 Visible veggies may teach your child to love broccoli as well as mac and cheese. (The New York Times)
Questioning the Value of ‘Stealth’ Nutrition Cookbooks that teach parents how to hide veggies in food have hit the best-seller lists. But is tricking your kids into eating vegetables really a good idea?
“Deceptively Delicious,” by celebrity wife Jessica Seinfeld, and “The Sneaky Chef,” by Missy Chase Lapine, both offersimilar adviceabout secretly slipping veggies into meals. Both books suggest that parents purée healthy foods like spinach, cauliflower and sweet potatoes and hide them in kid foods like macaroni and cheese or brownies.
While it’s always a good idea to try to improve the nutritional quality of the foods we eat, the stealth veggie strategy doesn’t teach kids to like vegetables. It just teaches them to like macaroni and cheese and brownies.
“I would say that my first emphasis is on getting veggies enjoyed openly,'’ said Susan Roberts, director of the energy metabolism laboratory at Tufts University. That means “putting them in foods so they are visible … so that kids see the veggies and like them,'’ she said.
Dr. Roberts says parents should aim to improve the quality of the food they serve their kids — making lasagne with vegetables and whole wheat pasta, for instance. But parents shouldn’t give up on serving plain and simple vegetables, even if they have already added pureed cauliflower to the mac and cheese.
“The point of burying veggies in foods, in my view, is not to cram in veggies secretly, but to make recipes healthier so that there isn’t such a huge metabolic difference between indulgent treats and vegetables,'’ said Dr. Roberts.
But judging from parent comments on message boards, the books are being used to slip vegetables and other healthful ingredients into kids’ bellies under the radar. “I have made several recipes thus far and my kids have no idea they are eating zucchini, cauliflower, wheat germ, tofu, spinach and more,'’ wrote one Sneaky Chef reader. “The book is genius. I laugh all the way to the dishwasher.”
But other parents note the pitfalls of surreptitious veggies. “Adding veggies to sweets may trick your child, but it also teaches them that sweets are food to eat for life,” wrote one reader.
Parents worried about kids who don’t like vegetables shouldn’t give up or try to sneak pureed veggies into a cookie recipe. Instead of trying to add veggies to food that already tastes good, try adding some better taste to the veggies. Add butter, cheese sauce, ketchup or ranch dressing — whatever it takes to get kids to accept it, notes Dr. Roberts. Even though sauces can be high in calories, parents can use low-fat versions or limit the amounts. A few extra calories is a worthwhile tradeoff if it helps your child accept nutritionally-packed foods like vegetables. The focus shouldn’t just be on making indulgent foods healthful, but also on “making healthy foods more indulgent,'’ notes Dr. Roberts.
And remember, getting your kid to like vegetables won’t happen overnight. Parents need to keep serving veggies even if a kid steadfastly refuses to eat them. Having them on the table and eating them yourself in front of kids are first steps toward getting children to accept vegetables. From this post:
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/26/questioning-the-value-of-stealth-nutrit
Try different things to get your family to eat better. Even when I have been successful with adding veggies to meals I always give the Pops. There's no possible way my family will get 5-10 fruits and veggies everyday.Subscribe to Whole Food And More Things to know about your daily vitamin before you buyFind Grass Fed-Meat
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Cookbooks that teach parents how to hide veggies in food have hit the best-seller lists. But is tricking your kids into eating vegetables really a good idea?
“Deceptively Delicious,” by celebrity wife Jessica Seinfeld, and “The Sneaky Chef,” by Missy Chase Lapine, both offersimilar adviceabout secretly slipping veggies into meals. Both books suggest that parents purée healthy foods like spinach, cauliflower and sweet potatoes and hide them in kid foods like macaroni and cheese or brownies.
While it’s always a good idea to try to improve the nutritional quality of the foods we eat, the stealth veggie strategy doesn’t teach kids to like vegetables. It just teaches them to like macaroni and cheese and brownies.
“I would say that my first emphasis is on getting veggies enjoyed openly,'’ said Susan Roberts, director of the energy metabolism laboratory at Tufts University. That means “putting them in foods so they are visible … so that kids see the veggies and like them,'’ she said.
Dr. Roberts says parents should aim to improve the quality of the food they serve their kids — making lasagne with vegetables and whole wheat pasta, for instance. But parents shouldn’t give up on serving plain and simple vegetables, even if they have already added pureed cauliflower to the mac and cheese.
“The point of burying veggies in foods, in my view, is not to cram in veggies secretly, but to make recipes healthier so that there isn’t such a huge metabolic difference between indulgent treats and vegetables,'’ said Dr. Roberts.
But judging from parent comments on message boards, the books are being used to slip vegetables and other healthful ingredients into kids’ bellies under the radar. “I have made several recipes thus far and my kids have no idea they are eating zucchini, cauliflower, wheat germ, tofu, spinach and more,'’ wrote one Sneaky Chef reader. “The book is genius. I laugh all the way to the dishwasher.”
But other parents note the pitfalls of surreptitious veggies. “Adding veggies to sweets may trick your child, but it also teaches them that sweets are food to eat for life,” wrote one reader.
Parents worried about kids who don’t like vegetables shouldn’t give up or try to sneak pureed veggies into a cookie recipe. Instead of trying to add veggies to food that already tastes good, try adding some better taste to the veggies. Add butter, cheese sauce, ketchup or ranch dressing — whatever it takes to get kids to accept it, notes Dr. Roberts. Even though sauces can be high in calories, parents can use low-fat versions or limit the amounts. A few extra calories is a worthwhile tradeoff if it helps your child accept nutritionally-packed foods like vegetables. The focus shouldn’t just be on making indulgent foods healthful, but also on “making healthy foods more indulgent,'’ notes Dr. Roberts.
And remember, getting your kid to like vegetables won’t happen overnight. Parents need to keep serving veggies even if a kid steadfastly refuses to eat them. Having them on the table and eating them yourself in front of kids are first steps toward getting children to accept vegetables.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/26/questioning-the-value-of-stealth-nutrit
Try different things to get your family to eat better. Even when I have been successful with adding veggies to meals I always give the Pops. There's no possible way my family will get 5-10 fruits and veggies everyday.
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Things to know about your daily vitamin before you buyFind Grass Fed-Meat