Most parents want to arm their kids with as many skills as they can – and food skills are towards the top of the list if they are concerned about their well-being. Whether it is being able to rustle up a snack or meal, being able to self-regulate how much to eat or knowing the difference between a good choice and a not-so-good choice, the long-term impact of not having these skills is well documented.

So as a parent, how do you raise food savvy kids? In Glenda’s latest book, life love food kids, award-wining author and food educator Glenda Gourley gives you down to earth strategies and practical tips that really work. Together with her teenage daughter, Claire, they have written a book for parents like you. Glenda considers the serious things (nutrition, self esteem, eating too much junk food or not enough vegetables etc) and Claire brings her back to earth so she remembers how kids think and operate. Claire is the author of award-winning cookbook Who’s Cooking Tonight? Together they have something that is realistic and achievable. Supported by this website for parents and www.itsmyturntocooktonight.com for kids, the duo are making quite an impact.

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No matter who is giving the reason – me, a teen or a young kid, I can share 5 reasons that will inspire you to take action!

It is not only a soufflé that rises when a child cooks for their family… When a child masters a skill there are lots of outcomes. In particular I have found a child who learns to cook and make good food choices…

• gains self-esteem
• gains a sense of importance
• feels they are able to make a meaningful contribution to their family
• is proud of their achievement
• is better equipped to look after themselves
• is able to look after others
• gains confidence and competence
• feels empowered to try more complex tasks
• is able to use preparing food as an act of service
• is able to use food as a means of expressing love
• develops self-management skills
• develops self-discipline
• develops self -espect
• develops budgeting skills.

I struggle to think of another set of everyday skills that directly impacts a child’s development and health.

Consider the three different perspectives below… mine, a teen’s and that of a younger child.

Reasons to cook – from my perspective  

• Success builds a child’s self-esteem and confidence – cooking is no exception.
• A sense of contribution, belonging, importance and pride develops as children master skills – cooking is an excellent way to foster this.
• Learning about food fosters personal responsibility – you can feel confident that your children will be better equipped to look after themselves.
• Cooking is a life skill. It’s like riding a bike – once they have ‘got it’ they are away.
• You can get the odd night off!

Reasons to cook – from a teenage perspective  

• You don’t have to put up with food you don’t like – you call the shots!
• It feels great if you can cook for friends and family – lots of compliments are good!
• Being able to cook gives you leverage… ‘If I cook dinner, can I borrow the car? Money for the movies? New shoes?’
• Knowing you can cook is quite empowering. You can make good food choices so you can get better skin, have more energy, be at a good weight – it’s all your choice.
• It’s quite good fun cooking!

Reasons to cook – from a tween’s perspective  

• You can eat the ingredients while you are cooking and then get to choose the best piece.
• Your mum gets in a good mood if you help (cringe – this was a sage observation from my youngest son!).
• You can make sure what is being cooked is something you like.
• If you do the cooking you don’t have to help with the clean up.
• It’s fun cooking.

The thought of learning a new life skill will simply not engage the average kid – especially when described as a life skill. However you start talking about something they want or need and you have their total attention.

I have found deal-making works well.  Along the lines of ‘If I do this for you, could you do this for me’. You may be surprised to find how kids respond to this; many are masters of negotiation in other things so they will quickly work it out. I think it is quite funny when my children say one of the main reasons they wanted to be able to cook was because it gave them leverage. That’s fine if that’s what motivates them. It also has helped our family operate more like a team with everyone contributing.

Ironically, often as parents we have to buy things for our kids anyway. Take a special pair of shoes for example. Both parties win if you suggest that if they cook dinner each Tuesday they will be able to get those shoes. This is not bribery. Bribery implies that one person wins and the other loses.  This is far better than that – there are winners all round. Your child learns a skill for a lifetime, they get the shoes, the family bond grows stronger and you get a night off – it’s the epitome of a win:win situation. 

No matter what perspective you are coming from

 the outcome is the same –

your child gets a skill for a lifetime

which is undoubtedly to

his or her advantage.

The messenger is as important as the message

I have long been an advocate of a using role models to instigate food changes and inspire action with kids  -  this is the basis of the Food Savvy Kids strategy that Claire and I have established.

Last week we were paid  the ultimate compliment.  In the final end of year examination for Level 1 NCEA Home Economics (our national examinations), students had to analyze how Claire’s work on It’s My Turn to Cook Tonight and her work on Small Blacks TV show had influenced teenagers eating. Wow – we were stoked – 4 credits which could make up to 50% of their external grade!!

