Today’s Lunch: Some Ideas for Easy Healthy Nutrient Boosts

I’m very excited about starting some posts on nutrition and immune support, one of my favorite topics as I have a son with allergies, a husband with eczema, and a baby that I’m raising without vaccinations so far. To help inspire me, here’s a peek into what we’re eating.

Today’s Lunch Menu

Green Lettuce and Arugula Salad with Miso Magic Dressing (from our farm share!)

Raw baby carrots with Hummus

Homemade Barley and Millet Crackers with Polar Brand Kipper Snacks (aff)

What’s So Healthy?

This is my kinda’ lunch, honestly. Everything comes right out of the fridge or the can and voila, you’re eating. This is especially true when you wash, spin and store your greens in advance (thank you, husband!). Tip: Store greens with one paper towel in bags or reused store bought containers. The paper towel plus spinning reduces moisture to keep spoilage away.

Here are my favorite aspects of the meal, health-wise:

Arugula

Yum! Just Yum! I love the bite of arugula, especially when mixed with a milder green to achieve a balance. And guess what? So does my 12-year-old son! He’ll eat any green without a crunchy stem or rib. As he says it, “I only like leafy greens.” He especially likes arugula. Maybe it’s because I go on and on about how spicy it is, like a special herb that adds flavor to your salads or savory dishes like pasta or arborio rice. It’s hard not to like the sophistication of foods when you talk ‘em up! Arugula is also one of the kings among greens for nutrients. According to Greens Glorious Greens: More than 140 Ways to Prepare All Those Great-Tasting, Super-Healthy, Beautiful Leafy Greens (aff):

It tops lettuce, chicory, romaine, and watercress in beta-carotene, vitamin C, and calcium. A cruciferous, cancer-fighting vegetable as well, arugula contains more calcium than kale and collards, two greens noted for their high calcium content.

An excellent cookbook, Greens Glorious Greens! has no less than eight recipes for meals made with arugula.

Miso

Like pickles, saurkraut, and yogurt, miso is a fermented food, which means it contains beneficial bacteria that help strengthen your digestive tract, one of the key activities in fighting allergies and strengthening the immune system. Unlike these other foods however, miso has a rich almost nutty flavor — it’s the ultimate non-dairy probiotic! It adds bite, but blends well with savory foods. Although my favorite dressing is miso-tahini, my son is allergic to sesame seeds. The variation of Miso Magic Dressing I’ve included above is from A Cookbook for All Seasons: A Healthy Eating Plan for Life (aff). Foods that support the bacteria in the digestive tract play a role in strengthening the immune system and reducing allergic responses, which, like auto-immune diseases, represent the body’s overreactive immune response. From Wikipedia, with references,

Gut flora have a continuous and dynamic effect on the host’s gut and systemic immune systems. The bacteria are key in promoting the early development of the gut’s mucosal immune system…. The bacteria stimulate the lymphoid tissue associated with the gut mucosa to produce antibodies to pathogens.

Miso also has anti-cancer properties.

Hummus

Hummus is the ultimate healthy kids snack. Anyone I know who’s tried it with kids has never gone back. When I’ve hosted playdates at my house, I’ve always placed a bowl of hummus and baby carrots in front of the kids for snacks. The hummus disappears and so do many of the carrots! Anything that will encourage kids to eat raw veggies is a plus, as this is the best way to get the full nutrient value. On top of that, hummus contains chickpeas, tahini, and garlic, making it a good source of fiber, protein, antioxidants, vitamin E and manganese. (Follow the preceding links for more info. and some great-looking recipes!) For vegetarians, hummus is a complete protein, according to WebMD.

Kipper Snacks

OK, let’s talk about Essential Fatty Acids, and while we’re at it how about non-dairy sources of calcium? Lucy Burney has written several books on immunity and nutrition. In her book Boost Your Child’s Immune System (aff) she offers not only a host of recipes but an easy-to-grasp lowdown on the immune system, guidelines for allergies, thoughts on vaccinations and antibiotics, and excellent lists of immune-boosting superfoods. She states:

Children eat far too much saturated fat and not nearly enough of the right type of polyunsaturated fats, which contain health-promoting substances and essential fatty acids (EFAs). As the body is unable to convert other fats into EFAs, these fats have to come directly from the food we eat. EFAs are found in many foods, but are most abundant in the oils of certain nuts and seeds and in oily fish.

Mary Bove, N.D., covers EFAs extensively in her An Encyclopedia of Natural Healing for Children and Infants (aff). She writes:

EFAs are especially important to a healthy immune system. They are crucial to the normal function of lymphocytes and the production of antibodies. They are used to build a healthy, functional cell membrane around every cell in the body, they are needed as building blocks for endocrine hormones as well as tissue prostaglandins, and they are also necessary for healthy functioning of the heart, kidneys, blood and nervous system, including brain function.

Dr. Bove’s book contains an excellent chapter on immune system health, and a list of essential nutrients and where to find them in foods. It’s EFAs, coupled with a gene involved in processing fatty acids, that makes breastfed babies smarter, according to a recent study published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Kipper snacks are herring, and are among the top 10 fish for Omega-3 fatty acids, alongside caviar, roe, mackerel, shad, and salmon. Herring, like sardines, are also low on the “fish food chain” and are lower risk in terms of mercury content, especially important for children and pregnant women. Try to stick with kipper snacks that have no preservatives added; we buy the Polar Brand at our local grocer, they are also available in bulk cases on Amazon (aff). Kipper Snacks are also a non-dairy source of calcium. An even better source? Sardines — my other favorite canned fish — especially if you can find a brand containing the very small bones, which are small enough to go down easy but pack a calcium punch (a whopping 35% daily value per can!).

Will My Child Eat This Stuff?

Yes! Of course every child’s tastebuds are different, depending in part on what they’re used to eating. But if you acclimate your child toward whole foods and away from processed snacks and sweets (we eat homemade sweet snacks about once or twice weekly), they will enjoy the varied flavors good food has to offer. My son, to be honest, shies away from crunchy raw veggies, a sad development in the last 2-3 years related to his voiced distaste for the textures. However he does love leafy salads, as I mentioned above, enjoys miso soup, loves hummus, and excitedly enjoys kipper snacks about once a week! Now that he’s almost a teenager, he sometimes chooses to make his own lunches, which actually seem to rotate between salad with tuna and capers (his current favorite), kipper snacks and crackers, and hummus with chips. Honest!

So, OK, not every lunch at our house is packed with such all stars. But hopefully, by sharing, I’ve got your noggin’ going, thinking about ways to add a few things to the shopping cart that will both save you time and add to your family’s health! For more ideas, try Lucy Burney or Mary Bove’s books: Boost Your Child’s Immune System and An Encyclopedia of Natural Healing for Children and Infants.

Love,

Mama Hope