"Children favorite pizza, chicken nuggets and the other school entrees they were used to by a margin of 4-to-1, with nearly eight in 10 "very unhappy" about Oliver's alternatives."
It is more than likely that the first solid food these kids tasted was from a jar of processed baby food. Their taste buds have been conditioned to artificial flavouring, preservatives and other additives which overtake the bland taste of processed foods. These kids have been eating this food at home as this is what their parents place on the dinner table. Of procedure many parents will say that they work full time and have no time to cook dinner every night and pre packed processed food is convenient. As full time working parents, their children are placed in nurseries or in the care of nannies. And what do the kids get for snacks and lunch? Processed food! When they start school, again it is processed food that is served at school dinners. Not a surprise that children who have been conditioned to eat junk food will only want to eat more of this food. Of procedure they want chicken McNuggets! These taste good. How can you blame these kids for wanting to eat food they have grown accustomed to? Junk food and refined food are addictive. Can Jamie Oliver convert a "lifetime" habit in a short span of time?
The truth is refined processed food is junk food! The term "junk food" refers to any food that is high in calories, fat, salt, and sugar without bringing any nutritional value to the table. The first image that comes to mind for most habitancy when they hear the term "processed food" is a wrapped burger and a sleeve of fries served over a counter at a fast food joint. But the truth is the very food you have in your cabinets is processed if it's boxed, bagged, canned or jarred, freezing or dehydrated and has a list of ingredients on the label. Processed foods have been altered from their natural state for "safety" and convenience reasons. Processed foods are more convenient, it's so much easier to bake a cake by opening up a box, pouring out a dry mix, and adding an egg and some oil than beginning from scratch. Instead of production a dish with fresh ingredients, why not pick up a ready-made meal from the store? Isn't it easier to just pop it in the microwave for a couple of minutes? No pots and pans, no mess!
Jamie wants us to cook from scratch, with raw ingredients as in the olden days. He shows great courage and ambition to try and convert the diets of these kids. It isn't going to be easy because it's hard to fly processed food. It is everywhere. Getting their parents to eat healthy is going to be even more difficult than the kids because they have had that much more time to live and make this lifestyle. Parents would benefit to listen to Jamie and learn to cook the old fashioned way. We are all just as guilty of introducing processed foods to our children's diets. We use processed food without even batting an eyelid. How many of us buy bread? As an adult have you questioned where the flour comes from? Have you wondered why bakeries and supermarkets make bread that is so light that you can eat a whole loaf in one sitting and still feel hungry? Have you ever read the label on the bread? What's worse is this: Many parents subconsciously "condition" children from an early age to eat unhealthy food! This is a bad choice.
Of procedure you may think that you do not fall in this category of "parents who feed their children unhealthy foods". Unfortunately, current research found that the vast majority of preschoolers actually have a 'poor' diet or a diet that 'needs improvement', while roughly 80% of mothers, who is usually the main parent controlling their child's diet, considered that their child's diet was 'very good/good/healthy' hence overestimate the ability of their child's diet. This is very worrying, since mothers who do not perceive that their children result an unhealthy diet will not make the accepted amendments to improve their child's dietary habits. Unfortunately these are the mothers that will probably not be listening to Jamie Oliver or reading this article.
Children do not question where food comes either. Jamie did an experiment where he cut and ground up scraps from a chicken including the bones, and skin in front of the children, fried it, made it look like a patty and asked these small geniuses if they wanted to eat it, probably thinking that they it may register what actually went into the nuggets and put the kids off eating this. But of course, they said "Yes!" The eating process for a kid is simplified in his/her mind. Tummies tell them they are hungry, mummy places food on table, food tastes good. As the child grows older and if food tastes bad, make a fuss and mummy will give you other food. Make fuss until the food tastes good. Why is it assumed that children know what's best for them? Adults know best and should not give them the option. In the olden days, our parents conditioned us to eat food cooked from scratch, from raw ingredients. We were not allowed much choice as to what we ate. Food was more difficult to come by and our plates were not heaped to the brim with food. We were told to eat up all on our plate and we did.
Parents (working or not) should not be production excuses to production their child a healthy dinner. Does cooking from scratch take up more time or is it a myth? The fact is convenience food saves small time. It is up to the parents to teach the child that fries are made out of cut potatoes or that pork sausages come from the meat of a pig and that bread is made using a grass seed and plainly occurring yeast and that bread and pizza are the same basic items. It is also up to both the parent and the school authorities to ensure that children at school age do not perceive processed pizzas and Chicken McNuggets to be the normal everyday food. Unfortunately at this stage in time, processed food is everywhere. Even children from the most condition aware families who have been raised to eat natural healthy foods are tempted by processed food. It is a case of "monkey see, monkey do".
