Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children
Due in stores in September, Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children by Ann Cooper and Lisa Holmes starts off with several startling statistics: 30 to 40 percent of children born in the year 2000 will develop diabetes, while a good percentage of them will face problems stemming from obesity. These children, according to research the authors uncovered, will be the first in the history of the U.S. to die at a younger age than their parents.
More than 35 percent of our nation’s children are overweight. 25 percent are obese, and 14 percent have type 2 diabetes, a condition previously seen in adults. Processed foods favored by schools and busy moms for their convenience not only contribute to obesity, they also contain additives and preservatives and are tainted with herbicide and pesticide residues that are believed to cause a variety of illnesses, including cancer. In fact, current research shows that 40 percent of all cancers are attributable to diet. Many hundreds of thousands of Americans die of diet-related illnesses each year. People in America today simply do not know how to eat properly, and they don’t seem to have time to figure out how—so fast food, home meal replacements, and processed foods take the place of good, healthy cooking.
Although the narrative can get disjointed in places, Lunch Lessons adroitly stitches the basics of proper nutrition (and how to instill healthy eating habits in your children) together with examples of revolutionary programs pushing for change in lunchrooms across the nation—an invaluable resource for parents, parents-to-be, and anyone interested in advocating for children’s nutritional health, which has obviously suffered in a climate where kids are being subjected to about $15 billion a year worth of marketing engineered to sway them and their parents into believing they need their own special kind of food. “Once you understand that this is marketing that is designed to undermine parental controls it loses that ‘isn’t-that-cute’ factor,” says respected nutritionist and food author Marion Nestle. “That’s the complete explanation of Lunchables. It isn’t cute at all, it’s quite subversive.”
From an article in the New York Times:
“Historically, there was no such thing as children’s food,” said Andrew F. Smith, who teaches culinary history at the New School in New York. “Babies would eat what adults ate, chopped up, until Gerber created baby food in 1927.” “Children’s meals” didn’t exist until the McDonald’s Happy Meal came along in the late 1970’s, Smith said, and only when snack-food producers concluded that their real market was children did they start sponsoring events and advertising in the 1950’s.
“Beyond the Lunch Pail” encourages sustainable living, from using eco-friendly cleaning products to composting, as a way of extending good health beyond good nutrition, and making “your child’s world a richer, healthier place.” A generous portion of the book is dedicated to healthful and balanced, yet tasty, recipes. The authors demystify what counts as a serving of calcium or healthy fats, while breaking down the dangers of mercury in seafood and trans fatty acids. You’ll also find factoids peppered throughout the pages, such as the one that informs us that a McDonald’s hamburger in the 1960s was 250 calories, while a Big Extra today weighs in at 810 calories.
My favorite part of the book is the case studies of successful food programs, such as the decade-old Edible Schoolyard at King Middle School in Berkeley California. Children of all grade levels work in the garden, cook in the kitchens, and receive the kind of sensory experiences a traditional classroom could never have afforded them.
Overhauling school lunch programs, where ketchup is considered a “vegetable” and Taco Bell and Pizza Hut options are available on cafeteria menus, though challenging, has resulted in quantifiable improvements, including increased concentration, increased cognitive development, fewer health complaints, increased attendance, fewer disciplinary referrals, less moodiness and more calmness—even an increase in the practice of good nutrition outside of school. A group of sixth graders at the Ross School in East Hampton, New York, where food is part of a fully integrated curriculum, effused about the timing of the spice tasting when the class was learning about India. When asked why, they replied, “Because our palates have grown so much since last year. We can taste so much better now.”
Ani said,
August 16, 2006 at 12:57 am
Wow! Thanks for bringing this book to my attention. I do have a daughter and try to be very concious of the food she eats.
I’m also fascinated with school garden programs and often think of entering the teaching profession to push this idea. Although with ‘no child left behind’, who has time to think about eating good food and life skills when there are tests to be passed for school funding? Yikes.
tracy said,
August 16, 2006 at 1:55 pm
this looks like an important read - thanks for the tip. i have always questioned friends who make seperate meals for their children while mine eat whatever we are having. it is so much less work! and makes for better appetites. there is also a great new garden school in los angeles (and part of the lausd no less!)http://gardenschoolfoundation.org/home/
Amy Stodghill said,
August 18, 2006 at 2:14 pm
Have you seen this blog?
http://veganlunchbox.blogspot.com/
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