Teach Your Children What REAL Food Looks Like!

TODAY'S FOOD TIP - COOKING WITH KIDS



Did you see the episode of Dateline the other night when children were presented with two food choices - one food that was plain, the other decorated with a popular cartoon character?

This was a rather disturbing episode.

First, young children were presented with two cupcakes. Both chocolate, but one with plain chocolate frosting, the other with chocolate frosting plus SpiderMan's picture made of colorful icing.

When asked which cupcake the children would choose, they all chose the SpiderMan Cupcake.

When asked why, they simply said, "because it has SpiderMan on it, so it will taste better."

Next, the children were offered a banana decorated with colorful stickers of cartoon characters, and a chocolate cupcake with no decorations.

Each of the children chose the banana with the stickers over the cupcake because "It has Scooby Doo on it."

That sounded interesting.

If we want our children to make better food choices - fruits over cupcakes, for example - we merely need to put some cartoon stickers on the fruit.

But things got more disturbing.

Next, a large rock was decorated with stickers. Children were presented with this rock and a plain, undecorated banana.

They were asked, "Which item would you rather EAT for breakfast - this rock or the banana?"

The children all chose, "the rock."

The lady asking the children the questions wanted verification, "You would rather EAT this rock for breakfast rather than the banana. Is that correct?"

And the children shook their heads in agreement.

Man. Maybe we need to teach our children what REAL food looks like.

Real food doesn't have stickers of Scooby Doo or illustrations of SpiderMan on it.

I'll bet many children don't realize that most food comes from the ground or off a tree or bush or vine.

My food tip for today is this: Take a field trip to the grocery store or a local farmer's market and introduce your children to REAL food. Food that doesn't come with stickers of cartoon characters.

It's very apparent that advertisers are heavily influcencing your children's food choices. Is that what you want?

Which would you choose for breakfast - the rock decorated with Scooby Doo stickers, or the plain banana?

Think about it.