthy foods and packaged junk foods in school canteens and markets around schools. This situation can affect both the academic success of students and the health of children by paving the way for many diseases, especially obesity and diabetes.”
Pointing out that a healthy diet should start at home and should be supported by parents at school, Aydın said, “The easiest way to establish this order at home is to sit at the table together without skipping meals and eat healthy foods. Children who start the day at home with a balanced breakfast consisting of cheese, eggs, whole grain bread, olives and seasonal greens and who get their meals at school from their lunchboxes will have both school success and strong immunity.”
Providing information about the contents of the sample lunchbox, Aydın said, “Some of the energy needed throughout the day can be met with the foods in the lunchbox. These lunchboxes, which contain all food groups, play a key role in ensuring adequate and balanced nutrition at school. Foods such as whole grain sandwiches, fresh fruits, yogurt and nuts provide the energy children need and support their mental and physical performance.”
