NUT FREE SCHOOL LUNCHES

Hi Everyone,

Every Thursday will be ‘Tasty Thursday’ on #BeComplete. I have a very simple philosophy on food and that is to keep it real and as fresh as possible. I don’t advocate a certain type of diet because we are all different and I don’t believe you can generalize. I do think we need to adopt an old fashioned approach to our eating habits though and move away from packets and back to making things ourselves at home. On ‘Tasty Thursday’ I’ll have special guests like Roz Purcell sharing delicious recipes and I’ll also be sharing some of my own favourite recipes too. I’m not a great cook but there are a few things I do well like juicing and smoothies. You can’t be good at everything but I’ll give anything a go!

 NUT FREE SCHOOL LUNCHES:

This week I wanted to focus on nut free school lunches because we received a note home from school. It’s really important if your school has a nut free policy that as parents we support each other. I think if James had a seriously allergy I would be sitting beside him at lunch every day so lets help put other parents at ease and try and understand “NUT FREE” a little better.

Each school will have a different policy but the basics remain the same:

It is vitally important you check your schools policy and do everything to ensure your child’s lunch is nut free. Peanuts are among the most common allergy-causing foods, and they often find their way into things you wouldn’t imagine

Like cakes, muffins, donuts, cookies, granola bars, energy bars, cake icing, sweets, cereals, macaroons, marzipan, nougat, pastries, fried food, fried snack foods, desserts like ice cream, sundae toppings and frozen yogurts and even into things like chili con carne as peanuts are often used to thicken chili.

Peanuts aren’t actually a true nut, they belong to the legume family so the same family as peas and lentils. But the proteins in peanuts are similar in structure to those in tree nuts, which is why people who are allergic to peanuts can also be allergic to tree nuts like cashews, walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, Brazil nuts, pecans, macadamia nuts and pistachios.

Pesto is also a common ingredient used today on wraps, sandwiches and cold pastas and it is made from pine nuts. A pine nut is actually a seed and not a nut but because of the word ‘nut’ in the name, people with nut allergy often believe that pine nuts must be avoided at all costs. However, pine nuts are not in the same botanical category as tree nuts and many people with nut allergy can tolerate them. However, I personally still feel you should avoid them in the lunches, as there may be a few people that are sensitive to both!!

So as you can see from this it’s easy to make mistakes so as well as making sure that your child has a nut free lunch it’s probably a good idea to teach them not to share or swap their lunches to prevent any unnecessary mistakes happening.

MY TOP 4 TIPS:

• Teach your child not to share their lunch

• Explain about food allergies to your child

• Tell your kids what is in their lunch and explain about different food groups (obviously keep this super simple)

• Stay away from processed packaged foods that are made in factories with nuts

NEXT WEEK I’LL SHARE SOME IDEAS FOR HEALTHY NUT FREE LUNCHES.

IF YOU HAVE ANY TIPS FOR PARENTS OR YOU ARE A PARENT OF A CHILD WITH AN ALLERGY PLEASE SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS BELOW BECAUSE THE BEST WAY TO LEARN IS FROM EACH OTHER

Ali xxx