By Jodie Power
It’s back to school time which is a great time ensure your kids lunch containers are safe. At home we try to use glass whenever possible, but that’s not going to work for school. My kids are tough enough on plastic never mind trusting glass in their clutches at school. Stainless steel containers are another option. I don’t have any experience with stainless steel containers so I cannot comment on how practical or how well they hold up.
A good article to check out if you do need to go the plastic route was put out by the Environmental Working Group, a non profit organization, .
If you have time I would suggest spending a little time poking around on this site – you are bound to find other useful information on a number of other subjects ranging from the dirty dozen fruits and vegetables, to the best (and worst) cell phones.
Basically some of the key points from this article, as well as from a couple of other articles:
Stay away from anything marked 7 or PC, 3 or PVC and 6 or Styrofoam.
Plastics marked with 1, 2, 4 or 5 do not contain BPA, and are considered better choices. But beware, some say 1 is okay for single use only. You’ll find a lot of the bottles you get your water in marked 1. Other sites also note that plastics marked 5 are okay but can be hazardous in production.
On most plastics you can find the number in the recycle sign that is usually on the bottom of the container.
A couple of other points, which will not be an issue for those of you whose kids are all raw: It is best not to put hot items in plastic, let them cool first.
Never microwave plastic. I’m definitely anti-microwave – ours got the boot a couple of years ago.
I’m not telling you to throw out all your plastic containers, as I know replacing things can be expensive, just be aware of what you have and which ones are preferable, especially as you buy new ones.
Remember, in the world we live in what’s safe today may not be tomorrow, especially when it comes to anything man made. So whenever you want to take another inventory of what containers are the best, make sure you have the latest research.
Try it!
If you read my last article I mentioned a game of “Try It”.
We’ve started this up again and this week we tried Celery Root (aka Celeriac). Celery Root is high in dietary fiber, manganese, magnesium, potassium, thiamin, vitamin B6 and vitamin C. These are all good things, but you also need to keep in mind that it’s high in sodium and sugar.
I’m not sure if the Celery Root I purchased was bad, as we’ve never had this before, but it got 4 thumbs down. Maybe it’s meant more as an addition to a dish than as the main star?
If you’ve had success with celery root let me know.
Take care,
Jody
** Jody is a Mom transitioning from Cooked to Raw and sharing her joys and tribulations with us. Keep watching for further stories from the Transitioning Mom….