Eat Healthy
Once again I have been given a topic to write about courtesy of the school system. Last week our children's school brought in some people from the University of British Columbia (UBC) to talk to children about healthy eating. I think that nutrition is an important part of a child's education and believe that the place where that education should start is in their homes, with their parents. However, given the busy world we all live in this does not seem possible on a daily basis. But so long as the fundamentals are engrained in their little minds we can only hope that they will go through life conscious of the importance of healthy eating.
So....what exactly did those folks from UBC tell the children. I have heard about what happened in two of the classes only. Check this out:
1) Kindergarten class. They walked to the Domino's Pizza outlet a few blocks away. There they made pizzas. Superficially this is a cool idea. The children like pizza, they like Domino's and pretending to be a chef in the kitchen of a restaurant must have been fun. Finally, pizza can in fact make up a very balanced meal. I imagine they spoke about the grains in the crust, the veggies, the cheese as a milk product, the meat as protein. All good. The walk to Domino's was good for them as well. What I don't like about the idea is that they brought the children to a fast food chain. Domino's equals healthy. Fast food equals healthy? Unlikely. Eating out is not the way to eat healthy in most cases. The portions are too big, the food used is often processed and therefore full of salts and fats.
2) Grade 2 class. They made sandwiches in their classroom. So this is an improvement on the fast food version that the kindergarten class had. Again, sandwiches can be healthy. It all depends what you put between the slices of bread and what kind of bread you are using. So they started with whole wheat bread (good!) and added cucumbers and lettuce to it (still good!). The last filling was bologna (bad!!). Bologna is a processed, preservative full, salt filled meat full of fats. What could have been added was a healthier meat like chicken breast or some beef. Or salmon, or tuna. Or eggs.
I think the idea of educating children on healthy eating is a good one. I commend them for having discussed the importance of the various food groups and of healthy, balanced eating. What needs to be added to the lesson is a talk on processed foods and on restaurants. They are convenient, no doubt, and fun once in a while. But let's not equate them with healthy eating. People need to learn at home, to cook and to use foods that have gone through as little factories and manipulations as possible.
I give the UBC group 70%. Why stop there? With little extra effort the lesson could have been perfect.
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