Japan made the news lately, the death rate from the coronavirus being far lower than in several countries (*). As we read scientific papers, one caught our attention: “Is diet partly responsible for differences in COVID-19 death rates between and within countries?“. While we’re looking forward to knowing more about the newest results of this type of study, we decided to have a closer look at the Japanese school menus and best practices.

Today, our team is happy to share with you what we found about the nutrition and manner goals Japanese children are encouraged to follow (**). See how universal they are! And enjoy the free printable we offer at the end of this blog post – lunchbox notes with these goals you can put in your kid’s lunchbox!

Nutrition Goals for a Happy Kid’s Tummy

• Eat three meals (breakfast, lunch & dinner) every day.
• Let’s try to eat the foods we don’t like.
• Let’s eat to beat the heat! (NB: goal for summertime)
• Let’s beat the cold ! (NB: goal for wintertime)
• Learn food groups.
• Learn about different kinds of food.
• Let’s learn about the main dish and side dish.
• Let’s learn about traditional Japanese food!
• Chew your food well to make strong teeth.
• Let’s eat a balanced meal and build a strong body.
• Let’s think about the safety of our food.

Manner Goals for a Happy Kid’s Lunchtime

• Let’s sit properly and eat quietly!
• Let’s eat with good posture!
• Let’s use our chopsticks correctly. (NB: works with forks too for preschoolers 🙂 )
• Let’s eat lunch with appreciation!
• Let’s be grateful for the food we eat.
• Let’s learn the new lunch manners!
• Let’s use our manners and enjoy lunch.
• Let’s be careful about how loud we speak and enjoy our lunch.
• Let’s be aware of the volume of our voices as we enjoy our lunch.
• Be careful with your dishes. (NB: it works well with lunch boxes too 🙂 )
• Eat and finish school lunch within the assigned time.
• Tidy up after yourself before you eat.
• Let’s clean up and put everything away.
• Learn how to prepare school lunch.

Free Printable with Nutrition & Manner Goals

What’s your favorite goal? Would you add one more? Let us know in the comments! Meanwhile, you can read more strategies to encourage children to develop a positive relationship with their lunch.

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In case you missed it…

Each month, our Teuko Team curates and shares with love school menus from all around the world. We shared the school lunches that Prince George, from the UK, has. Additionally to the French school lunch menus you can enjoy in Teuko, we also unveiled some secrets from the French school lunch menus.

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(*) Sources: BBC, 7/4/2020 & Washington Post, 9/19/2020
(**) Source: Higashimachi Elementary School menus