Three times a day I was up against a devious force that had captured the hearts, minds, and mouths of my kids. The processed food industry was at play and it was feeding my kids a load of...well, crap.
Maybe if we lived in a sheltered world without school lunches, gameday snacks, birthday parties, and fast food restaurants so abundant that their drive-thrus are part of our roadway infrastructure, my kids might have acquired a better taste for leafy greens and bitter vegetables. Instead, they were constantly served the highly addictive sugar-salt-fat whammy found in most popular processed foods -- foods that we know provide little nourishment, but taste oh so good.
To make matters worse, my kids were lured by the relentless marketing campaigns put out by the food and beverage industry. The FTC estimates that the industry spends up to ten billion dollars each year in marketing to kids. Poor fruits and vegetables are nearly invisible without the advertising assault or the razzle-dazzle given to products such as Cap'n Crunch and Happy Meals. No one has composed a jingle for bok choy or nestled a toy prize into a bunch of arugula or created a movie promotion with spaghetti squash, although a tie-in to the movie Tangled is just plain obvious.
The sheer number of sales messages launched at my kids was enough to qualify as brainwashing. In fact, studies have shown that the less healthy the food product, the greater the marketing assault. Yale's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity discovered that cereal having the least nutritional value and highest sugar content was marketed the most aggressively.
"But, Fruit Loops have fruit," my son said.
With that uttering, I pulled out the big guns. Using twenty years in entertainment marketing experience, I served as pitchman for the underdogs: the fruits, the vegetables; the foods without preservatives or ingredients I couldn't pronounce. If I couldn't market kale to my kids -- after all, I was the person who paid their allowance, drove them to the mall, and told them they're special on nobody-likes-me days -- then no one could.
So, I talked up the virtues of real food in terms they cared about. "Broccoli will give you strength to run faster than that kid with the big teeth." For every "magically delicious" promise thrown at them, I enhanced the taste of bitter foods with natural sweeteners and scant amounts of sea salts and freshly ground pepper. I countered movie promotions with our own themed dinners and celebrations. I served vivid fruits skewered in arrangements that amused them and presented foods on plates of different shapes and sizes to make leftovers and less flashy foods seem interesting. The most important step, I stocked the refrigerator with fresh foods and homemade snacks as ready-made weapons for hunger attacks. All this effort took more time, but it was much less work and heartache than dealing with a child who's undernourished, sick, or uncomfortably overweight.
Then one Sunday afternoon, my teenage daughter asked, "Can you make those peanut granola bars for class tomorrow? We're kinda getting sick of junk that everyone always brings."
Without erecting a Mission Accomplished banner or drawing attention to her brave decision, I whipped up a batch of Victory Bars made with real foods, unprocessed ingredients, nutrient rich grains, and a few organic tears.
Here are ten steps to winning the food fight in your home:
1. Pitch. Promote the value of real food in ways that will matter to kids: greens give you strength to jump higher, potatoes ease stomach aches, walnuts make your skin brighter, etc.
2. Reinforce. Be relentless, but not overbearing, in your positive messages about real foods. Your consistency will reinforce kids' attitudes toward food.
3. Amuse. Give names and character to real food: Big Guy Broccoli, Cukes & Zukes, Peter Piper Peppers, etc. If you're really committed, or maybe should be committed, make up songs. I sing to the theme of Jimmy Crack Corn: baby bok choy and I don't care, baby bok choy and I don't care...you get the idea.
4. Entertain. Tie-in real foods to holidays and events i.e. make a trail of bite-size veggie cubes on the plate for the release of Hansel & Gretel or red pepper and white jicama sticks on Valentine's Day.
5. Present. Make the veggies and fruits look appetizing on the plate -- skewers, little bowls, toothpicks, lines, patterns, unique plates, etc.
6. Involve. Give them sauces and dips to engage them in the activity of eating or let them eat without utensils.
7. Balance. Improve the strong taste of bitter foods on kids' sensitive palates by adding slight amounts of agave syrup or honey.
