Quickie: Junk food in the neighborhood subverting reforms in the cafeteria

Study Shows a Little Money Buys a Lot of Calories at City Corner Stores. Fifty-three percent of kids surveyed visited a corner store daily, five days per week; Chips and candy top the list of items purchased, but efforts are being made to increase healthy options.

via www.rwjf.org

    While I have a lot of faith in the necessarily relentless pursuit of school lunch reform, things get a lot stickier when kids are armed with pocket money (or more likely, lunch money pocketed when chicken nuggets have been replaced with couscous and veggies) to spend for an after school snack.

    Affording indulgences is part and parcel of a balanced diet, providing that the scales are tipped in favor of whole, fresh, unprocessed foods. Sure, asking that local shops stock their shelves with fruits, nuts and yogurt (all of which can be found- perhaps gathering dust- at just about any convenience store) won't hurt, but offering an alternative is only half the battle.   

    Evaluating choices is the everyday business of growing up (and being a grown up). Kids already know that eating an apple is obviously "better" than eating a bag of Doritos. Education will hopefully give them answers as to why. What I'm wondering is how we can arm them with the motivation to choose the apple?

    Admittedly it feels trite to say so, but leading by example would seem to be the best defense. We need to demonstrate healthy attitudes towards eating by making smart choices ourselves, and the smartest choice we can make is to cook. I don't want to get all Alice Waters here, but the closer and more connected you are to what you eat, the more the pleasure of food extends beyond the eating itself.

    Cooking becomes science and art and magic as you assume the role of creator- "Wow! I made that!" Ownership of the product makes choosing a no-brainer. Every opportunity we can take to invite kids in the kitchen (at home, in school, in programs) to mix, to knead, to taste, to make a bit of a mess is setting a quiet but solid foundation for making good choices whenever and wherever they will confront them. I guarantee that the homemade cookie or the apple picked on the trip to the orchard will beat Doritos just about about every time.

I just want to make one note in closure: I am neither a parent nor an educator at the moment, but that shouldn't matter. Our responsibility is shared if our care and concern is genuine.

Comments

[Bad Apple]

Whether it's getting into the kitchen or just learning the full implications of your choices--by paying a tax on soda or being able to compare calories and serving sizes that are clearly labeled--more engagement with our food on more levels is an urgent need!

http://food.theatlantic.com/corbys-fresh-feeds/yes-calorie-labeling-works.php

[Heather]

Oh well hellooooooo Bad Apple. Agreed. I'm on the fence about the soda tax though, as I'm inclined to believe that it veers a bit precipitously in the direction of the nanny state. Maybe we can start with reducing big corn subsidies? Hmm.