Getting kids interested in real food
October 11, 2011
My friend recently re-posted a facebook note from a friend of hers titled “Raising a Foodie“. I honestly thought this was just so well-written. If we teach our kids early on how to be involved in picking out good healthy food and involved in making/cooking good healthy food, they will be more likely to continue to eat real food vs. wanting processed (and over-processed) foods. What a great concept. It’s funny because my husband and I have been trying to figure out how to get our 11 year old nephew interested in things other than video games. Recently my husband took him to the movies and out to eat (where he got chicken fingers and complained that when his dad had taken him out to eat recently he made him eat a hamburger). After laughing out loud about this story, I realized that part of the issue is that he just hasn’t been exposed to that much early on. However, the other thing that he was interested in was how our garden was doing this year. And when we had him stay at our house for a week this Summer, he was very interested in helping make strawberry rhubarb jam, but wasn’t as interested in trying it. That said, it’s baby steps at this point. How can we get the kid who eats the same things night after night more interested in real foods? We start by getting him involved in cooking with us and hope some of it rubs off. Imagine the impact if we could have started this with him when he was 2 and 3! I plan on re-reading this facebook post when we have kids and hope we can instill this love and interest in real food in our own children.
