April 19, 2011 Pizza. Pizza. Pizza.
Some parents feed their kids pizza every day. Some parents even encourage their kids to pound down the pizza 2 or 3 times a day. Can you believe it?
No? OK. Maybe most parents aren’t exactly passing out pizza 2 or 3 times a day, but they are giving their kids pizza-equivalents: grilled cheese sandwiches, quesadillas, mac & cheese…
From a nutrition perspective, these foods all have basically the same nutrition profile.
More importantly, from a habits perspective, regularly eating pizza and pizza-equivalents reinforces your kids’ love of pizza; it does nothing to teach them to eat peas, broccoli, or mushrooms… That's why pizza makes it onto my list of The 10 Most "Dangerous" Foods.
When is pizza not pizza? When it's pasta! Pizza equivalents are all made with the same ingredients.
Flour. Cheese. Tomato. Here are 10 equivalents. See what I mean?
- Pasta with tomato sauce and Parmesan cheese
- Grilled cheese sandwich
- Quesadilla
- Bagel with cream cheese
- Macaroni & cheese
- Ravioli
- Cheese and crackers
- Cheese sandwich
- Lasagna
- Calzones (AKA Pizza Pockets)
So a child who wakes up to a bagel and cream cheese, moves on to a grilled cheese sandwich at lunch, and finishes up the day with a bowl of pasta has eaten...well...a lot of pizza.
Read What's the Problem with Cheese? and La Crème de la Crème.
Pizza equivalents have the same nutrition profile.
Here are the numbers for a slice of pizza from Pizza Hut compared to a Kids Grilled Cheese from Panera Bread.
Honestly, I don't make this stuff up!
Pizza equivalents constrict rather than broaden the number of foods your children will accept.
It’s true that pizza is crunchy and pasta is gooey, but if you go down the list of pizza-equivalents you will see that they offer a limited range of mouth-feel experiences. And it's mouth-feel that determines what your kids will eat.
Read Pizza and Peas: The Untold Story.
There are lots of other equivalents out there.
Most “child-friendly” foods are sweet, gooey or crunchy. If you have trouble introducing new foods, overusing child-friendly foods may explain why. Even if you think you are offering up a diverse diet, your kids are probably not experiencing a lot of variety.
Read The Variety Masquerade.
You don’t have to introduce new foods to expose your kids to different tastes and textures.
I’m going to say that again: You don’t have to introduce new foods.
You simply have to start examining the foods you offer from your kids' perspective, and then consciously rotate through foods based on flavor, texture, aroma, appearance and temperature. For instance, serve eggs for breakfast one day, cereal the following day, and yogurt smoothies the next. Read House Building 101.
Remember, every time you feed your kids, you are:
- Training their taste buds.
- Teaching them how often to expect certain flavors.
- Shaping their ideas about what foods they should want to eat and when.
~Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~
Reader Comments (6)
It would be great to see more posts about what parents should be feeding vs. a list of what not to do. Most people are doing the best they can, but it's hard to share a post like this with others when it's full of no, no, no.
Casey,
I understand what you mean about a post full of don'ts, but I always try to include tips on what to do. The point that I am making here is to think about foods, not from a nutrition perspective (which would require a list of recommended foods), but from a habits or experiential perspective. Doing this requires simply that you to think about the foods your kids eat and then consciously rotate them on a daily basis. I like to another article which specifically tells people how to do this, but I can't provide a list of foods since I don't every kids eats a different selection.
I'm trying to help parents affect a mind shift in the way they think about food that will help them understand what their children readily accept, what they reject, and why introducing new foods can be so challenging. When kids eat foods that look different (pizza, cheese and crackers, etc.) but which have essentially the same tastes, textures, etc. parents are inadvertently making their lives more difficult. The "To Do" associated with this message is simple: rotate the foods you serve based on taste, texture, etc.
Thanks for your feedback. It's always good to hear feedback, both when messages hit home and when they might be missing their mark.
Dina
But how about using the "pizza" as a vehicle to introduce new foods to their repertoire? I think a while back you wrote about that kids who got grape fruit juice with sugar were more likely to like unsweetened juice than the kids who got unsweetened juice from the start. Or something to that effect. I find that my kids are much more likely to attempt a new food if it is accompanied by old, familiar friends.
A second problem I have with this is that is is sooo hard to be creative in the kitchen on an everyday basis. Dinner has to be on the table and ready to eat in like 15 minutes and after a long days work I tend to fall back on a limited list of meals. Yeah we try to try out one new fruit and one new vegetable a week, but I still cringe at the thought of how repetitive our menu really is over say a months time.
I think using pizza as a vehicle to try new foods is a wonderful idea; I'm jealous that I didn't think of saying that myself!
As for being rushed at dinnertime: I agree, it's awfully hard. My point here, however, isn't to abandon pizza and pizza equivalents but to start looking at eating from your kids' experience of food. That will tell you a lot about what and why they eat the way they do.
A repetitious menu is ok if you deliberately vary the order in which you serve things.
Best,
Dina
What an eye-opener. Thanks. I make quesadillas for my daughter for lunch quite often. I use small corn tortillas, black beans (which I soak, simmer and season), salsa and cheese. I thought they were such a great alternative to a sandwich or pizza, but now I wonder how good they really are.
What are your thoughts on that combo? Should I limit it more and have it be less of a regular? I usually serve it with steamed carrots and/or fruit.
Mrs. D.,
Your quesadillas sound delicious! And nutritious! And better than plain old cheese quesadillas. The beans help a lot. I agree with you that they are a great alternative to a sandwich or pizza, and keeping them in the rotation seems to work for you.
My point here is just to think about how you daughter experiences food and if you're giving her things that are the same in key ways perhaps you should expand the rotation... or at least not serve pizza and quesadillas on the same day.
Dina