Healthy Habits at School
Eating a healthy breakfast and packing a healthy lunch are the best ways to make sure you have the energy you need to get through a busy school day. Sometimes you might like to eat lunch from the school tuck-shop. It’s good to know which school tuck-shop foods and drinks are healthy to help make healthy choices.
Choosing healthy food from the school Tuck-shop
Here are some healthy school tuck-shop options and ideas. Choose a multigrain, whole-meal samosas, roll or wrap. Healthy fillings include salad and lean chicken or beef, fish, eggs or lentil patties. Here are some healthy hot food options:
- fresh soups with whole meal samosas
- mixed bean/lentil and maize stew with avocado slices
- vegetable, chicken or beef curry with rice
- ugali/nsima with kales/rape with scrambled eggs
If you want to get a snack from the school tuck-shop, choose options like these:
- fruit salads or whole fruit
- reduced-fat yoghurt and fruit
- air-popped popcorn (not cooked in oil)
- vegetable sticks, boiled eggs
- raisin or fruit bread.
It’s a good idea to pack a bottle with tap water for you to drink and refill throughout the day. This is always healthier and cheaper than buying drinks from the school tuck-shop. If you want to buy a drink at the tuck-shop, choose water or reduced-fat milk and soy drinks.
Unhealthy school tuck-shop food and drinks
‘Sometimes’ foods are foods with high amounts of sugar, saturated fat and salt. You see them on a lot of school tuck-shop menus. These foods aren’t healthy for you. They can give you short energy boost that can leave you feeling tired for the rest of the day. They can also lead to unhealthy weight gain if you eat too much of them.
- all deep-fried foods, including chips, chicken nuggets and dim sims
- hot pastries like mandazis, sausage rolls and pies, cakes, donuts, chocolates and sweets
- cordial, flavored water, sports waters, sports drinks, energy drinks, flavored milks, fruit juice
- coffee drinks – mocha, latte, cappuccino and so on – and coffee-flavored milk drinks.