Helping Kids Make Sense of Food

By Dr. Richard Visser

If you’re like most parents today, you grew up in classrooms with the old food pyramid tacked on the wall. No doubt your nutrition education centered around a once-a-year discussion of that picture. It looked kind of like the Egyptian pyramids–three-dimensional and built of “food blocks”–and kids back then were encouraged to eat lots of bread (represented as a single block across the bottom, widest part of the pyramid), a little less fruit and veggies (shown as two blocks up a level), even less meat and dairy (two more blocks up a level), and to “use sparingly” the fats and oils (shown at the tip top of the pyramid).

Although the carb-protein-greens ratios look off by today’s standards, there’s no denying the picture was instantly understandable. You got a sense of proportion the minute you looked at it, and any third grader could recite the four food groups.

Recognizing the need to update their advice, in 2005 the USDA replaced the relic pyramid with a new one. This time, it looks like the front of the pyramid has lit up with colored lights, and there’s a climber heading up the stairs on the side.

Many have criticized the pyramid, and I’m no exception. The colors aren’t naturally associated with the foods they represent (purple for meat? blue for milk?), and there’s no way to interpret proportions because all the lines are the same width. There’s no distinction between whole grains, which are a healthy food choice, and refined carbohydrates, which aren’t.

What’s more, although adults may be familiar with the idea of a food pyramid, kids are unlikely to commit it to memory easily. If you want to test it out, take a look at the pyramid (www.MyPyramid.gov), and then see if you can recall any of the guidelines it represents. In my view, the pyramid falls far short of its intended goal: to educate us about what’s good for us to eat.

In response, I created something different and presented it at the Parlatino Conference in Sao Paul, Brazil in the spring of 2006. Imagine a boat with five colorful sails. It’s moored on a beautiful beach, where the sky is blue and the air is clean and fresh. A family plays, exercises, and has fun on the shore. The family dog frolicks in the background. The scene is light, airy, and filled with energy. What child wouldn’t want to hang out on that beach, to trim the sails, to play pirate or Popeye on that boat?

Each sail represents a different food group, and the colors associated with those groups makes sense. The size of each sail is also proportionate to the amount of that food recommended for consumption, from smaller amounts of protein to fruits and vegetables, which can be eaten with little restriction.

In previous articles, I’ve warned against children spending too much time in passive entertainment, such as watching TV and playing video games. At the same time, I’m an advocate of watching TV with your child to use it as a tool for learning (not, I should mention, as a context for snacking) and, likewise, to offer kids positive games that will help them develop healthy habits.

So, of course, I’ve started work on my own game to teach kids about nutrition, making the child captain of a ship whose mission is to reach nine specific islands. Children’s ability to reach these islands, and to overcome the many obstacles they encounter during the journey, is determined by the food and exercise choices they make. The healthier the foods they choose, the higher the sails ascend. The more exercise they do, the faster the ship sails.

The game, and posters of my sailing food guide, should be available to the public in the near future.  In the meanwhile, I encourage you to embark on home-based nutrition education for your children. That starts, of course, with educating yourself. Seek out resources you enjoy, that speak to your family and your viewpoint.

By all means, if you’re a fan of the pyramid get yourself a copy of the kids’ version, which features cute cartoon characters exercising all around the pyramid, instead of the antiseptic stick-figure version you usually see, and post it near your kitchen. But be sure to go beyond that, too. Talk about what you know and what you’re learning with your children. Be sure you reinforce the guidelines by giving kids healthy choices not only during meals, but for snacks, too. You don’t have to completely replace carrot cake with carrot sticks–but make the better foods the mainstay of your family diet.

Dr. Richard Visser recently completed clinical research on 10,000 children and the obesity pandemic in Latin America and the United States. He’s the director of the Visser Wellness and Research Center in Aruba, as well as CEO of SimplyH, LLC and Simply Toddler, LLC in Los Angeles. Dr. Visser works worldwide to raise awareness of proper nutrition for healthy and fit toddlers and children.