If kids haven’t developed a taste for wholesome, yummy food by kindergarten, will they be cursed with McPalates for the rest of their days? Recent news articles and blog discussions say the answer is most likely yes.
A thoughtful post by Kate of Accidental Hedonist ponders what it takes to catapult a person into a life of considered food choices—but some readers argue that nothing can convince the masses to choose their chow more wisely. “[Health-focused lunchroom chef] Ann Cooper’s experiences in Berkeley [public schools] suggest our eating preferences are set pretty firmly early in life,” writes AH visitor Nicholas Caratzas, alluding to the fact that kids often turn up their noses at the wholesome options. Meanwhile, some parents reinforce their progeny’s unhealthy preferences: As a recent New York Times article reported, two British mothers, worried about their children’s refusal to eat anything on the school cafeteria’s newly healthified menu, began selling banned fast-food items to students just outside the campus. These “meat pie mums” and their kids won’t likely be swayed by arguments for local and organic foods, writes Caratzas. And forget the older folks: “Working on anybody past grade school is going to be tough.”
Granted, childhood comfort dishes hold a special place in people’s culinary memories, meaning that a kid who grew up on Big Macs might have a soft spot for greasy drive-thru burgers. Still, plenty of people—like me, for example—have emerged from childhoods fueled by TV dinners, canned fruit, sugary cereals, and iceberg lettuce to become fully food-aware adults. Growing up, I would have been just as loath to give up my lunchroom pizza as those British kids were to forgo their fries; my food awakening didn’t come until my first year of college (it was triggered by a burgeoning awareness of environmental issues and was spurred on by a year of study in France). So I sometimes wonder whether I would have rebelled against the sustainable-food philosophy if it had been imposed on me earlier in life. (I certainly know adult candyholics who weren’t allowed any sugar as kids.)
How did you develop your interest in food? Did that interest coincide with an awareness of health/environmental issues, or was it strictly about deliciousness? A little of both?
Strangely, my sister’s four kids began their lives eating everything their parents ate, from steamed veggies and tofu to highly spices stir fries and roasts. It seems that past age 6, their tastes are beginning to follow the kiddie patterns of their peers. I have faith they’ll pass their chicken nugget phase and return to rosewater thumbprint cookies.
Another thought: why is it that American kids (and others?) are expected to eat a separate menu of foods while it seems that kids in other (non-Western?) countries eat what’s on the table– be it curry, sushi, or rice and beans?
I got my interest in food basically because I moved to another country where the things that I liked from home weren’t available. That meant I had to:
a. try new things, because otherwise my diet would have been severely limited
b. learn how to cook in order to be able to cook the foods I was nostalgic for.
I’ve never been that much of a picky eater, with the exception of things with tentacles and offal, I don’t really say no to anything. But if you asked me five years ago if raw bacon would be a regular part of my diet and that I would know how to and even enjoy baking, I would have thought you were crazy.
crlyhead, that’s an interesting question. Here in Italy, half of the people I know won’t even eat Chinese food, which is basically the only non-Italian food you can find. And when they travel, they look for Italian restaurants. The general (although not unanimous) opinion is that their food is the best, and so it’s a waste of time to try out other things.
Well, I certainly remember Dinty Moore Beef Stew and Mac and Cheese Fondly, as well as my weekly trip to McD’s to get my filet’o'fish (perhaps mom thought this was healther than the cheeseburger, or maybe I just liked it) with MILK, no soda for me…
but I also remember ordering filet mignon medium rare at age 8, eating crab at age 7 (only to discover I was developing a very severe allergy to shellfish when the back of my throat itched a lot) and getting sick at a restaurant from eating a whole lobster (that’s when we decided I wouldn’t eat shellfish any more) in 4th grade. Yes, i still dream about pizza pockets and mc donald’s hashbrowns, but my foodie tendancies came out the second I had to start eating cafeteria food in college. I missed sitting around the dinner table waiting to be excused, because it was always being excused from a good meal.
I totally agree that American kids aren’t given enough choices – why not teach them young? That’s why I created a preschool comic that teaches the Alphabet through multi-ethnic foods from all over the world (ie: kimchi, bastilla, yorkshire pudding, etc) You can see more of the foods I chose on my wondertoast website.