That kids might not like healthy food.
Marion Nestle posted this: http://www.foodpolitics.com/2010/03/spoil-alert-jamie-oliver-evaluated/ . It's a study showing that 77% of the kids at the school Oliver is working out "hate" the lunches, participation rates have gone down 9% and milk consumption down 25%.
Gee, kids would prefer eating sugar laden junk food to healthy, nutritious food. What a surprise (rolling eyes). Of course kids would prefer to eat junk. Junk is fun to eat, and "tastes better."
The question should not be what kids prefer to eat, but what they should be eating. Kids should not have the option of drinking HFCS laden milk at school, home, or anywhere else. They also should be presented with the same kind of food Jamie serves at school at home, and told 'EAT OR STARVE."
Believe me, no kid will choose starve. It's time we stop catering to kids and feeding them what they want and giving them what they should be eating at both school and at home.
I am so sick of people saying "but Johnny won't eat that." Johnny won't eat that because he knows damn well that if he doesn't eat the grilled chicken now, he'll get a processed chicken nugget later. If Johnny knew that there was no processed chicken nugget in his future, you can bet for damn sure that grilled chicken would be devoured.
What really gets me is the drop in participation rates from the lunch program at the school Oliver was at. That essentially means the parents are complicit in their kids' bad eating habits. These parents should be telling their children "you have to eat what served," not "what dear, you don't like the food, don't worry, I'll pack you a Pop Tart."
Like losing weight, getting kids to eat right is not easy. There is no magic formula that will get them to choose to eat steamed corn over Doritos. It is hard difficult work, and you, as a parent, have to make a lot of hard choices. Kids saying that they think food is "yucky" is no excuse to not serving that food to them and making them realize that they have no other choices if they don't eat that food.
My mother was a working mom. A teacher. However, she always took the time to make our lunches. She had no choice, we went to Catholic school and they didn't have a lunch program.
ReplyDeleteIn any event, my mom was always strict with what she bought us. Soda was for holidays and b'days. We were allowed small bags of chips sometimes and fast food was a "special" event...
Ironically, I have been overweight most of my life - age 14 on ... Her theory is that I rebelled. I remember whenever she wasn't looking, I'd sneak another peanut butter sandwich or more crackers and cheese.
Sure we didn't have "sugar cereals" and junk food, but it didn't matter. I'd take my allowance and stock up on candy bars and chips and hide them in my closet.
Now I'm 37 and trying to lose 100 lbs. It truly sucks.
I agree with you. I just wanted to vent.