Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / #1162 - The $4.50 Lunch Box: Why Healthy is Actually Cheaper

Transcript

#1162 - The $4.50 Lunch Box: Why Healthy is Actually Cheaper · Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Today on the podcast why the unhealthiest lunch boxers are
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: actually costing you more money and the simple system that's
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: going to help your family win at nutrition while saving
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: it the checkout. It's a slice of advice that's going
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: to change how your kids pack their school lunches. Hello,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: this is the Heavy Family's podcast, Real Pairenting Solutions. Every
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: day on Australia's most downloaded parenting podcast. We are Justin
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: and Kylie Coulson. How many school lunches do you reckon
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: that you have made over the years with six daughters
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: and all those years of kids going to school, I'm.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: Pretty sure our family has single handedly kept a wheat
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: farmer's business going for the last twenty plus years. With
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: all those lunches that probably half of which ended up
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: in the bin, I will say.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and they probably stopped the other half for their
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: friends pack the chips something. The wheat farmers of Australia
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: can rejoice because the Coursons are still buying bread they go.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: I found a fascinating study in most Australian homes. Ninety
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: percent of Australian homes kids are taking packed lunches to school.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: So especially with the cost of living biting.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: I'm really surprised as that high.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it doesn't. The researchers came from Flinder's Union, Adelaide
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: and the University of Newcastle, and as I skimmed through
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: the research, I didn't see anything looking at how many
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: days a week kids are buying lunches. But ninety percent
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: of the time kids are actually taking a pack lunch,
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: which is a pretty high number. But here's the kicker.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: The average lunch box. They found and this is research
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: from twenty twenty four that this is cutting edge, brand
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: new research. The average lunch box costs about four dollars fifty,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: so not the lunch box, the food in the lunch
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: box would be valued at about four dollars fifty. They
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: took photos of a thousand school lunches from school around
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: the nation. When they dug deeper into the numbers, they
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: found something very very interesting. The more processed and prepackaged
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: foods that were in the lunch box, the higher the cost,
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: the higher the value of the food in the lunch box.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: About forty percent of kids are taking lunch boxes that
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: are mostly filled with these pricier and less healthy options.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: My parents must have worked this out without even the
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: research there to support them. Because I had a vegimite
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: sandwich with an orange My dad used to slinky the
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: orange peel. I used to love that around, Yes, but
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: it was back before you really had like, please use
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: wax paper.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: It's like the orange wood lead.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: You might orange flavored sandwich, especially on wholemeal bread. It
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: was not good.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, Yeah, that is really bad. All right, Well,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: the conversation today a slice of advice on how we
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: can get good food into our kids at school, because
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: if we can, it's going to be cheaper, it's going
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: to be more nutritious. But the thing that I think
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: it's non controver Verschel to say, it feels like there's
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: a time cost, and it feels like there's also a
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: brain drain, like it's harder to think through what's required
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: to get healthy food into the lunch box that they'll eat,
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: and the prepackaged stuff just feels much more convenient, feels
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: way easier.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: You don't, well, if they don't eat the prepackaged stuff,
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: it's gonna be okay for another day if they don't.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: Need It's true as well, the stuff.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: That you've slaved in the kitchen over. It's in the beam,
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: all right.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: So yesterday on the Heavy Families podcast, we gave a
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: slice of advice on how to get ready in the
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: morning and make that work. Something that we talked about
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: is where we're going to go really deep today, and
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: that is how do you create a menu that is
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: going to support your kids nutritious eating and be good
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: for your budget so that they've got healthy lunches to
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: take to school every single day.
