nutrition "education," calorie counting for the preschool age
I was enjoying the local farmer's market this weekend and sitting next to my daughter who was coloring at a lovely little shaded area with beanbag toss (based on the food pyramid-ugh) when I read this piece of cow-dung. I was only happy that my little M doesn't know how to read yet.
The bottom part if you can't read it says: (exclamations are theirs, not mine)
Circle the healthiest choice (fewest calories)!
Ring the cowbell!
- 1/2 cup diced fruit salad (60 calories)
- 1/2 cup diced fruit salad with 2 Tbspn orange juice (88 calories)
- 1/2 cup diced fruit salad with 2 Tbspns light yogurt (96 calories)
Oh, where to begin!!
Nutrition education for children has the potential to do great harm. I wonder why adding yogurt is not "healthy" or the assertion that the definition of "healthy" is low calorie. Low-calorie and low-fat diets fail nutritionally for young children (and fail for adults too.) I won't elaborate on why this garbage "nutrition" info is more harmful than helpful. (Think of a lunch table of first graders comparing calorie and fat counts in the name of health— it's happening people.)
I spoke with the nice folks who worked for this farm/education group and explained that I was a family doctor and feeding specialist and that their info made no sense and was dangerous. I also said I would not stick around for the cooking demo (fruit salsa, could be great, but don't want M hearing about "healthy" eating from these folks...) The lady explained that they had a dietitian come up with the materials and that they "struggled" with them.
Brother. Stop. Don't promote more craziness around food. Why not just color in the picture and talk about all the delicious foods at the market, talk about how gorgeous the colors are. Do your demo, be positive, be happy, let us taste the amazing fruits of our farmers' labors, just leave "health," calories, fat out of it. It managed to do what so much nutrition and health info does these days, take such potential and passion and energy— and poison it with misinformed and misguided food moralism.
(BTW, I couldn't help saying, "More cowbell!" ala SNL. I thought I was pretty clever...)
Keep your eyes out for garbage nutrition messages aimed at kids. Share them here! I think you'll be surprised what you find when you open your eyes...