The examination assessment  90960 Demonstrate understanding of how an individual, the family and society enhance each other’s well-being is posted on  http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/nqfdocs/ncea-resource/exams/2011/90960-exm-2011.pdf

As with all communication to children, especially those of  food and nutrition, it has become apparent that the messenger, i.e who and how messages are delivered, are as important as the message. In fact you could debate that if the messenger isn’t relevant to the children then no message will get through at all.

I am looking forward to building up a big team of teen food role models in a teen cooking/job program we release next year. Watch this space….

I wrote this post as a participant in the Eat Better, Eat Together Balancing Act blog carnival hosted by MealsMatter and Dairy Council of California to share ways families everywhere can make time for family meals that include foods from all the food groups. A list of other registered dietitians and moms who are participating in the Balancing Act blog carnival will be listed at the bottom of this post or can be found at MealsMatter.

It’s time parents toughened up! I have met many parents who have unwittingly and gradually become ‘short-order cooks’.  Some parents make up to four different meals each night to keep the kids happy and have mealtime peace.

Whilst I understand how and why it happens, I can’t comprehend why you would want to do this. Surely the time spent making different meals would be better spent reading a story, helping with homework or playing with the children. Actually, most parents don’t want to do it; they just don’t realize that there is an option.

10 Commandments for Guilt-Free Feeding – Maryann Tomovich Jacobsen, MS, RD
Beating the Lunch Box Blues – Katie Sullivan Morford, MS, RD
Dinner Time – Michelle Rowe, RN and Health Educator
Eat Better, Eat Together– Jessica Fishman Levinson, MS, RD, CDN
Family Dinners Fuel Healthier Kids – Susan Weiner, RD, MS, CDE, CDN
Families that Cook Together Eat Together – Kia Robertson
Making Time for Family Meals: How I’ve Earned My “RDH” – Trina Robertson, MS, RD
Meal Planning: Taking the Stress Out of the ‘What’s for Dinner’– Laura Everage
Pressed for Time? Moms Know Best: Tips for Getting Food on the Table – FAST! – Samantha Lewandowski, MS, RD, LDN
Roasted Cinnamon Apple Oatmeal – Cheri Liefeld
Sunday Night Family Dinner, In the Dining Room – Jill Castle, MS, RD, LDN
The Balancing Act – Ann Dunaway Teh, MS, RD, LD
The Power of Family Meal Time & How to Squeeze It In! – Bridget Swinney MS, RD, LD
The Truth About Family Dinner – Sally Kuzemchak, MS, RD
Toughen up: Give Two Choices for Dinner – Take it or Leave it! – Glenda Gourley BHSc, Dip Tchg

It’s a bit scary every time we read a paper there are more frightening stats about how many of us aren’t making good food choices and the consequences of that.  Claire’s latest blog shares a couple of excellent tools to encourage kids to remember ‘what you eat is your choice’. The first is to hold an image in their mind and the second is  the classic little trick of 20/20  -  which is good for all of us!!!

A word from Claire….

I am a dreamer so it sort of follows that I dream, or visualize, about food too.

When I think about my meals I sort if hold an image in my mind about what to eat.    I ‘see’ my plate as being half fruit and vegetables or salad,  quarter protein (meat, fish, eggs or poultry ) and quarter carbohydrates or grains (rice, pasta or breads – here’s the good part  - I love potatoes and depending on who you listen to they can fit in two categories – veg or carbs!?)

When I put this image in mind I find it easy to help me choose how much of what to eat… it’s kind of fun trying to ‘untangle’ foods like fried rice too. It’s easy to fix if your plate gets distorted – sometimes the quarters look more like thirds –  ’cos lets face it, it is usually the fruit and veg half that gets the nudge – just eat a carrot, tomato, orange, apple or a handful of grapes and your picture gets ‘right’. (According to the health guys, about 2/3′s of us don’t get the half bit right – so that is why they are always going on about it!?!)

The other day I learnt another cool trick – it’s 20/20. As you are taking your food stop and and consciously take 20% more fruit and vegetables and 20% less of everything else. I gotta say 20%  more and 20% less isn’t hard at all – doesn’t make much difference to your meal but does to your skin and jean size!

So there you go - see a picture of a plate and play 20/20 – both easy…

No matter what country you live in,  there is unilateral agreement that kids need to eat more fruit and vegetables – whether your local message is mix it up, 5 to 10 a day,  go for 2 & 5, more matters or 5+ A Day - whatever it is, these two little tricks that Claire shares will help your kids reach the goals…

If you want to see more of Claire’s Blogs – nutrition and cooking tips in ‘teen-speak’ – written by a teen in a tone they relate too… check out her blog.

5 Steps to a Healthy Lunchbox  

You may pack a healthy lunch, but there’s no guarantee that your daughter or son will try to trade their apple slices for a cookie. Even before your kids are old enough to start cooking, you can help them take an active role in deciding what to eat for lunch each day by teaching them the importance of healthy eating habits. Here are 5 steps to get you started.

