October 23, 2009 Pizza and Peas: The Untold Story
Let’s face it, pizza is great for parents: It’s easy, our kids will eat it and pizza passes the “nutritious enough” test that most of use to decide what to feed our kids. But giving your kids pizza on a regular basis will ultimately make YOU miserable.
Train your kids to the taste, texture and appearance of pizza and you can forget about the peas. You can also forget about any of the other fresh, natural foods you are constantly trying to convince your kids to eat.
Much of what your kids will eat is simply a matter of math.
Exposure is the key to food acceptance. The more your kids experience a particular food, the more likely they are to eat – and like -- it.
But it’s not just that when you feed your kids pizza you aren’t feeding them other foods. Nothing about the taste, texture and appearance of pizza is like the foods you wish your kids would eat. So each pizza makes peas a harder sell because they're different. (They still eat toast, Goldfish crackers, chicken nuggets and mac 'n cheese because they're kind of the same.)
Research shows that eating high-fat, high-sugar and high-salt foods makes people want to eat more high-fat, high-sugar and high-salt foods.
And what is pizza if not a convenient delivery system for sugar, fat and salt? That’s why it is so yummy.
Most commercial pizzas contain most of your child’s daily allotment of fat (much of it saturated) and more than an adult’s daily serving of sodium. For instance,
- Cosi’s Kids' Pepperoni Pizza has 43g of fat and 2,731 mg of sodium.
And even though you don’t think of pizza as a sweet food, there’s typically plenty of sugar in the sauce.
The fat, sugar and salt content in pizza may be why NuVal only gives frozen pizza a median score of 11 (out of 100 for top nutrition).
Sure you can find “healthy” pizza. NuVal gives ...
- South Beach Living Pepperoni Pizza with Harvest Wheat Crust a score of 25.
But most of us are more likely to feed our kids ...
- Tombstone Brick Oven Style Pepperoni Pizza which gets a NuVal score of 9
- DiGiorno For One Traditional Crust pizza which gets a NuVal score of 6.
So what should you do?
- Think of pizza as a treat, not a staple.
- Mix up the taste, texture and appearance of the foods you feed your kids the most.
- Recognize that even if you make your own really, really healthy pizza you are still reinforcing your kid's pizza habit.
~ Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits. ~
Related articles:
Turning Your Kids' Taste Buds Around
What's the Problem with Cheese
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Sources:
Kessler, D. A., MD, 2009. The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite. New York, NY: Rodale.
Zinczenko, D. and M. Goulding, 2008. Eat This Not That for Kids. New York, NY: Rodale.
Reader Comments (4)
I get this. I get that commercial pizza is terrible. But what about homemade pizza? I'm going to make an argument for moderation. I like to make my own pizza. I make the crust with whole wheat flour and flax (or sometimes spelt). I make the sauce myself (by cooking down tomatoes). I top it with lots of veggies (onion, mushrooms, zucchini, summer squash, peppers) and put a modest amount of part-skim mozza (and some full-fat parmigiano reggiano). My kid LOOOOVES this. Obviously, it's not what I feed every day (seriously, who has time to make daily pizza dough, haha). But I just want to argue that there is a place for pizza as a regular within the dinner rotation. Not daily. Maybe not even weekly, but making it yourself is not a bad thing. If I want to indulge, I'll put smoked elk sausage (from the farm down the street, nitrate free).
Leslie,
First of all, I want to come to your house on pizza night! The pies you make sound delicious.
Second of all, your main point is quite correct: pizza can fit into a healthy diet as long as it's eaten occasionally. Unfortunately, I know too many moms who feed their kids pizza regularly, some even daily. They justify this by saying they make healthy pizza. To that I say, regular pizza-eating teaches pizza-eating, whether or not it's healthy. My other point is that all foods are related and that if you want to know why your kids don't eat veggies, you might consider the foods they do eat.
It sounds like you put pizza into your kids' diets in the appropriate way. Congrats.
Thanks for your comment,
Dina
I agree with Leslie that homemade pizza can be very healthy. I make a 100% whole wheat crust, a homemade sauce and put lots of fresh veggies on it. We use part skim moz. as well. My son is 6 and has been enjoying pizza in his diet at least 3 to 4 times a month, he also enjoys chicken nuggets and mac and cheese as well but I would like to point out that I have to hide apples in my house or my son will polish off 3 to 4 of them a day. He eats fruits & veges like they are going out of style, and yes this includes peas. He will sit down and eat a plate of broccoli for a snack. He loves Tofu, eggs, nuts, fish, etc. etc... In other words he eats a variety of foods. I really hate to see pizza getting such a bad wrap, homemade pizza can be made so that it is a nutritious meal and in my family it's all hands on deck so we have a lot of fun with the rolling pin and making designs/patterns on our pie. I think the point with food and life in general is this, everything in moderation. Even the healthiest of foods if eaten in too great of abundance can cause problems.
Jennifer,
I agree that pizza can be made healthy, but that's not really my point. My point is that even healthy pizza should only be served in the rotation of foods. Many parents who struggle to get their kids to eat a well-rounded diet feel a false confidence that by serving their kids healthy pizza their kids are eating OK. But eating pizza on a regular basis (some parents serve it a lot - some even nightly) not only teaches kids a pizza-eating habit (and not all pizza is healthy) but it also shapes the kinds of other foods kids will eat.
Your son sounds like he is eating really well. That tells me you don't over-rely on pizza.
Dina