"Eat food, not too much, mostly vegetables." -- Michael Pollan

The title of today's entry is a quote from the brilliant Michael Pollan.  I remembered it today, as I read the "breakthrough" study featured in the New York Times.  I'm sure you have heard all the comedians referencing the fact that it has now been proven that if you eat a lot of fried things (especially french fries and potato chips), you are going to gain weight.  Let me wait while you recover from your fainting spell.

When I read things like this, I feel like slapping someone.  I just haven't figured out who, yet.  Maybe we should start at the top:  food regulators need to be stricter about labels. Why?  If you've ever been to the grocery store with one or more children, you know that while you are studying the 6 pt. mouse type on the back of the cereal box, your toddler is pulling the bottom cans out of a center-aisle soup display, and your five year old is pointing out, in a very loud voice, how OLD that lady is. So, no in-depth study of the nutrition for young, harried mom.  

But let's bring that box of kid's cereal home and really take a look at it.  "Whole Grain Guaranteed"  is right there on the front of the box.  Hmmmmm....sounds nutritious, right?  Oh, come on!  The box I'm looking at right now because it's on my kitchen table (don't look at me like that; I never said I didn't buy the stuff) is called 'Cookie Crisp'.  When was the last time something with 'cookie' in it was good for you?  

So, on the back of the box, which I can read now because I have my magnifying glass, it says that there is one gram of fiber in a serving, or 3/4 C. There's also ten grams of sugar.  Not too bad, I guess, except, uh-oh:  here comes my teenager. He pours himself, we'll say, three servings.   Yes, now he's up to three grams of fiber, but he's also up to thirty grams of sugar. That's just ten grams shy of a can of Pepsi.  (Peter, if you're reading this, no, this doesn't mean you can have a soda and a Wheat Thin for breakfast.)

Where does this leave us?  At the risk of sounding old, I confess that I grew up with Depression-era parents.  There was no such thing in my house as 'kid food.' You all know what I'm talking about:  chicken nuggets, mac and cheese from the blue box, pasta with butter, etc.  I've seen situations over and over again where parents feed their children with these items because they claim that the kids won't eat anything else.  As my mom used to say, "then they're not really hungry."  She was in cahoots with our family doctor (if you want a good description of what he was like, see the movie, "Doc Hollywood" and check out the methods of the old doctor who teaches Michael J. Fox a lesson).  He always reassured my mom that she really shouldn't worry if we didn't eat;  no normal kid starves themselves to death.  "lf you cook it, they will come.  If not, make sure there's a bowl of fruit on the counter."

If it helps, here are some of the tricks I've learned with my own kids.  One, it's all in the marketing.  Sponge Bob often sends over recipes for fish, bless him.  Icy cold, fresh spring water, anyone?  Smoothies get sneaky with the addition of tasteless probiotic powder and a half of an avocado. Apples come with a microwave-warmed dip of peanut butter and honey.  Fiber-rich, low fat, vegetarian refried beans get jumbled into the salsa and cheese on a plate of nachos.  If you pack your kids' lunches, you have a captive audience, so to speak.  Throw in some hummous and baby carrots.  Slice cucumbers with a decorative tool.  Give them a few dark chocolate Hershey kisses instead of white-flour cookies laced with high-fructose corn syrup (I don't care what those creepy commercials from the Corn Growers of America say, it's not good for you.)

I hear some of you already grumbling about being too busy to cook or prepare good foods.  I know you are, and I know it's an effort.  Do we order pizza?  Yep. Do I rely on peanut butter a little too much?  Uh huh.  But, most of the time, we make an effort to 'eat food, not too much, mostly vegetables.'  

Think of it this way: say you're having one of those days, where you have to be five different places at once.  Everyone is scrambling to finish homework, get to a field, practice the violin, walk the dog, etc.  Your gas tank is past empty.  It's now on "Holy cow!  Cross your fingers!"  It would be VERY convenient, wouldn't you say, to fill the tank with that ten gallon can of corn oil you bought at BJ's last month.  But, how far is that going to fuel your SUV?  So you make the time, and fill the tank with premium and get where you need to go safely, if maybe a little late.  

Don't our children's bodies deserve the same effort?