Every parent knows the scene. In the morning you pack a lunchbox with carrot sticks and apple slices; in the afternoon it comes back untouched. And your child cheerfully tells you how they swapped half their sandwich for a biscuit.

Lecturing about healthy eating doesn’t work. Banning things mostly doesn’t either. So what does?

Let them choose

Children eat what they’ve had a hand in. Take them shopping and let them pick the fruit for the week. At home, let them make their own sandwich or chop vegetables for the lunchbox. When they’ve made the snack themselves, it’s their snack – not something their parents packed.

Keep the good stuff within reach

A fruit bowl on the table empties faster than fruit hidden in the fridge drawer. So does a tub of ready-cut carrot and cucumber sticks in the fridge. And the other way round: what isn’t in the house doesn’t get eaten.

Sweets aren’t a reward

When a biscuit is the prize for finishing lunch, children learn that lunch is the punishment and the biscuit is the win. Sweet things are fine – just not as a prize.

Teach them to read the label

One line is enough: “of which sugars” in the nutrition panel. Children quickly turn into detectives, delighted to discover that a “healthy” fruit bar contains more sugar than a chocolate bar. It’s a lesson that sticks.

Where gfBar fits in

Let’s be clear about which gfBar does not belong in the lunchbox: ORIGINAL. It contains caffeine from guarana and taurine, and those aren’t for children.

For children, we have two flavours:

gfBar COCOA. Wild blueberries, roasted cocoa beans and dark chocolate made from 100% cocoa. No guarana, no taurine. The most fibre in the range: 6 g per bar. Cocoa naturally contains a small amount of caffeine, just like a square of dark chocolate.

gfBar COCONUT. Wild blueberries, organic coconut and white chocolate with no added sugars. A gentle flavour with no bitterness. Contains milk and soy – worth knowing if allergies are an issue.

Both have no added sugars and are gluten-free. And since we’re reading labels: yes, they do contain sugars – 8.8 g per bar of COCOA, 10.6 g per bar of COCONUT. They come from the blueberries and dates, and in COCONUT also from the coconut and the milk in the coating. That’s why one bar is plenty for a snack.

There are two in each box, so the second one keeps for tomorrow – or for a friend. As swaps for a biscuit go, it’s not a bad deal.

You’ll find both flavours in the gfBar JUNIOR pack: six boxes of COCOA and six of COCONUT.