Kids and Choices

Fast Food - Slow Trouble for Our Kids!

Alexandra Delis-Abrams, Ph.D.

Eating—the great American pastime is joined closely with Sitting, the other great American sport. What can we expect the outcome to be for our children?.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has the right idea about kids and their health. His latest stand on dumping junk foods from the public schools makes absolute common sense.

How many of you have visited a local public school lately? You might not like what you see. Lined up and down either side of the halls you are likely to see fancy vending machines, eager to suck up your child’s lunch money, and if you expecting an apple to roll out into your child’s willing hands, think again.

Pop, candy, chips, and cookies are the fare of the day. Loaded with sugars of all types, sodium way in excess of recommended allowances and preservatives enough to mummify our children, these vending machines are all about padding someone’s wallet and do nothing at all for our children. Hollow filler-foods is the best description for what you will discover in these vending machines and your hard-earned money is filling them.

Let’s take a stand in support of our local schools dropping the vending machines entirely or loading them up with nutritional foods. If you are interested in following up Arnold’s plans for health in the public schools, check out the CNN article of March 7, 2005.

Fat Stats on Kids

• 1 in 4 kids in the US are seriously overweight

• 40 million children have high cholesterol levels

• 70% of children, by age 12, have the beginning stages of hardening of the arteries

• In just twenty years the number of extremely overweight children has doubled and the number of overweight children has increased by more than 50%

Living in the Solution

Okay, we know the problem; our kids are not healthy and they are getting fatter by the day! Top that off with the fact that many are not involved in any physical activities except bending their elbows, and you have the makings of a future of illness unlike this country has ever seen.

Now let’s take a look at solutions that each parent can easily put into play in their own homes AND at school. Whether your child is two or sixteen, it is never too late to change the way we do things. Following are five areas that as a parent you can implement starting today.

1. Be firm and stand strong. It’s easy to let your kids rule your decisions from the earliest ages. How many times did you have to fight your child out of the candy or sweetened cereal section of the grocery store? Just Say ‘NO.” Sugar becomes your child’s first addiction it seems. Once they taste it, they’ll demand you add it to everything they eat. Some babies won’t take their milk without honey or sugar added, and some parents substitute sweetened juices when their children really need the milk. You are the grocery shopper—put your foot down hard early with your children and refuse to drag home cereal boxes that are filled with hollow calories. No matter what trinket they’ve buried in the bottom of the box, even if it is the Blackberry handheld you’ve dreamed of owing, JUST SAY NO.

Once we set our kids up with bad eating habits, it is unfair to expect them to make good choices when they are away from us. When they start school, you can still maintain a certain amount of influence in their choices. If you suspect your child is spending lunch money in vending machines, take the money to the school and purchase their meal tickets in advance, or send their lunches to school with them. This is particularly effective with young children, while your teenagers may roll their eyes at the thought of taking lunch. Compromise and let them eat in the cafeteria but pay attention to what is served and ask them what choices they generally make.

You can’t be there to watch them non-stop, but you can teach them the difference.

I know it will feel like you are the worst parent in the world as your child kicks and screams all the way out the automatic doors of the supermarket, but you’re doing the right thing. Trust yourself.

2. Eat right at home. Our speedy world, with both parents working all hours, and kids signed up for outside activities from soccer to ballet can leave little time for food preparation.

Keep it simple and sane. Choose fresh over frozen or canned fruits and vegetables and serve plenty of both at all meals. Kids will learn to favor fruit and vegetables over sweets if that is what is put before them.

Don’t drown your food with gravies and sauces or buy every condiment known to man to season the flavor of the food you serve. Face it, if the food is so bad it needs to have excessive oils, catsup, mayo, soy sauce, gravy, etc. etc. lathered on top, there must be something wrong with the food. Gradually eliminate the ‘fluff’ from your dining experience and your kids will get used to the real thing.

3. Get the kids up and moving! Make activity a family value. The first thing kids like to do after school is flip on the television, play video games and hang out. School can make for long and stressful days for our kids and it is expected for them to need ‘down’ time immediately after getting home. Schedule enough time for them to do just that, but then – get them moving.

a. Encourage a walk after school with a friend

b. Get your child involved in a hobby they can work on after school.

c. Introduce your child to music and get a guitar they can strum on.

d. After school is a good time to mow the lawn, right? Take out the trash or clean their rooms, etc.

e. How about skateboarding or another sport?

Get them up, outside and moving! Active kids are far more healthy than those with a TV habit. Help them kick the habit by changing the house rules.

4. Create a kitchen connection. Engage the entire family in the kitchen and healthy eating experience. One of you can make salad while the other sets the table. Teach the kids to prepare their favorite dishes by first taking them to the store with a list of ingredients they will need.

This can be a fun way for a family to spend quality time while taking advantage of there being more than one cook. Don’t rely on mom to do it all, and mom—let loose of the control here and let the kids and husband participate.

5. Be the example. Teach your kids to read labels! Once kids become aware of what is good for them, if you can involve them and make it fun, they’ll get right into it. Teach them to carefully scan the items they buy off the shelves. Educate them about the many ways sugar is hidden under other names but still sugar, and how they can recognize if there is too much sodium in products they want to buy.

If your kids become involved in their own health and find it to have meaning and value, they will continue with the process. Our kids are smart. By giving them some control in their eating and exercising habits, you will be surprised at their ability to come up with great ideas for nutritional eating. Ask them to explain to you why one product is better than another, when you are shopping. They love to dazzle you with their brilliance.

What it all comes down to is this—it is as easy to prepare and eat nutritional foods as consuming junk. We’ve come to believe picking up a quick hamburger is a solution when we are in a rush. If you can’t prepare a meal at home, and don’t have time to sit down in a restaurant, carefully choosing what you consume, at least pick a drive-in that serves salads or less adulterated food. Avoid the fried, deep-fried, salted, and greasy.

Let’s round out our children, but not the way we have been by puffing them up with super junk—let’s teach them about creating a balanced, well-rounded life, and that includes knowing the difference between good foods and those that will eventually harm or even kill them.

A Note: On September 10, 2003, Arnold Schwarzenegger held an education summit pledging his support for children and schools and stated, “I want to become an expert in all education.” He did not offer specific plans at that time. In January 2005 Schwarzenegger suggested that dedicating more money to California’s schools would not necessarily imply an increase in quality. Instead, cuts in education funding and other areas will occur. He believes that merit, rather than seniority is the right reason for teacher pay increases, and that high achievement in education is not necessarily to be gained by throwing more money at a bad situation. We will all want to watch how his plans pan out over the next year to discover whether his wisdom about junk food in public schools will be equally apparent in his approach toward education!