My daughter of 4 years old has been influenced by her school dinners where processed pizzas or fish fingers are served for lunch. She has been influenced by her school maters as she loves ice-cream and chocolate, although she does have a preference for dark chocolate which she gets quite often at home. She will only eat the vegetables she sees her friends eat at school. There is no escape. There is hope for her yet; she gets home cooked meals for dinner every day. She gets homemade bread and pizza with fresh meat and vegetables toppings. She gets homemade ice cream and she gets dark chocolate only at home. research shows that about 70% of kids have a genetic tendency to dislike vegetables but this does dislike does diminish with age. I find this is true as she is now more open to trying distinct vegetables.
Educating a child on the food he eats is essential. One up-to-date study fulfilled, that unavoidable parental role model may be a great method for enhancing a child's diet than attempts at dietary control. The explication is after all, for parents is to educate their children on food but this also means that parents need to know the truth about food first before they can reveal this knowledge on their kids. There is also evidence in a new study that among children with healthier eating habits, both snacks and meals tended to be shared communal events and items of poor nutritional ability functioned as markers of a extra communal occasion. This was not the case among children with less healthy eating habits. From personal experience, I have found this true of my daughter who associates "junk" food with school lunches and birthday parties.
What are the benefits of cutting out processed food and eating natural healthy foods?
All human beings are composed of what they eat, and defects that show up in children, and later when adults, are largely due to the kind and ability of food eaten, especially during the growing period. The injurious effects of a poor diet are manifested in the bone structure, general health, and the nervous system. The body structure often shows curvature of the spine, flat chest, narrow pelvis and faulty occlusion resulting in poor mastication. There is increased susceptibility to fatigue and an excitability of a nervous character. The regulators of increase and of corporal appearance, the endocrine glands such as pituitary, thyroid, suprarenal and reproductive, are disturbed.
One of the most noticeable signs of injury is the condition of children's teeth. The cause of dental caries does not lie entirely in defective cleaning but from within, through the blood that reaches the pulp of the tooth. The condition of the teeth is a dependable indication of the condition of the bony structure, organs and tissues of our body.
The badly nourished child will show a infirmity of immunity against infections such as the coarse cold. All this adds up to the fact that many children may be starving on a full stomach. How are we to literal, this problem? Very simply: the food we eat, particularly in the growing period, must comprise the greatest inherent estimate of food factors, known and unknown, in their natural condition. Food that is whole, food that has suffered the least estimate of tampering, is a key to good health. This rules out refined and processed foods. Nature provides the allowable balance of food factors. When we remove one factor, the effectiveness of that food will be quite distinct from that in its natural state.
There is ample evidence in the literature that supports the concept that diet, lifestyle and behaviour affect the risk of developing cancer. It is estimated that only 5 to 10 percent of all cancer cases are inherited. Thirty percent are due to tobacco use, and as much as 35 to 50 percent are due to foods. Our research on the link between diet and cancer is described in "Is Your Food Killing You?" healthy eating for both parents and kids can forestall cancer and suffering.
Jamie has been in the news again recently in the Uk on how changing the diets of children in Uk schools has a unavoidable result on their performance at school. This is not surprising as a scientific record in 2008 reviewing the long-term impact of a cusine intervention carried out by the make of cusine of Central America and Panama from 1969 to 1977 and follow-up studies in 1988-89 and 2002-04 show mountainous impact on adult human capital and economic productivity resulting from the cusine intervention. This provides a great argument for promoting improvements in cusine in pregnant women and young children. Again from personal experience, my daughter excels at school, started reading at the age of 15 months and her teachers tip off us that her thinking capabilities are equivalent to a 6 year old.
A more up-to-date study has also shown that great behavioural outcomes of children were connected with a higher intake of fresh fruit and leafy green vegetables in early adolescence. The World condition assosication (Who) recognises thinking condition as a major condition issue for adolescents and predicts that thinking condition problems will be one of the most serious global condition problems by 2020 (World condition assosication 2005). Hence diet not only improves your child's doing but is one way to forestall thinking condition problems in your child.
Changing your diet to a healthy one cannot be done overnight. For the sake of my family's long term health, I have learned to go back to the way my mum and grandmother cooked. It seems there is a lot of truth to old wife's tales. My parents used to make butter and bread, mince garlic and leave in coconut oil, wash all vegetables, cook vegetables lightly but cook legumes for a long time. After lots of research, I have found there is a infer for these and many of these are only just being scientifically proven. In view of this, we have launched a challenge to all our readers to help them make the small changes over the arrival months to lead a healthier lifestyle. I hope that many parents out there who read this record will also take the steps I have taken to ensure my house leads a great lifestyle.
Jamie Oliver - mammoth endeavor to convert the Diet of Kids in Schools
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