What if they emphasized... taste?!

[sarahmichigan]

Sandy again has a great post about how programs to fight the so-called "obesity epidemic" through getting kids to eat more fruits and veggies tend to be dismal failures. On the whole, children already know that they should be eating 5 fruits and veggies a day, and the most rigorous studies show that these interventions -at best- get kids eating a whole whopping half a fruit or veggie more per day after months of propaganda. As the article notes, the kids hear this propaganda over and over and eventually just tune it out.

As I was reading, I couldn't help wonder if  hammering home health lessons was the wrong approach. What if they actually taught ways to make cooking and baking with fruits and veggies more fun and flavorful and emphasized how good these foods can taste?

Oh no, we couldn't have kids thinking you ever eat food because it tastes good. You should ONLY eat food that makes you healthy, no matter what it tastes like.

Comments

[simianpower.livejournal.com]

Of late I always keep a few super-crisp red delicious apples around. They're like a dessert that can be eaten any time. I never liked breakfast much, but most days I'll cut up an apple and eat it on the train to work. It's enough to tide me over a couple of hours until lunch. I still do have Snickers bars, Little Debbie swiss cake rolls, and girl scout Samoas around, but they're lasting a lot longer because I'm eating apples or honey roasted peanuts more in the "gots da munchies" moments.