2007/05/31
This article in the NY Times describes the reality of children's menus at restaurants around the country. The author expresses dismay at the consequences such limited meals have on his children's palate, but, being the obesity and eating disorders researcher that I am, think it has great implications on our children's health. As noted in the article, many children's menus are made up chicken fingers/fries, pizza, grilled cheese/fries, or macaroni and cheese. Occasionally something like spagetti might appear, but those are the staples. Years later, we wonder why the US is dealing with an obesity epidemic.
Obesity runs in families, but it's not completely genetic. We learn to eat from our parents and we learn our tastes from what we eat as kids. Additionally, we get reinforcement (brain mechanisms of reward circuitry are involved, but I won't get into that here) from foods we eat and enjoy on a regular basis. When these foods are fried and high in fat, then these are the foods that we crave as rewarding. A new study that may not even be out yet was looking at change in food craving as a result of discontinued consumption of high fat/sugar foods. Craving decreased because that reward reinforcement of those foods was becoming less salient, and thus less likely to come up as a craving. I'm not saying it will be 100% erased, but dramatically decreased. And that was in adults - after years of experience with reinforcement. In fact, I am nervous that the effects of that study may wear off because of all the reinforcement earlier on in life.
So my point is that if we don't give kids these foods constantly, they won't have to deal with the effects of this constant reinforcement and have subsequent food cravings, act on those cravings, and then become obese. I have no research on this, but it just seems a bit odd to give kids, as they are developing and learning things about life and the world, such unhealthy options and expect them to somehow switch to healthy choices as adults. If we change now, perhaps they will not have to deal with the effects of years of unhealthy eating on their cravings down the road. Can't the same chefs who create the creative (or more creative, at least) meals for adults also come up with something for kids that isn't fried!
Posted by Cara Bohon on 2007/05/31 @ 20:37 | Comments (2) | EatFoo 1.0 Posts
Comments
"Can't the same chefs who create the creative (or more creative, at least) meals for adults also come up with something for kids that isn't fried!"
It's worth noting that the kind of respected, innovative chefs in haute cuisine almost never have children's menus. There are a number of reasons for this, but one of them is that parents are the ones paying the bills. But in a pure sense, what ought a children's menu be?
The ideal children's menu would consist of the kinds of foods we think adults should eat. Children might require particular vitamins in higher proportions than adults, but for the most part, we should want our kids to eat healthy adult food, but simply eat less of it. So again, it just comes back to portion control.
We ought to get rid of kids menus. It might be tough for the kids who are already a bit grown up, but I don't think new kids would know they were missing anything.
Posted by: Barzelay at May 31, 2007 11:17 PM
Yeah, a kids menu would be smaller portions/cheaper prices cause it sucks to waste that much food if you have to order an adult size meal for your 3 year old.
Posted by: Cara at May 31, 2007 11:46 PM