Do you think peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are a healthy lunch for kids?

It's probably not the healthiest option but I don't see anything wrong with it as long as there is other nutritious things included, such as milk and fruit or veggies. Jelly is full of sugar but there are reduced sugar jellies available as well as natural PB. Natural PB is not low fat but it doesn't include added sugar, just peanuts and a bit of salt. It's delicious! I think the biggest issue is portion control. Oh, and it helps to coat both sides of the bread with PB and put the jelly in the middle. Keeps the bread from getting squishy. Gawd, I hated when the bread got all red and squishy. Blah.

I think of them as a snack now PB&J but I was the same way sometimes I had PB&J for my lunches growing up in the 70's and 1980's.

My daughter does not like pb & j sandwiches- She loves PB and she loves jelly but not mixed- I think they are a fine thing to eat- as long as you pair it off with milk, fruit and a veggie- like baby carrots and ranch dressing- My daughter prefers turkey sandwiches over any other kind of sandwich- she also loves low-fat wraps.

I was surprised to see this option offered as one of the lunch menus from my sons school. I didn't think it was a healthy and stable lunch but it seems like it is. My son only like jam on his toast so i doubt that he will be having that for his lunch. There are lots of other different types of food for lunches that he can have. His appetite changes as he gets older and it differs everyday.

I think it can be healthy, if you use sugar free jelly, natural peanut butter, and wheat bread.

I am not a parent myself. But I would say PB&J can be a good option for lunches. Or you can try things like fruit and veggies. or just healthy options. I myself still eat PB&J at school for lunch(I am a senior this year) and I find that it fills me up so I don't eat much in between lunch and dinner.

I don't think there is anything wrond with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. The all the optins out there....natural/organic peanut butter, sugar free jelly, whole wheat bread. I think it is possible to make it a healthier option.

I often had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch when I was a kid. i used to put peanut butter on both sides, and then jelly on one of the sides, and put the pieces together. This way the jelly didn't soak through the bread. I don't know how healthy my lunches were - I usually had a sandwich of some kind, an apple, a granola bar, a juice box, and some kind of treat. I wasn't allowed to not eat it (except for the treat and the granola bar). I have seen kids bring in a variety of foods, like soup, or rice with veggies, almost anything now that schools have microwaves.

I used to love PJ but I now have a daughter who is allergic to peanut butter so it is no longer an option in our house. Where i am from and most if not all of Ontario the schools are nut free. As a parent of a child with this allergy i find this very assuring. I wish she did not have this allergy because i would most definitely send this for lunches.

I don't think that a peanut butter and jelly sandwich is any more unhealthy than some other alternatives! There is nothing healhy about nitrate-laden lunch meats. There is nothing healthy about mayonaise-laden chicken/egg/ham salad. I think if one serves the peanutbutter/jelly sandwich on whole wheat and goes light on the jelly...no problem! The fat in peanut butter is the healthy type of fat as opposed to the type of fat found in mayonaise. As for the soggy bread, put a bit of peanut butter on both slices and then the jelly in between! If one is concerned about teh sugar content of the jelly, there are low sugar varieties.

As you know, my son is just a small toddler still. He definitely does burn off any extra energy he gets from the sugar when he eats the sandwich. He actually prefers peanut butter and honey instead of jelly. I would say on average I feed my son a peanut butter sandwich two days a week for lunch. He just loves them. And they are really easy to fix. I give him steamed carrots with ranch dressing and grapes or a banana with the sandwich most days. So it gives him a well balanced meal.

You can make them as healthy as you want. Use whole wheat bread, reduced fat peanut butter (or the vitamin enhanced, thats what I use), and simply fruit instead of regular jelly. The kids will get used to the slightly different taste. And if you include carrot sticks and apple slices, thats a pretty good lunch!

oh, I do not find much wrong with them - though only one of my children is interested in a pbutter sandwich (sometimes with jelly) pbutter is full of protein so I think it is a good option for growing minds. it could be spread on whole grain wheat or oat bread or at least something a little more wholesome than white bread - maybe even a muffin. I would rather see some fresh fruit like an apple or some berries than the jelly, but I am okay with jelly or fruit spread too. I do not concern myself about sugar consumption so long as their is nutrition attached to it. carrot and celery sticks are also a good accompaniment to the pbutter sandwich.

I think that it's fine. The protein in the peanut butter is great, and as some have said you can put it on whole grain bread for added nutrition. There are also jellies and preserves with less sugar added that you can use instead of the regular stuff.

Not at all.I think when the kids are at school, they need something healthy like cereals, fruits and vegetable.Then their brain can work better and they can concentrate.