The real reason kids don't eat healthier: They don't like to

by Martha Edwards (Subscribe to Martha Edwards's posts)
Oct 27th 2008 6:00PM

There's lots of uproar these days about the state of lunches offered at school. Parents, teachers and even celebs are upset that there aren't healthier options available to kids, and it's mostly blamed on a lack of funds. But according to a report from Newsday.com on kids in Long Island, there's more to it than that: most kids simply don't like eating healthy food.

And while younger kids are held captive to what their parents give them or what the cafeteria serves, older kids are ditching the healthy school meals and heading to nearby fast food restaurants to pick up the junk foods they're craving.

The bottom line? You can't force kids to eat healthfully. Says one school official: "We can offer it to them, but they still have to take it."

Ultimately, healthy eating begins in the home -- teach your kids to eat well at home and the healthy habits will spill over into their own personal choices. Click here for some tips on getting your kids to eat their veggies.

(via Calorie Lab)

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Comments (2)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

MissPinkkate 10-27-2008 @ 6:40PM

A lot of people don't know how to properly cook healthy food. My Mom didn't, and I avoided it for years.

... 10-27-2008 @ 7:16PM

The problem is that we're very spoiled in this modern society. There is no shortage of whatever food we want, so most kids eat emotionally. They eat what's "cool", and it's just not "cool" to eat at the cafeteria. This isn't limited to kids; even grown-ups have this problem too. It's just "cool" to claim that mass-produced cafeteria food sucks, no matter how delicious it is. And, because people keep saying it, they feel compelled to change their tastes in line with what they say. Food has become an identity statement, like one's taste in clothing or music.

I've read about studies saying that most food stops tasting good after ten bites (or something like that). If we eat only what physically tastes good, we'd be very healthy. However, we've added all this other association with food so that taste is more of an emotion than a physical sensation.