Eating with Utensils...A Lost Art to Good Health?

After watching Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution one gets a clear picture of the sober situation of food and weight issues in America.  The show starts out by Jamie trying to make changes in a town called Huntington, West Virginia – coined the unhealthiest city in America.

The series opens with Jamie trying to modify elementary lunches from processed fake foods to real whole foods.  The high resistance to change radiates from the kitchen staff to the superintendant of schools to a DJ who is quite influential in the community.

Jamie meets the most heat when he requests that the children eat with forks and knives versus just a spoon and their hands.  No utensils are used since the children are eating pizza, chicken fingers and French fries.  When they are shown different vegetables the children are not able to identify them.  In fact, one appalling statistic is that a pile of French fries is counted as 2 vegetable servings per child.

When the forks and knives are taken out the children need to be taught how to use them.  Is the skill of using utensils becoming a lost art?

You need utensils to eat real healthy food.  Without these basic skills we are creating a lifestyle where older children eat their food with one hand and use the other hand to text or play games.  This creates a perfect storm for mindless eating.

Mindful healthy eating requires utensils.  Continuing to feed our children processed fake foods is creating a generation of children with increased risk of diabetes and heart disease who will have shorter lives than their parents.  Eating fruits, vegetables and food made from scratch rather than out of a box with multiple ingredients is the mission of  Food Revolution which will hopefully change food in school lunch programs.

It is our responsibility at home and in the schools to educate, equip and model how to eat and appreciate the benefits of healthy real food.  It is an investment this country cannot afford to pass up.

If we can teach our children at an early age to eat with utensils and enjoy whole real food we might start to get a hold on obesity in America….resulting in mindful eating and good health.  Remember, it's prevention not prescription.

Taking Care of our Children

This week’s New York Times revealed what our country is facing:  childhood obesity and raising children who have more health issues than their parents.  The article’s title is: Gastric Bypass Surgery for Obese Children.  Bypass surgery for children?   There is something seriously wrong with this concept.

Our food supply is toxic; for convenience we feed our children processed packaged foods; we don’t have time to cook, and by the way – let’s operate to fix this problem.

Our nation needs a big wake-up call.  First Lady Michelle Obama launched her anti-obesity campaign for children and it comes not a moment too soon.  How can we help the children in America live a long healthy life?

There needs to be a direct correlation with the government incorporating policies to subsidize fruits and vegetables (versus corn that causes the problem) along with parents who model that practice in the home environment.

A great first step is addressing how you shop.  Shopping around the perimeter of grocery store allows you to buy foods that are fresh and wholesome, rather than processed and refined.  Eating real whole foods means you don’t have to read a label, since apples and broccoli are label-free. 

Foods you buy with a label should have less than 5 or 6 ingredients.  The more ingredients a food has the more processed it becomes.

Does the label contain any ingredients you can’t recognize or pronounce?  Answering this question may be a clue the food is not the healthiest choice.

Besides food choices, exercise and activity are non negotiable for children.  The American Diabetes Association encourages a minimum of 300 minutes of activity or exercise per week for health.  Currently children get 700 less activity calories per day than a decade ago – potentially a 72 pound weight gain per year. 

Studies show cooking and eating at home is a huge component combating childhood obesity.  It is up to us to provide our children healthy meals and activities to decrease their risks – otherwise we may out-live our children.  Our youth is faced with enough obstacles without having to have a major surgery.  Remember, it’s prevention not prescription.