8. Prep. Have real food fast food ready. It takes just thirty minutes on a Sunday, to load up your refrigerator with fresh cut vegetables and fruits. Make and freeze granola bars and smoothie popsicles for instant snacks.
9. Commit. Don't let the complaints sway you. They don't love you for the treats, they love you for a happy, healthy life. You're in it for the long haul.
10. Relax. Don't entirely limit processed foods. Rigidity can lead to rebellion and then they're right back to Cap'n Crunch, only this time it's behind your back.
Sources: Whybrow, S., Mazlan, N., & Stubbs, R. J. (2005).Energy density and weight control. In Food, diet, and obesity (D. Mela, ed.), pp. 179-203. Abington Hall, Cambridge, Canada. 2008 study by the Federal Trade Commission.
Kristin Kirkpatrick, M.S., R.D., L.D.: Foods You Probably Aren't Eating -- But Should
I used to turn my kids loose in the cereal aisle and they were allowed to pick any cereal w/ 3 grams of sugar or less. At that time... it was Cheerios, Grape Nuts, and Shredded Wheat (no frosting!). They'd pick up the boxes of Lucky Charms hoping that THIS time maybe there'd just be 3 grams of sugar! It never did.
Oh wait..that's free range, organic, gluten free, non-corn fed, grass fed, antibiotic-free boxes of processed food.
I have an 18 and 24 yr. old and I involved them by taking them to the market and letting them choose our fruits and veggies. Every few weeks they'd find something they hadn't tried and we'd have to figure out how to cook it. The vendor who sold the green peppers would toss one each as we passed and then point them out to the passersby as they ate them like apples.
Both boys are amazingly adventurous eaters. My 18 yr. old's favorite food is bbq'd eel (yuck) and my 24 yr. old is a vegetarian who can make a mouth watering veggie paella and can make spaghetti squash exciting.
I also involved them by always having a small vertical garden so they could pick tomatoes, carrots, mint, cucumbers, peas and rhubarb in the summer.
BTW, spaghetti squash IS exciting... and what have you got against eel? :P
It's what he wants because I doubt he sees much else.
You look at the processed food products on the conveyor belt. Then you look at the people. It's usually painfully obvious.
Pass.
It works.
And this, sir, I promise you: My sister would never point her finger at you or your children or judge you based on appearance.
Is there really a place left, anywhere in the world, where there are four or more kids and no one has a peanut allergy?
Sherri,
this link will tell you more than i'll ever be able to !!!!!!...there are many wild animals that can be eaten as well; turtle, beaver, squirrel, buffalo, elk, bear, rabbit, dove, fish, ducks, geese, deer, antelope...and many more.
Great site... fiddleheads are just starting to poke their heads up and they're one of my fave veggies. We go blueberry and gooseberry picking near a friend's cottage every year and dandelion salads are my husbands favorite (I don't like it because every once in a while I taste that gross sap stuff)
Get a little crazy -- throw some dried fruit or nuts in anywhere you think is appropriate. Don't forget fruits and nuts and dried bread cubes make the best part of holiday dinners unless you use that box junk.
Kids are naturally attracted to things like cashew chicken -- try using cashews on salads. Break your salads out of the box -- use adventurous ingredients.
I think a parent's attitude is passed on to kids -- if parents are excitied the kids will be curious. nothing says lets go to mcdonalds like a hard day at the office -- marketers have taught your kids well. every day should be a holiday -- I always find the most obscure holiday and celebrate with food. not only do the kids eat better but its painless education in geography, history, and anthropology.
You're right, too, that added sugar is very common in store-bought spaghetti sauces. I like to make my own, basically saute some garlic in olive oil, add tomatoes and fresh herbs (basil, oregano), adjust the salt, then blend till smooth with a little more good olive oil. But in a pinch, Victoria brand sauce is very tasty and adds no sugar, just a basic sauce.
Cheers to you and your celebration of food! You have the right idea!
How to Realize That: Organically Grown Foods Are Our Only Hope
http://www.ehow.com/how_4932588_organically-grown-foods-only-hope.html