Does diet matter? You decide...

Mark Harris shared this picture on Facebook, and I couldn't resist the temptation to analyze it.  This is a lunch of a student at his school.  I'm sure mom and dad think they are doing the right thing right?  "If they won't eat the good stuff, I'll give them what they like and it will fill them up."

Well, I ran the contents of this lunch box through the livestrong.com "My Plate" calculator.  If you've never tried it, it is a great tool.  Every content of this lunch box was listed there as "verified" for accuracy of its USDA contents.  Enough about that, so what do we have here?

1006 total calories
  186g carbs
  26g fat (but the wrong kinds of fat at that)
  9 grams protein, 66g sugar (and that is HFCS!) 

A good diet: 40% carbs, 30% fat and 30% protein

This box:  84% carbs, 12% fat and 4% protein

God bless the parents for trying if they had thought that this was what their child needed, but I'm betting they probably are looking to make sure the child eats something so send them what they like (or maybe they let the kids fill the shopping cart themselves?)

Not trying to be preachy, but take a look at this and examine what you put in your kids' lunch boxes (or your own lunch) and ask yourself; "How's their diet fueling them today?  They may be dressed for success, but are they fueled for it?"

Todd