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| Thursday, March 02, 2006 |
| kids and healthy food choices |
through one of my daily favorite blogs, Frequent Citations, I found this post pertaining to kids and the choices they make about food. As the title suggests (McDonalds v. Broccoli), the author suggests that kids are more likely to prefer well-known brands of junk food (attractively packaged) than they are to healthy unbranded foods. I much more agree with Citations in her assertion that kids' preferences are actually formed by their caregivers, and not by the "market" or marketing.
my children and i have a lot of conversations. they are 7 and 9 now, but we've had these conversations for years. at least 3. perhaps more. we talk about health, and about foods and what they do to the body, and things that are done to foods in order to make them taste good, and how that doesn't always correspond with how your body is affected by these foods. After reading Fast Food Nation, I did some age-appropriate regurgitation of the information I took in.
The result? My kids would GAG if I suggested we stop at McDonalds. One day in the past 12 months, the girls and I were driving home from my parents' house in Connecticut (a 2.5 hour drive) and we were starving! The kids were 100% opposed to McDonald's, based upon the information I shared with them, and refused to eat there. We searched and searched for a "fast-food" place that would have a salad bar or some other healthy choices to no avail. We ended up stopping at Burger King, and getting chicken fries .... they were really gross, and we all had stomachaches afterward. They are the ones who now remind ME to be sure we've eaten or packed good food for any road trips.
Sometimes while we're at the grocery store (which is not often, b/c Beloved does most our shopping without me or the kids) something will catch their eye. A chocolate cookie. A cracker shaped like a bear. The next step? We check the ingredients list. The kids know what to look for. If they find things they can't pronounce - they don't even ASK ME to buy it. They put it back with their noses wrinkled in disgust. [I will say that this is less problematic b/c of where we shop if we DO go to a store. We are often at either Trader Joe's or Whole Foods, where snacks and treats often do have organic and all-natural ingredients.]
Honestly, it wasn't always this way. There were days, when they were very young and I was steeped in a depression resulting from an unhappy marriage, where I allowed them to eat whatever ... if it made them happy and quiet. They drank a lot of juice and snacked on a lot of cookies and treats. there were obvious negative results, though. They were extremely picky. They ate very little at meal time. They were demanding while shopping. I was living in Berkeley, CA at the time -- the land of the hippies and the Crunchy Granola lifestyle. I had friends who did better than I, and their kids ate better, and I was jealous. It took a LOT of effort to change things. It didn't happen until I was on my feet again post-separation, and had a [relatively] well-paying job and a Whole Foods around the corner. When I first tried to buy the girls the organic graham crackers, they spit them out and begged for chocolate milk to wash away the bad memories of the taste.
Eventually, however, things changed. I stopped buying ANY crackers, ANY snacks. when I then re-introduced the organic all-natural variety, they were much more welcoming. They used to drink apple juice all the time. When I started with The Change, I allowed for one cup of juice, and then any refills were restricted to water. Now? They always choose water. Always. Dried Apricots are a favorite snack. Today, they were ecstatic to find that our Boston Organics box came with lots of pears. And after learning the ins and outs of the area grocery stores, it costs absolutely no more than it would to fill a cart with processed foods from Stop & Shop or Safeway. That, also, took effort. When I first purposed to eat healthier, it was very expensive. But with time and experience, that changed. We now pay less per week for food than I did for 3 days' worth in the past.
If I were to go out and buy the girls some Oreos, I'm sure they'd love the treat. They would probably ask me for more within the week. but the answer would be no - b/c there's a difference b/t a treat, and a habit and/or way of life. I feel the same way about chips - of any kind. Our big "treat" on New Year's Eve was potato chips and dip.
My girls went from people who prefer mac & cheese or raviolis with jarred sauce to people who now ask for home-made pea soup, and who beg for kale to be added to meals for the sake of the good taste and vitamins. Sometimes, they have treats: packaged foods or coca-cola. But they recognize that they are just that - treats. I try not to stigmatize things that are "unhealthy" out of a recognition of the fact that it would drive them to those foods all the more. At the same time, they have truly come to appreciate good, fresh, natural foods. Because they are used to such foods, their little bodies react negatively to packaged and unhealthy foods. They get stomachaches. They feel the difference.
Beloved gets a large part of the credit on all of this. he has been our cook since last August, at least, and he has worked with me, in gentle ways, to expand the girls' food-world, and to incorporate healthy foods and get rid of unhealthy foods AND ingredients. We all have an almost-constant dialogue about what our bodies need, and what the physical results of foods are. None of this focuses on "fat." Never.
The transition that I made 4 or 5 years ago was not by accident, and it had its bumps, for certain. but the results are great. I love the way my kids eat, and I love the things they look for and ask for. I do not feel I've sheltered them, or deprived them. They are healthy and happy kids who, at least for now, make good choices, even when lesser ones are in front of them - even lesser ones in pink wrapping with fancy designs and cartoon characters on them. [which makes me wonder .... should i start in on a rant about t.v. and the commercialization of children? Nah. Not tonight.]
Conclusion: Kids are no more slaves to the market and marketing than adults are. Perhaps without education and conversation susceptibility to gimmicks and branding is higher - as is also true with adults. Kids can think, and weight their choices as effectively as larger people. If raised to look beyond fancy packaging, and beyond something that offers an immediate craving, kids can assess the quality of products and consider their usefulness. |
posted by Zuska @ 11:30 PM   |
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| 5 Comments: |
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I am literally dying of embarrassment. I can't email you because I don't have your address, so here is an irrelevant comment to an unrelated post, thanking you for the heads-up about the Slate podcast, which incidentally can be found at
http://www.podcast.net/show/69440
"Google... so you don't have to know."
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Yeah, this was a fantastic post - I really enjoyed it! It's super inspiring to read stories like that.
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Yay! And congrats. You know your girls just followed your example, right? Trotted right along in your footsteps toward a healthy diet. It Can Be Done!
It is amazing how expensive the processed foods are. I apologize in advance for the alliteration, but we pay a premium to poison ourselves.
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