How "bad" are crisps and biscuits in an otherwise pretty healthy diet?

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Now Ds1 is at secondary school I'm really struggling with his packed lunch. He's tall and skinny with a huge appetite. At primary he had sandwiches, carrot, cucumber and some fruit plus a treat which was usually homemade.

Now, any fruit comes home uneaten and the homemade cakes don't travel very well, so as he had to carry his lunch all day have usually turned to crumbs in the box when he brings them home.

A typical day for him will be porridge made with milk, raisins and a bit of honey, or scrambled eggs on toast for breakfast.

A snack of fruit or his favourite raw carrot and maybe some toast when he gets home from school.

Dinner is always home made from scratch, not necessarily low fat, but always lots of veg and properly balanced with all the food groups etc. Either cake or yogurt for pud if required.

A biscuit and milk before bed.

I realise not obsessively perfect, but I don't think we do too badly. So, just how bad is it if his packed lunch consists of three rounds of bread with cheese/ham/fish, some nuts, a packet of crisps and a penguin type biscuit? (I've always restricted crisps to special occasions before )

Children do not need low fat, actually they need plenty. There's not a lot of cheese, yoghurt - could you put a yoghurt drink and a lump of cheddar in his lunchbox.

His diet looks fine to me.

Before long he will be going down the shop and buying multipacks of crisps himself, eating them in one sitting so I really do not think you should stress about him eating the odd packet.

He doesn't seem to be eating many snacks. Fruit or raw carrot after school? Wow, ds was eating toast by the plateful by 11 - and that was the healthy option.

Tbh it sounds better than a lot of teenagers would have. I think the best thing is making sure he knows the link between eating and exercise and how to balance a diet.

So, eating crisps at lunch after porridge for breakfast and a healthy dinner is fine. Eating crisps at lunch after a bacon sandwich for breakfast and a takeaway curry is not fine.

Maybe buy only enough crisps for lunches mon-fri so there's no temptation to scoff at other times?

Ah yes, Laurie, he does have more cheese than it sounds. If he doesn't have cheese in the sandwiches then I often give him a lump instead of the nuts and the toast when he gets home is often cheese on toast. It's hard to remember it all when you're trying to write it down!

No, I don't attempt to give Dc low fat, it drives me wild that when -schools-- people talk about "healthy" they bang on about low fat. It's full of additives, has no actual nutrition, but it's low in fat, sugar and salt, so it's healthily

Ooh, see I disagree there BigRedBox, I think a bacon sandwich is a pretty good breakfast, especially on wholegrain bread, much better than most "healthly" boxed cereals.

I do only buy the crisps we "need" though, or I eat them all

He has toast with the fruit Sue.

Doesn't school have no nut policy?
Humous and breadsticks?
Dried fruit?
Flapjack?
Nakd raisins. (Cola flavour are like cola bottles!)

Definitely no no nut policy, neither did his primary, or the primary school where I work.

Hummus etc wouldn't get eaten, too "difficult" to eat.

I'm sorry, but I don't consider flapjack or Nakd raisins to be any more healthy than a biscuit (although I know they're marketed that way) Both Ok in a lunchbox that's part of a balanced diet, but lets not kid ourselves they're good for us.

I put a homemade muffin in a plastic container - it travels fine from the freezer to the mouth at lunchtime. I think a Penquin is pretty crap food, sorry but I feel there's nothing in there to recommend it. I know homemade cakes contain sugar but they also contain good fat and lots of nutrients - even the gluten free rocky road I made this week contains 85% cocoa chocolate, real butter, eggs from the marshmallow and no nasties - kids are pretty active so the sugar should be burned off quickly.
Instead of crisps could you offer nuts? And raisins have more nutrients than sweets, same goes for homemade flapjacks although their sugar content may be similar.
Depends how you define healthy and the requirements of the individual - for my skinny kids I regard healthy food, as nutritionally dense food, minimal additives and sugar and a minimum of processed foods. They have a bit of crap food too, but it's a weekly treat, not a daily lunchbox addition.

Sorry just realised I have no idea what naked raisins are - don't buy my kids those pretend healthy fruit bars - they are just sugary crap masquerading as "fruit" sugar - if they are getting a sugary treat I'll let them choose something they will really enjoy and they won't choose a humzinger!

How old are your DC snow? Plastic containers are not cool in DS1's world!

They are 9, none of their food comes in a packet, they were initially a bit embarrassed that their lunchboxes looked different and then the other kids started wanting something similar and now they are quite proud of their foodie lunch boxes....their alternative is school dinners which although tick all the Governments healthy boxes, taste like cardboard.

Yes, that's what I found in primary school snow. DS1 used to be proud of his "traffic light" box which contained fruit/veg of lots of different colours. Now he's embarrassed by brown bread!

Brown bread is never going to get them jumping for joy. I make my own rolls and the kids find these just about acceptable but they don't do sandwiches - once a week tops. Mostly they have leftovers.

Hmm, yes, unfortunately it's a different world now. Leftovers were great for packed lunch, but now DS eats standing up, in the playground, in all weathers. Not gonna happen

He does like brown bread, it's not that he doesn't want to eat it, it's that everyone else has white.

Think by Secondary I'll be focusing on big breakfasts! Occasionally DS has not eaten his lunch as he's been too busy playing football, he eats it when he comes home - which is fine given the size and the quality of his breakfasts they are enough to keep him going all day. I'm just not giving in to the daily junk in the lunch box.

We'll see

Can you add more protein?

Cold chicken leg?
Boiled egg
Avocado

Example lunch: A cheese and cucumber sandwich/ pitta/ roll, chicken leg, some mixed nuts.and something extra he likes. Will he eat a banana packed? Or some yogurt?

Small tub with yogurt decante and some mixed frozen berries travels better than a normal yogurt.

I agree with cereal/ fruit bars not being healthy at all. I would rather they ate a few squares of decent chocolate

Oh I know I might back down but I have to start with high expectations so if and when the standards get downgraded we don't fall quite as far.

Eating standing up in the playground is a big problem with my kids as well. I tend to give them wraps or pittas - a bit more portable than a sandwich and you can stuff alot of salad in them. They have those youghurt pouches (though apparently get a bit of stick for that sometimes) and I find homemade cookies travel better than cakes.
I feel your pain though; my oldest ones won't even take a lunchbox any more - food is stuffed in a pastic bag. Little DS in primary takes a variety of tuperware, flask, whatever is necessary.

I think flapjacks stave off hunger longer than Penguin biscuits because of the oats being lower GI - they also have more fibre than Penguin biscuits or crisps.

Chicken drumsticks or a sausage roll in addition to the sandwiches?

But then I don't think there is any problem in including a moderate amount of crisps / biscuits in addition to an otherwise healthy diet.