Out to lunch

SMART lunchboxes may conjure up images of plastic containers decorated with your toy or TV character of choice, but seemingly this is not the case. A recent RCT published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health records an intervention designed to improve the nutritional contents of children's packed lunches. The team used SMART lunch boxes, which consisted of a cooler bag and a variety of SMART plastic boxes for specific food items, along with advice on creating healthy lunches and child friendly incentives (including jokes and stickers). The same team also looked at nutritional standards for lunch box contents amongst primary school children in the UK, which was covered widely in the press earlier this year. Press reports were, in turn, deconstructed by NHS Choices.