health and fitness: March 2011

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A few recent articles and blog entries I came across took parents to task for the childhood obesity epidemic. I agree parents have a responsibility to teach wise food choices and provide optimal nutrition at home. I personally don’t allow sodas, fruit juice, baked goods and other junk or snack foods in our house regularly. These are cosidered treats to enjoy occasionally. But it was obvious several of the people taking parents to task had no experience raising children. Talk about clueless.

Educating a child to discern between healthy foods and unhealthy foods only goes so far. Most children over the age of six are away from home the better part of the day. My nine year old catches the bus at 8:10 am and returns home at 4:10 pm. He eats two meals, a snack andlunch, in the school cafeteria every day. Kids are faced with making their own food choices and school cafeterias are as bad as grocery stores. It’s easy to eat a sub-standard diet.

Here's an example directly from my parenting experience: my soon to be ten year old is bright, reads on a 5th grade level and he’s very active. He doesn't have a weight problem and we often grocery shop and cook together. We read nutrition labels, look for bad ingredients (he knows to re-shelve foods with trans-fat, partially hydrogenated oils, and high fructose corn syrup). We discuss healthy versus unhealthy choices and what the consequences of these choices are.

He gets occasional treats, and one or two sodas a week. Denying a child all junk food will backfire faster than my 1948 Ford on unleaded gas. Once while standing in the check out line, my Son was perusing the label on a bottle of Coke and shouted out, “High fructose corn syrup! Oh, no!” Everyone in line turned to look at us, eyebrows raised. Most adults don't bother with nutrition labels, let alone know what to look for.

I’d like to think my kid has a better than average knowledge of fitness and nutrition. What with having a sports nutritionist and avid fitness buff as a mother, he can demonstrate the difference between chest butterflies and chest presses. And he can properly pronounce creatine, carnitine and glutamine. He gets excited when the new Winsor Pilates and Core Rhythms DVD club selections show up. And he drinks more water than Crystal light or milk.

Yet we had the following conversation yesterday:

Me: “What did you have for a snack at school?”
Kid: “A super bun and juice.”
Me: “You had that the day before. Couldn’t you make a better selection?”
Kid: “Well, they had a cheese omelet and milk. But the super buns tastes so good.”
Me: “Today try to make a healthier choice, okay?”
Kid: “Okay.”

We’ve had this same conversation over fruit versus ice cream, among other things. He KNOWS which is healthier, which gives him the edge over many kids, but he still WANTS what tastes sweeter. Junk tastes good, especially to a kid’s palate. And those damned super buns are on the menu every day. I can’t walk around with him all day and smack his hands away from super buns, tator tots, and chicken nuggets.

Can you imagine being an average parent with little knowledge in nutrition, being bombarded by conflicting media and scientific news on what’s healthy, while living a busy lifestyle with a minimum of free time, and trying to teach your kids what to eat?

The fact remains, even if your child is well informed, once they’re out in the big junk food filled world and out of your clutches, they will eat some of the fast food and junk food they’re exposed to at every turn. Until schools stop offering sub-standard foods and the government (by way of pressure from voters and legislators) sets stricter school breakfast and lunch standards, a parent’s influence will only go so far.

The model child who has a well informed knowledge of a healthy diet and sticks to optimal foods every time he has a choice between the grilled chicken on greens or the corn dog with French fries has yet to be conceived. I don’t know many adults who can stick to healthy eating all the time, and frankly they can be boring, obsessive, annoying twits.

This is from a recent Real Age newsletter and closer reflects reality:

“Can you name six different fruits your child has eaten in the past week? How about seven different kinds of veggies? No?
Sometimes getting your child to eat even one type of vegetable consistently can be a big accomplishment.”

The sneaky approach works best in our household. All the knowledge in Harvard nor all the wild horses in Nevada could have convinced my husband nor my son to taste an artichoke heart, which I happen to love. But neither will pass up my homemade marinara or lasagna. So I dumped a cup of artichoke hearts in the food processor and pureed them, mixed them well with my marinara and made lasagna. I also laced the lasagna with finely shredded zucchini. They both loved the dish. After they finished stuffing themselves silly, I informed them of the artichoke hearts. Now they’re both artichoke heart lovers.

And then there’s persuasion by example. My son would not touch a grape until six months ago. One day I sat at the table eating one at a time and making noises of culinary delight. Finally he asked for one. Later I caught him sneaking them by the handful.

Of course, this works with potato chips and soda too. And this is just as easily done by peers snacking on junk food in the school lunch room or some clown in a McDonald’s or Jack-In-The-Box commercial. Anyone who believes parents can out influence the multi-billion dollar food advertising industry, or even that cute seven year old with the seductive super bun in her hands, has no clue.

I do believe my son’s becoming more willing in expanding his culinary adventures. Saturday he didn’t refuse a first taste of imported low fat Kasseri cheese from Greece. He actually chewed it up without spitting it out and pronounced it good to eat.

There’s hope for that boy yet, sticky fingers and all.

Now, if the elementary school would just switch out imported low fat cheese and vegetable sticks for super buns I’d have a fighting chance.