1. Be a Role Model – How can you expect your kids to eat healthy if you don’t do so yourself? Make sure that meals at home follow a balanced diet. You can also help them develop good eating habits, like keeping healthy snacks around the house like nuts and fruit instead of junk food. Also, it’s best not to reward good behavior with sweets and punish bad behavior by taking them away – sweets and desserts should be enjoyed in moderation, independent of behavior.

2. Get them Food Savvy – Rather than telling your kids what they can and can’t eat, educate them about the benefits of healthy food from a young age. This will help them to understand that eating healthy food isn’t a punishment, but something they can enjoy their whole lives. When they’re a little older, teaching them to cook healthy meals will help them to think even more about the food they eat.

3. Do it Together – Don’t just take your kids along to the grocery store – get them involved in the shopping and meal planning. Looking for a certain food on the shelves can be a fun game for young ones, while older kids can get involved in actively choosing what they’d like to have to eat that week. If they have trouble making healthy choices, you can always give them a list of options to choose from. When it comes to packing lunches for school, this is something you can get them involved with as well. Asking them what they’d like each day and assigning them simple tasks, like putting snack food in mini plastic bags, is a good way to start. Someday they might even want to make their lunches all by themselves!

4. Use Foods they Like – Kids simply aren’t going to eat food they don’t like, especially when you aren’t at school to encourage them to eat their Brussels sprouts at lunchtime. Instead, take advantage of the healthy foods they don’t like. Kids tend to like fruits and sweeter vegetables such as carrots, celery, or cucumber. If they don’t like a wide variety of healthy foods, you could try to add variety in the way you prepare the food. For example, you could give them different dips for their vegetables, like hummus, cheese, or peanut butter. In the meantime, you can encourage them to gradually try new foods at home.

5. Have Fun – There are plenty of things you can do to add fun to your child’s lunchbox. Use cookie cutters to cut fruits, vegetables, cheese, and even sandwiches into fun shapes. Come up with fun names for foods – you could call an egg salad sandwich a Sunny Sandwich for example – or even let your kids make up the names themselves. Since kids love desserts, you could find healthy recipes for sweets you can make together, such as oatmeal cookies or banana bread.

Andrea Erins has been a college professor for 13 years and likes to write about various topics related to education. She is the owner of the site  href=http://www.mastersineducation.com

The past few months have been amazing, our whole Teach Children to Cook strategy is gaining so much momentum as parents and educators alike discover the merits in what we are doing. In a nutshell our strategy has morphed from teaching children to cook into getting kids food savvy, hence our new logo and name Food Savvy Kids.

Whilst cooking remains very much at the core of what we are doing, we are now including the bigger picture  - issues such as making good food choices, reading labels, shopping tips etc . Many of these are still communicated via cooking but we really wanted to acknowledge our ‘bigger picture look at things’.

Our new book life love food kids (details in the BOOKS tab above) has really galvanized our intent to treat food as very much part of family life  - we can’t look at it in isolation. I am so excited about life love food kids and can’t wait to share it with you  - it is certainly a very different look at a very big issue that most parents face. A quick glance at our health statistics will show you just how much the old food/nutrition approach isn’t working!!

The plan below shares our vision, objectives and activities of this strategy.

DOUBLE CLICK THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Claire’s site www.ItsMyTurnToCookTonight.com remains the same. It is nutrition education strategy cleverly disguised as cooking site for kids – her cookbooks are also nutrition education strategies – just so disguised that kids wont suspect that they are anything other than a cookbook of good tasting food. (details in the BOOKS tab above) To gain kid acceptance words like healthy and nutrition aren’t used very often at all!

DOUBLE CLICK THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE

I want my children to be totally food savvy by the time they leave home.

While they are at home I typically make around 70% of their food choices. Like most mothers, I am the ‘nutritional gate keeper’ – I do the shopping, decide what most the meals are and stock the pantry with foods I want them to eat. But when they leave home it will be a different story.

I want to give my kids every advantage I possibly can – so that means making them food savvy…

Food savvy means knowing what a good food choice is, appreciating how much we need to eat, understanding a bit about what makes us eat and being able to cook some basic foods.

I think most kids don’t have adequate skills to know enough about food to take good care of themselves. We only need to look at the number of children who are overweight to realize something is wrong in most Western countries.

So I decided I wanted to do something about it – I am just doing the finishing touches on my new book – love life food kids. This is a book especially for parents, it will help you build well adjusted kids with great self esteem, who have developed enough personal responsibility and skills to equip them to make good food choices – for their lifetime.

love life food kids will inspire you to take action – I look forward to sharing it with you in the next couple of months!

Glenda Gourley