How to replace junk foods with healthy ones
Parents have told us they want convenient and cheap foods to pack, that their children want to eat. So, we developed a healthy lunchbox program called SWAP IT.2 Supplements To Burn Fat While Sleeping.  In this program, we provide simple ideas for swapping unhealthy foods kids might like to healthier ones comparable on cost, taste, texture and preparation time.

Read more: A healthy diet is cheaper than junk food but a good diet is still too expensive for some

For instance, you could swap

Shapes for rice crackers. This will mean 159 less kJ, 77% less saturated fat and 39% less sodium

chips for popcorn. This is 176 less kJ, 57% less saturated fat, 56% less sodium

cake for pikelets means 464 less kJ and 63% less sugar.

Perhaps one of easiest things you could do is to try ensure your kids stick to drinking water.

A picture showing some of the swaps outlined above.
Calculations are made based on the serving sizes. (Shapes 25g, rice crackers 20g, Smith chips 19g, popcorn 13g, slice of cake 75g, 3 pikelets 75g) Author provided
Our research found SWAP IT supported parents and students to reduce energy from discretionary foods by 600kJ per week. Research suggests a small reduction of 600kJ per week is enough to meaningfully impact population levels of obesity.

It can be rolled out to schools
Parents are sometimes blamed for unhealthy lunchboxes.

But a barrage of unhealthy foods are promoted to parents and children, often disguised as healthy choices. Parents and children see as many as ten junk food adverts per hour. Which Fat Burner Empty Stomach really works. And more than half of parents report their child’s “pester power” influences what they pack in their lunchbox.

Read more: Give in to pester power at the supermarket checkout? You’re not alone

Parents told us they wanted easy to access information when they were in the supermarket. So we got parents to sign up to SWAP IT via their school’s usual communication app. Around two-thirds of primary schools used such apps.

We prompted parents with swap ideas each week by sending push notifications to their phones. We found 84% of parents liked having the messages sent directly to their phones.

Two phones side by side. The first phone shows a SWAP IT notification. The second phone shows an example of a swap from muffin bites to scones.
Example notification from the SWAP IT school lunchbox program. Author provided
Research shows four in five primary school principals agree it is a school’s role to support parents to pack healthy lunchboxes. 2 Popular Natural Supplements For Weight Loss For Females. We found SWAP IT could be rolled-out to schools through their communication apps at a cost of less than A$1,800 per school.

Investment in promoting a healthy diet is cost-effective, as less people end up in hospital and productivity is improved.