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: A couple of things come to mind for me. When
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: one of our kids was going through a particularly fussy
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: eating stage, we discovered that if we got her in
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: the kitchen cooking alongside me, that she was actually more
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: inclined to try the foods because she'd done the work.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: We haven't found that that's worked with all of them.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: A couple of them, we've got them to cook, and
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: they're happy to get in there and cook and be
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: with us, and then they're like, yeah, but I'm still
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: not going to eat this stuff, But you're right. That
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: really did make a difference for a couple of them.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: Yesterday in the pod, we talked about how we created
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: a menu and there's a real process to doing this
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: so that your children will be able to be involved.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: They'll be interacting with you, they'll be creating the food,
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: and they're going to be happy to take it to
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: school and eat it after the break. We're going to
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: step out how you can create this lunch menu in
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: proper detail so there are no more excuses around healthy
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: lunches for school. If you want your kids eating healthy
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: food at lunch, taking a lunch box that is mostly
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: filled with cheaper, more healthy options than about forty percent
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: of care kids are taking to school, we reckon. There's
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: a simple way to do it, and that is to
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: build out a menu so that everyone can be prepped.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: You've got the food in the fridge and then it's
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: just a case of putting it all together on the
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: morning of school. Kylie, we never came up with a
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: fancy name for this, but it's made a huge difference
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: in our home. Let's step through the process. What have
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: we done and how have we done it?
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: Lunch menus not fancy enough for you?
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: I think I think chat GPTO you could give us
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: something better, but let's go with that anyway, because I
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: don't have it in front of me.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: So to begin with, for the first time, this could
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: be a little bit time consuming, and it depends on
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: whether or not you have children who are particularly fussy
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: eaters or not.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: Probably also depends on their age a little bit as well.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: But my suggestion is that you all sit down in
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: a family meeting and you actually talk about all of
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: the foods that they love having in their lunch box. Now,
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: if you've been a family that has used all of
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: the process next, then you can be assured that they're
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: going to be at the top of the hood.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I want the stuff that comes into cranky packets
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: because yum.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: And one of the best ways you can move through
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: that process to just acknowledge that right now, our budget
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: doesn't allow us to buy those things, so we're actually
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: going to try something new, and it's going to require
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: all of us to kind of do a little bit
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: of give and take here, and that's what we experience
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: with our kids. So sitting down with them and getting
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: them to write down all of the different fruits, for instance,
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: that they love eating, all the different vegetables that they'd
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: love to have in a dip, whether or not they
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: want salad and meat on their sandwiches.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: Another really good conversation is just what do your friends
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: take that you really like the look of, Like what
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: lunch boxes are you jealous of?
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: At school, we also had a rule in our house
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: that you could have one sweet thing in your lunch
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: box along with a couple of savory things. That doesn't
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: mean that that sweet thing has to be number one
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: process and number two unhealthy. It's a sweeter option comparative
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: to having some veggie sticks or some cheese and crackers
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: or something like that. But once you've got an idea
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: of the varieties of foods that your children are willing
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: to eat, then you might look it and go hmmm.
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: So we probably would like to add a little bit
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: of color and excitement here. Why don't we pull out
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: those recipe books and have a look at a couple
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: of recipes that we could try this week that would
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: be new yep.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: And then it's really just a case of putting it
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: all down on the piece of paper and laminating it
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: and working out. So I want to get really concrete here.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: If I was to put together a list of all
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: the things that we did, the first thing we did
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: was we put down the snacks. So the snacks or
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: the recess items or the fruit that was at the
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: top of our menu.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: Yesterday we talked about that motel breakfast menu. That's what
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: I used as my inspiration for.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: For what we created.
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: The lunch menu was literally just separating everything, so fruits
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: and I listed all the fruits that I was willing
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: to purchase and have in the fridge.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: Literally and with a check box next to each one,
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: so that on let's say Sunday night, we could give
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: the kids the menu and they would go through the
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: menu and they'd look at the fruit and they'd check
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: the box, and then they'd look at the snack and
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: they'd check the box. They look at the sandwiches, and
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: if they wanted a sandwich, they'd check the feelings that
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: they wanted, whether it was ham or some chicken or
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: some roast beef or whatever it was. And we just
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: had to make sure that the food was in the
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: fridge or it maybe it's honey or peanut butter roll.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: I don't know, jam or vegiem. Did you know I
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: used to literally eat twelve I was swimming training and
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: swimming like between two and four hours a day, but
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: I used to eat twelve bread rolls every day at
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: school with marmite on them.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: How did you stop the marmote from kind of like,
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: you know, melting, absorbing into the bread.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: I was a teenage boy. I don't think I cared.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: It was just it was bread, it was calories, and
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: I felt like I got some status from having twelve
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: bread rolls in my bag and doing that. How gross.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: So anyway, the whole objective here is that you write
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: this stuff all down on a menu, you have little
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: check boxes next to it, and then on Sunday night
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: or Wednesday night or whatever it is, you say, all right, kids,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: so much bedtime? What are you going to have tomorrow
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: for lunch?
