Wednesday, November 01, 2006
A healthy food craze, at last
Luanne Traud
Recent columns
- Marking a difficult anniversary
- My daughter, the voter
- A few new Voices would be nice
- A rush to legislate
From the RoundTable blog
Her demands for Happy Meals have been downright unpleasant. Once, at the tender of age of 3, during a chicken nugget fit, when kicking the back of my seat didn't bring about the desired result, she shoved an umbrella between the front seats and pushed the button.
I'm not sure which of us was more surprised when it sprang from its folds and hid the windshield.
As most addicts do, she's reframed her argument over the years: cajoling (Please, Mom, I'll do anything you want), blackmail (I won't clean my room, unless ... ), guilt (You know you are ruining my childhood). Which isn't to say that the poor child has been denied this rite, or is it right, of childhood.
My daughter and I have spent as much time in drive-through lanes as any fries-noshing family, but trying to teach children about good, everyday nutrition is a difficult battle when vending machines line school hallways, beloved childhood characters push junk, and every activity (including school lessons) are punctuated with snack time. Even toddlers aren't expected to make it through an hour of church without nibbling on Cheerios. And what kind of mother forgets to pack replacement "energy" bars and "sports" drinks for even the tiniest of athletes, including the T-ball player who without this vital nourishment would be too weak to count the blades of grass in the outfield?
Finally, it appears the overfeeding trend may have peaked, given that our overexpanding children are far too obvious to ignore. The latest food fad is to present healthier options to kids.
On the national front, soft drink makers and the American Beverage Association in May agreed to stock school vending machines with non-sugary drinks. In October, five of the country's largest snack food makers agreed to provide more nutritious food to schools. Not that kids who think a fruit roll-up is equivalent to a handful of grapes will swallow this good-for-you tonic without some whining. But they'll get used to it, and kids-yet-to-come won't miss what they didn't have.
On the local front, Roanoke County school students are making healthier choices in the school lunch line this year. Sure the kid favorites of pizza, tacos and cheeseburgers still make the menu, but they are accompanied by a wide variety of fruits and vegetables that don't depend on sugar or oil to enhance the flavor.
The changes, while welcome, haven't been as dramatic as those tried in England that have kids sneaking chip butties (a french fries, butter and vinegar sandwich) and mothers pushing deep-fried food through the schoolyard gate. The government banned junk food without weaning kids from vats of fat. Drastic government intervention probably won't work here, especially if the general public and parents aren't supportive.
It takes time and education to change eating patterns. Disney's announcement that it will offer healthier fare at its theme parks and will not have its characters marketing junk food could help. Perhaps more amusement parks will follow. The occasional cotton candy does indeed enhance a summer excursion, but being forced to quell hunger grumbles with deep-fried food on a sticky, hot day is not appetizing even to a chicken nugget fanatic.
Another encouraging food trend is the movement away from super-sized snacks with the advent of 100-calorie snack packages. (If only the price would be down-sized as well.) The 100-calorie portions lend some reinforcement to the lesson that the elementary school set is beginning to comprehend: Food contains calories. If you eat more of them on any given day than you burn up or need to grow, you'll gain weight.
Most of us know this simple fact, but find counting calories far too complicated. The New York City Board of Health wants to help by requiring many of its restaurants to post calories on menus. While that might work for computing a chicken nugget Happy Meal at 530 calories or to help someone decide between the 190-calorie Caesar dressing and the 40-calorie balsamic vinaigrette, it might prove burdensome for a pizzeria with many types of crusts and toppings.
Even if New York passes on this idea, restaurants ought to consider it on their own. The success of the 100-calorie snack shows that people are smitten with this concept. With most food trends, the smart cookie figures out how to cash in. This movement toward more nutritious eating promises to have more staying power than the weight dropped during the Atkins craze.
Traud is a member of The Roanoke Times editorial board.
