RETIRE THE BAG.

Byline: DOING LUNCH By Lewis Taylor The Register-Guard

If you're still brown bagging it with a nail sack from the hardware store and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, it may be time for a lunch bag makeover.

Whether you're packing for yourself or for your favorite first-grader, chances are good your tired routine could probably use an update. A good place to start your new look is with the brown bag itself, says Tammy Pelstring, CEO and co-founder of Obentec, a Northern California company that makes a waste-free lunch container based on the Japanese bento box. She and business partner Amy Hemmert came up with a dishwasher safe lunch kit that they claim is helping to revolutionize the way people think about lunch.

"Our philosophy is if you open up your (lunch) and you see a variety of colorful food, it's more appetizing and you're more likely to get your child to eat it," Pelstring says.

It isn't just kids who are enjoying the company's Laptop Lunch kits - small, colorful, box-shaped containers that fit neatly together and open up like a briefcase - a third of the company's customers are adults.

Originally intended as a way to cut down on wasteful packaging and encourage more healthful eating habits, Pelstring says the product has done all of those things, and then some. She points to testimonials from customers who say having their food artfully displayed in colorful containers inspires them to pack more wholesome fruits and vegetables, healthy whole grain foods and the kinds of calcium and protein rich foods that dieticians recommend - a very different lunchtime picture than the one Pelstring and Hemmert saw when they started looking at what people brought for lunch.

"We saw a plethora of processed prepackaged foods, (sweetened) yogurts and juice pouches," Pelstring recalls. "We asked ourselves, why aren't more people packing (better) lunches from home and we started talking to other people."

What Pelstring found was that convenience was the number one influencing factor when it came to determining what people put in their lunches. They also discovered that parents truly believed many of the convenient, but often over-processed and over-packaged foods they were buying were more healthful than they really were.

"A lot of parents pack these Nutri-Grain bars," Pelstring says. "But when you read the ingredients, you realize it's basically a Pop-Tart."

For this reason, Pelstring recommends carefully reading the ingredients of everything you put in your lunch. And, she says, it can be instructive to read the ingredients to your child and involve him or her in menu planning, shopping and preparing meals.

She recommends against packing processed lunch food in single-use containers. To get out of the peanut butter and jelly rut, she suggests serving leftovers.

Pelstring and Hemmert aren't the only ones looking at ways to improve the lunchtime eating habits of children.

Hilary Kittleson, finance director for Eugene 4J schools, believes the national consciousness has risen as a result of the high obesity levels among children. She points to the Wellness Policy recently adopted by the school district, which seeks to increase the role schools play in promoting sound nutrition and physical exercise.

Although many of the Wellness Committee's guidelines dealt with hot lunches and vending machine fare, it issued healthy snacking suggestions, many of which apply to brown baggers. Among the recommended foods were: fresh fruits and vegetables, dried fruits, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, yogurt or "Soy-gurt," whole grain or multi-grain crackers, whole grain cereals with low sugar content and fruit drinks that contain at least 50 percent fruit juice.

Laurel Allender a registered dietician at Sacred Heart Medical center, says most brown baggers could probably benefit from some of the dietary guidelines issued by nutritionists. Although her office deals mostly

with nutrition for diabetics and patients dealing with other medical issues, she says lunch is one area where just about everyone could use some improvement.

"Most of us don't eat enough fruit and vegetables," she says. "(The recommendation) is five servings a day, but if you don't have any at breakfast and none at lunch, that's a lot to get at dinner."

Allender suggests making fruits and vegetables part of your lunchtime routine. She says miniature carrots are an easy way pack a healthful snack. Calcium and protein are also important. You can easily get your calcium from milk, yogurt or string cheese and get your protein from chicken, nuts or other minimally processed lunch meats.

Allender says it can take a few tries before healthful foods become a part of your routine. It's true of both kids and adults, and Pelstring, the Laptop Lunch co-founder, says don't give up if your child doesn't like a nutritious new food at first. The words "I don't like it" often really mean, "I'd rather have a piece of chocolate cake," and patience and preparation go a long way toward broadening your child's eating habits.

"Carrots that are just cut up and thrown into a Ziploc bag aren't really exciting," Pelstring says. "But if you open (your lunch) and have some carrots with something to dip them in or some carrots shaped like coins with some dressing on the side ... it's more appetizing," Pelstring says.

The Laptop Lunch is just one product in a wave of new Earth-friendly lunch kits including the Wrapnmat, a re-usable sandwich wrapper that unfolds into an eating surface and the Rainbow Reed, a multi-colored fair trade lunch box made by a family in Huanchaco, Peru.

Gavin McComas, owner of Sundance Mercantile, stocks several kinds of waste-free lunch containers, including the Laptop Lunch, non-reactive Lexan water bottles and re-usable cotton bags.

He says his customers are more conscientious than ever about the packaging they're using for their food and their kids' food.