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: Our kids loved it because we laminated them. They got
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: to use a white bold marker and if something wasn't available,
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: we just kind of put across through it so they
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: knew that wasn't.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: Abstruck sold out for the next couple of days until
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: we get at the shops again.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: But it made it so much easier for me the
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: next morning when I got up to make their lunches,
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: because I could just line all the lunches up and
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: I knew exactly what each one wanted and I wasn't
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: going to get.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: Oh I don't want that.
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: How come she got that and I didn't or whatever.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: There are so many different ways that you could do this,
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: but this week we're just picking one thing each day
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: that can be helpful for different aspects of getting the
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: kids back to school, whether it's lunches or morning routines
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: or whatever else that we're going to be talking about
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: during the week. Our slice of advice today create a
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: hang on with's chat GPT when I needed lunch menu.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: Boring funny story about chat GPT. You were in an
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: office the other day and I can't remember the details,
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: but you were listening to a receptionist on the phone
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: talking to a boss or something.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: There were two receptionists and one receptionist was busy with
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: another client, and she had been trying to write an
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: email to this client and realize that she needed to
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: say something that wasn't so nice in a nice way,
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: so she rang her I'm assuming it was her boss,
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: it was someone higher up the ladder, and she said,
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: I know what I have to say. She said, I
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: just know how to say it nicely.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: I want to just tell her to go go jump
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: or whatever.
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: And I was standing there going just use chap GPT,
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: and about three seconds later, the other reception called over
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: to her and said, chat GPT will tell.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: You replacing our brains. You know what that's actually, it
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: wasn't in our notes to talk about today, but it's
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: not a bad idea. Use AI. I like Claude from Anthropic.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: Most people are familiar with chat GPT, Google has Gemini.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: There's all sorts of AIS that are out there, But
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: if you're really stuck, just jump onto one of those
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: and say, I need some ideas for the kids' school lunches.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: I guarantee it will give you whatever menu you're looking for,
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: whether you're looking for standard Western fair where it leftovers, wraps, key,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: toasty sagers, buns, salads, meats, yogurt, cheese, crackers, fruits, veggies, whatever,
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: it'll give you all that. Or you can ask for
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: Asian Fair or Indian Fair or whatever it is that
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: your kids are going to eat. I guarantee you'll find that.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: AI will give you some answers as well.
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: I'm sure if you asked him he'd be able to
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: tell you what the most popular lunchbox fillers were.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you're probably right anyway. That's our one
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: slice of advice not use AI, Although you can but
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: rather sit down with your kids and make it a
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: process that you go through. Make it an enjoyable experience
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: where you're talking about stuff, you're doing it together, and
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: you're building it out on a day to day basis
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: so that the kids can feel good about what's in
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: the lunch box, you can keep the costs down, and
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: you can also know that it's healthy. The Happy Family's
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: podcast is produced by Justin Roulant from Bridge Media. If
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: you're enjoying the pod and getting good value from it,
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: please let others know about it, either by telling them
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: directly or by jumping online wherever you're listening and leaving
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: a five star rating and review. When you do it, it
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: helps other people to find the It makes a difference somehow.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: The algorithm puts it in other people's suggested items and
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: they end up hearing about us and enjoying what we're saying.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: So please share those five star ratings and reviews, and
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: if you'd like more info more resources that can make
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: your family happier, you'll find it all at happy families
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: dot com. Do a