Raising Fit Kids Starts in the Kitchen
By Kindy R. Peaslee, RD
Today’s Dietitian
Vol. 7 No. 10 P. 74

Hands-on activities for kids in the kitchen could start a love of cooking and healthy eating that lasts a lifetime.

Think back over the past year to the various parents and children you have counseled as a dietitian—maybe parents with a picky eater on their hands or a teenager who is afraid to eat and struggling with some aspect of disordered eating. When was the last time they experienced a memorable family mealtime?

Sadly, as dietitians, we are keenly aware that memorable is not the word used to describe most American meals. We skip breakfast and lunch, then super-size supper. We eat fast and frenzied, and we rarely do it with our families. According to the National Restaurant Association, one- third of Americans say fast food or restaurant-prepared meals are essential to the way they live. And those rare times when we do eat at home? Two-thirds of us consume our food—it can hardly be called dining—in front of our television, according to the A.C. Nielsen Co.

We have sacrificed cooking for convenience. Old-fashioned memories, rituals such as saying grace, sit-down dinners, and family conversations have all but disappeared. Meal preparation often consists of quick entrees of dubious nutritional value. The late Julia Child believed food was much more than sustenance and children must be taught that cooking is akin to art. Who better than an RD to inspire the families we teach to see cooking through the eyes of Julia Child, “…as creative and as imaginative an activity as drawing, woodcarving, or music.”

Learned Behavior
“Children ... learn to become obese in an environment that encourages it. If parents are eating poorly, that’s what they’re providing their children,” says Debra Haire-Joshu, RN, PhD, director of the Obesity Prevention Center at Saint Louis University School of Public Health. Haire-Joshu believes obesity is a family illness and to help children eat a moderate diet, parents must eat healthier first. As dietitians, we agree and believe the best way to get children’s weight and health under control is to get family eating under control.

A new federally funded study, known as the Dietary Intervention Study in Children (DISC), provides the science to confirm what we have known all along—that families can learn to enjoy healthy foods and be selective about food choices. Parents can give their children access to healthy foods, encourage regular physical activity, and demonstrate good habits themselves. Funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), DISC is the first to test the effects of a low-fat regimen on growth and development in children with high blood cholesterol.

When the study began, high-fat snack foods, dessert, and pizza accounted for about one-third of the daily calories consumed by its 663 participants, aged 8 to 10. All participants were encouraged to get 60 minutes per day of physical activity. One-half of the youngsters and their parents were then randomly assigned to a year-long, intensive program that included group meetings, individual sessions with RDs, behavioral training, and advice about boosting daily physical activity. Not only did the healthier regimen have no adverse effects on growth or development, but the study found that children in the test group learned healthy habits that lasted.

Some of the long-term healthy eating habits will translate into eating well and creating memorable mealtimes—like making smiley-face pancakes on a Saturday morning, picking fresh produce from a local garden, and finding backyard flowers for the pitcher on the table. Eating well can also include a creative table setting, good conversation, and a grateful heart for sharing time with family. Through cooking activities, food becomes a powerful learning tool, empowering kids and producing positive changes in the overall health and wellness of families both now and in the future.

To provide practical tools for families to embrace, the National Institutes of Health in collaboration with DISC launched the We Can! (Ways to Enhance Children’s Activity & Nutrition) program for children and their families. A parent handbook provides practical, useful tools to help a family adopt a healthier lifestyle. The We Can! Families Finding the Balance: A Parent Handbook encourages families to shop better and try healthy and easy recipes to prepare together. To get a free copy of the NHLBI We Can! Program, call 866-35WECAN or visit www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/obesity/wecan/index.htm.

Cooking may seem frivolous in this time-obsessed society, but the process stimulates creative family time and passes a legacy to our children by teaching the next generation the art of eating. Parents must know there is more to a healthy diet than just increasing veggie intake and reducing fast food stops. They need to be taught to create a healthy nutrition culture in their home, to teach their children to love food, and to not be afraid to let kids experiment in the kitchen. Kids need to experience foods hands on—taste, touch, and smell as they go—listen to the sizzling, bubbling, and crunching.

Walking the Talk
Part of the We Can! Web site, the Live It section provides parents and families with creative ideas and tips to take action to maintain a healthy weight. Lynn Fredericks is a Live It example as both a mother and business owner/founder of FamilyCook Productions based in New York City. Fredericks has conducted hundreds of school- and community-based interventions over the last 10 years aimed at promoting positive dietary changes in families and children starting in New York City and expanding across the United States through her family workshops and school-based programs.

