My dad had a heart attack last week. While at Akron City Hospital, we stopped by the cafeteria for lunch where we experienced the Traffic Light Eating system in action. Traffic Light Eating is a way to manage healthy food choices.
Green means “Go”
Yellow means “Slow down“
Red means “Stop” and think about it
I thought it was a brilliant way to choose healthy foods and decided to implement it in our home. My kids love it and so does my husband and I because it makes choosing good food easy.
This is a sponsored post. All opinions are my own.
Traffic Light Eating
I purposely make the majority of our food choice GREEN, these are the healthy foods and drinks we should fill up on because they have plenty of nutrients, low sugar, low fat, and high fiber. I throw in a couple YELLOW choices that are to be eaten in moderation because of calories, fat, and sugar. I only keep one or two RED light foods in the fridge to eat in very little quantities and once that RED option is empty, I don’t fill it back up right away.
Implementing a Traffic Light Eating system in your home is easy to do and easy for kids to understand what they can and shouldn’t eat. 
It takes a little food prep to implement Traffic Light Eating but it is worth it because your family will eat so much healthier. If an apple is sliced in my home, it gets eaten. If vegetables are washed and presented in an attractive way, they get eaten. If you make healthy food convenient, your family will eat more of it.
I use the new Rubbermaid Brilliance Food Storage Containers to implement Traffic Light Eating in my home because they are 100% leak-proof, have a crystal clear design so you can easily see the food inside, and they stack perfectly together.
Choose the fresh fruit and vegetables you’d like your family to have for their GREEN light choice. To keep apple slices fresh without browning for up to a week, soak them first in a lemon and water wash. Use 1 tablespoon per cup of water, soak apple slices for about 5 minutes, rinse, and store. We eat a lot of apples in my house, so I use the medium size Rubbermaid Brilliance container that holds 3.2 cups or about 6 apple’s worth of slices.
For strawberries and blueberries, you’ll want to clean with a 1 part vinegar and 4 part water solution to remove any bacteria on the berries. Let soak for about 10 minutes then rinse and allow to dry. You can add a paper towel to the bottom of your container to catch any moisture. 
I love the Rubbermaid Brilliance containers because they have a latch that can be vented to allow excess moisture to escape which is perfect for berries! Otherwise, the latches seal tight to keep the containers air-tight and 100% leak-proof!
The Traffic Light Eating solution has made packing lunches and eating healthy snacks easy for my family. My kids make healthy choices every day when they pack their lunch for school or grab a snack after school. They are excited to have so many choices of food that is already clean, fresh, and ready to enjoy. The little amount of prep work ahead of time is well worth it!
This is the lunch my daughter made for herself. It is a kale salad with cranberries, apple slices, strawberries, a hard boiled egg and salami with cream cheese roll-ups. Everything in this lunch is a GREEN light food with the exception of the salami with cream cheese that is a YELLOW light choice because of fat and calories. 
She said her friends wanted her lunch because it looked so good! Who needs pre-packaged, unhealthy food when you can have a delicious lunch like this? She used the medium size Rubbermaid Brilliance food container, 3.2 cup size for her lunch. She also used a couple Bento food forks and picks and Bento divider glass to keep the egg and salami separate from the fruit and salad.
Packing lunches has never been easier! My kids know they can pack as many GREEN light items as they want in their lunch, a couple YELLOW lights and up to one RED light item.
My son has always liked eating fruit more than anything so it was no surprise that he chose to make a fruit salad for lunch. He used a small 1.3 cup container to add watermelon, raspberries, and apples to his fruit salad. We should have 4-5 servings (1/2 cup each) per day, he has more than half of his daily recommended fruit just for lunch. We should have 3-4 servings of vegetables a day too. He filled a second 1.3 cup container half with raw vegetables which accounts for a little more than 1 serving of his daily vegetable needs. For protein, he has a hard-boiled egg and cheese cubes.
Even kids can’t resist a colorful, healthy lunch like this – especially if they made it by themselves. 
A small Rubbermaid Brilliance container like this is also perfect for a healthy snack to go too as well as the perfect size to add to a medium size container for a heartier lunch. What makes Traffic Light Eating so good for kids is that it makes it easy to make good choices. Studies show that the more involved kids are in preparing their food, the more likely they are to eat healthy. 
Before you implement Traffic Light Eating in your home, you need the right tools.
- You can learn more about the Traffic Light Eating for your entire family here.
- Pick up some simple green, yellow, and red stickers to label your containers.
- I highly recommend using the Rubbermaid Brilliance food storage containers. It makes everything look so enticing in the refrigerator and the modular, space efficient design makes it perfect for keeping your food organized in your refrigerator.
I started with a 10 piece set and quickly picked up another set so that I can store more healthy choices for my family. I love that this set is 100% guaranteed spill proof too. It keeps my refrigerator and lunch boxes clean!
My husband remarked that our refrigerator looks brand new with the Rubbermaid Brilliance containers. I love the crystal clear material that is used because it makes everything look so bright and enticing in my refrigerator. You literally have 360° clarity so you’ll never forget what is in the container.
I also use these containers to store leftovers. You can even microwave in the Rubbermaid Brilliance containers with splatter-resistance! The vents that I mentioned earlier regarding strawberries actually prevents splatters when you keep the lid on but latches open. Don’t worry, these containers are made with BPA Free materials so it is totally safe to microwave as well as use in the dishwasher and freeze in the freezer!
I love how versatile these containers are. You can even use them for meal prep for the week, prepare everything ahead to assemble and cook at night. Or, prep and freeze for use weeks later. I often cook an extra batch of food so that I can freeze and just reheat on another night.
I found this new line of Rubbermaid Brilliance storage containers at my local Walmart. You can also purchase them at Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, at some grocery stores, and on Amazon.com.
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