The results of Fredericks’ school- and community-based interventions are consistent with the 1995 Demas study on food education done at Cornell University. The study established the effectiveness of a hands-on multidisciplinary curriculum to gain children’s acceptance of new food and the ‘trickle up’ effect, where children’s new knowledge about food and healthy eating created positive changes at home. FamilyCook is on a mission to bring families together around delicious, fresh food while helping parents find creative ways to balance opposing needs and time constraints that are a fact of modern family life. Fredericks is now seeing this goal realized: Moms are beginning to get out of the convenience habit of buying fast food or unhealthy frozen meals. Precut veggies in the supermarket and other short cuts that make “from scratch” more doable are a positive trend. According to Fredericks, this helps parents, who still perceive cooking as time-consuming, buy into the idea that getting kids to help in the kitchen is a path to less picky kids and less stressed parents.

The first two stages of including children in the entire process of making a meal are “Don’t worry about the mess,” and “Don’t worry about how long it will take to cook.”

FamilyCook’s 10 years of field testing confirms that children do love to cook; if kids prepare food, they will try it; learning about food and preparing it empowers families to take positive control over their diet; and multicultural food study is celebratory and promotes well-being and a desire to recreate the experience with family and friends.
FamilyCook Productions just recently introduced and is testing a “Family Food Survival Kit”—which will soon be available for families on its Web site. Dietitians and other practitioners will be able to purchase the kit at wholesale prices. The kits include: easy family cooking recipes (with steps for parents and kids); “Shop Smart” guide to food labels; “10 Ways to Make Cooking Time Family Time”; “Family Nutrition Facts”; and a new “Did I Eat All My Colors Today?” refrigerator magnet tracker.

As nutritionists and advocates for the health of the American family, we should be big fans of organizations such as the We Can! program and FamilyCook Productions simply because together we can return meaning to the mealtime experience and ultimately help reverse the trend of childhood obesity. Consider getting involved with your local community and school system to make food literacy a priority in education and incorporate the study of food and nutrition via a hands-on multidisciplinary approach. Involve parents in the nutrition education process with fun, hands-on learning experiences with their children.

— Kindy R. Peaslee, RD, is the founder of Kindy Creek Promotions, an upstate New York-based marketing firm committed to increasing wellness thinking and making it easier for families to identify food and beverage choices that contribute to healthy lifestyles. Look for her recipe Web site for parents, www.healthy-kid-recipes.com.

Fruit Cobbler With Vanilla Ice Cream
Adapted from Lynn Fredericks’ Cooking Time is Family Time.

Yields eight servings

There is no reason to limit the fruit in this recipe. I utilize whatever looks great at the market, though peaches are a particular favorite of both my sons. The tapioca is a secret ingredient to absorb the liquid from the fruit that leaches during baking so it is not runny. The oat topping offers kid-friendly crunch—try it with a mixture of fruit for a delectable affect. When you add a scoop of creamy vanilla ice cream to the warm cobbler, it melts and tastes exquisite.

For the filling:
• 6 pounds fruit (peaches, nectarines, apricots, apples, etc)
• 6 T instant tapioca
• 3 T fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 C rum
• 1/4 C brown sugar
• 1 scoop vanilla ice cream per person as garnish

For the pastry:
• 6 T unsalted cold butter, cut into pieces
• 2 C instant oatmeal
• 2 T sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 lemons (zests)
• 1/2 cup buttermilk (you may substitute with regular milk)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

With your supervision, have the older children help pit (or core if using apples or pears) the peaches or fruit of choice. Show them how to carefully slice the fruit with a pairing knife and remove the pit or core of the fruit. Then have the older children help you slice the halves of fruit in thirds lengthwise.

In a large mixing bowl, have the children place the fruit, tapioca, lemon juice, rum, and brown sugar and mix well. Let the mixture stand for approximately 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, children can combine 5 tablespoons of the butter with the oatmeal, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a large bowl. Other children can grate the lemons and add the zest and salt. Then, with clean hands, have them work the ingredients together to form a crumbly mixture. Add the buttermilk and vanilla until the mixture forms a smooth dough.

Have children use the remaining tablespoon of butter to grease a baking dish liberally. Place the fruit mixture into the prepared dish, then have children use their hands to sprinkle the dough over the fruit, pressing down slightly.

Bake in the preheated oven for roughly 30 minutes or until the pastry is golden and the fruit is juicy and bubbling inside. Serve warm and top with a large dollop of vanilla ice cream.

Find out about FamilyCook’s recipes and dinner party program at www.familycookproductions.com.

References
1. Demas A. Food education in the elementary classroom as a means of gaining acceptance of diverse, low-fat foods in the school lunch program. PhD Dissertation. Cornell University. January 1995.

2. Fredericks L. Cooking Time is Family Time: Cooking Together, Eating Together, and Spending Time Together. New York: William Morrow and Company; 1999.