What's Bike Riding Got To Do With It?

Teaching kids to eat right is like teaching them to a ride a bike.

As in eating, many parents inadvertently, but quite deliberately, teach their kids bike riding habits that they’ll have to unlearn before they’ll be able to successfully peddle off into the sunset.

If you've been following along, you know that's what happens in the food arena: The best intentions sometimes produce the worst habits.  The same goes for bike riding.

Give your kids a break. Teach them to ride right (and to eat right) from the get-go.

Training wheels are the bike version of “child-friendly” foods.

You probably think I’m nuts, but stay with me here.

Training wheels seem like a godsend. They allow young children to start riding quickly. What seems easier and safer at first, though, frequently turns out to be more difficult and more dangerous down the road.

Think of training wheels as the chicken nuggets of the cycling world: They look like the real deal, but they teach the wrong habits—and they do it by underestimating what kids can really do.

There are three components to bike riding: Balancing, Steering and Pedaling. 

Training wheels prioritize learning to steer and pedal over learning to balance. This would be OK if, at the same time, training wheels didn’t make learning to balance more difficult in the longrun. But they do.

Here’s what happens with training wheels:

1. Kids learn to start the bike in motion with their feet firmly planted on the pedals. You can't do this without the training wheels.
2. Then, while riding along, the training wheels stop the bike from tipping over so kids can be impervious to how they move/hold their bodies.  Some kids develop the habit of rocking side-to-side more than they should—especially because it takes a lot of energy to get the bike moving from a standstill and body motion produces power.
3. When the training wheels come off, kids don’t know how to start the bike with one foot on the ground so they lose their balance as they transition their feet to the pedals. 
4. Whenever the bike starts to tip, but especially at the start, kids don’t instinctively put their feet on the ground fast enough to stop a fall.  (Just the other day I saw a child tip over. His feet stayed glued to the pedals the entire time.)

Fear of falling takes over.  And it's justified.  Training wheels teach kids habits that make them more likely to fall. Then, kids have to unlearn these habits in order to ride a bike for real.

Training wheels assume children can’t learn to balance, steer and pedal at the same time. They can.

I’m wary of treading on training wheels, a true American tradition, but perhaps you’ll forgive me when you hear my story. 

I walked into a bike store when my daughter was 4 to buy her a bike with training wheels.  While I was there I saw a woman with her 2-3 year old son and get this: the boy was riding a bicycle without training wheels.  I couldn’t believe my eyes. I had never seen such a young child riding a bicycle solo; I didn’t think they were capable of it.

Moments later I found myself chasing this mother and son down the street like I was a crazy-woman. Trust me, this was totally out of character, but I had to know: Was this some miracle-boy? A kid who was extraordinarily talented in the bike-riding department? 

This is what the mother told me...

The key to teaching young kids to ride a bicycle without training wheels is to give them a very short bike so their feet comfortably reach the ground.

On a very short bicycle kids: 

• Push themselves along without using the pedals, while learning balance and steering.
• Naturally start moving their feet between the ground and the pedals as they get comfortable balancing and steering.  Over time, they get more comfortable pedaling too.
• Instictively put their feet on the ground when they lose their balance.

And, on a very short bicycle kids can easily avoid falling because they can actually touch the ground, flat-footed, instead of on their tippy toes.

I didn't make this up.  Apparently this is how they do it in Germany (at least that's what the wonder-boy's mother told me).

Regardless of where it comes from, this technique works.  Not only did my 4 year old successfully skip training wheels, but that summer lots of other 4 year old kids in our town did too. 

If I haven't convinced you to ditch the training wheels, here's one more thing to consider: Kids who learn to ride properly from the start will probably go further in life.

And not just because they'll know how to ride!

Training wheels prioritize immediate gratification over self-control. However, according to a recent New York Times article, research shows that it's self-control that is linked to success in education, career and marriage.

Fortunately, self-control can be taught through fun activities like bike riding.  The key is to, "harness the child’s own drives for play, social interaction and other rewards."

Read the article Building Self-Control, The American Way.

So skip the training wheels...and the "child-friendly" foods.

Go right to the habits you want your kids to learn for a lifetime of happy biking and for a lifetime of healthy eating.

~Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~

Why I'm Not So Unhappy about the New Happy Meal

By now you’ve probably heard that McDonald’s is getting ready to roll out its new Happy Meal.  Nutritionists are not impressed.

Marion Nestle says, “If McDonald’s were serious, it could offer a truly healthier Happy Meal as the default and back it up with marketing dollars.”  Read Nestle’s complete statement.

Instead, the Happy Meal hoopla boils down to a meal that now will include:

• 3 or 4 slices of apple
• one ounce less of French Fries
• Less sodium

From a nutrition perspective, these changes don’t amount to a hill of beans.  But from a habits perspective, they’re worth considering.

It’s easy to scoff at the addition of 3 or 4 apple slices to the Happy Meal, but who else can so easily convince kids to eat apples?

I’m not saying that I wouldn’t like to see bigger changes.  Of course I would.  But I’m looking forward to seeing what happens when McDonald’s puts its branding might behind apples.

I’m sure you think most kids will eat the fries and dump the apples; don’t be so sure.  Branding shapes taste preferences.  (I guess that’s what a $10 billion advertising campaign can buy you!)

Check this out:

Researchers in California asked a group of preschoolers to taste two sets of carrots.  One set was placed on top of a McDonald’s French fries bag.  The other set was placed on a plain white bag.  What do you think happened?

The kids preferred the McDonald’s carrots.  Identical food.  Different packaging.

The researchers took McDonald’s French fries.  They placed some in a McDonald’s bag and some in a plain bag.  The preschoolers said the McDonald’s French fries tasted better—even though the plain bag fries were also McDonald’s fries.  Identical foods. Different packaging.

The same thing happened when the researchers presented the children with Chicken McNuggets and with milk: the kids thought the branded food tasted better.  (See, kids don’t really know what they like. They know what they think they like!  Read Mind over Matter.)

If McDonald’s can do this for apples…  

~Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~

===============================================

Robinson, T. N., D. L. G. Borzekowski, D. M. Matheson, and H. C. Kraemer. 2011. “Effects of Fast Food Branding on Young Children's Taste Preferences.” Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine 161(8): 792-97.

Are Chicken Nuggets Really Chicken?

Chicken nuggets aren’t really chicken.  Unless you think of chicken as salty, fat-filled blobs of crunchy, unidentifiable stuff.

Edible Foodlike Substances. That's what Michael Pollan (author of The Omnivore's Dilemma) calls things like chicken nuggets.

Edible foodlike substances are highly processed concoctions that scientists dream up.  They are made with ingredients most people don’t keep in their pantries. (I can safely say I’ve never cooked with either Potassium Lactate or Guar Gum. Have you?)

Regularly feeding your children chicken nuggets trains your kids not to like real food.

According to former FDA Commissioner David Kessler, MD, food manufacturers make their foods to maximize our “bliss point”  -- the point at which we get the greatest pleasure from sugar, fat, or salt.

When the bliss point is right we find food more stimulating, and we are driven to eat more.  At the same time, foods that are less sweet, less salty and less full of fat become less appealing.

Chicken nuggets don’t just ruin your kids taste for real chicken. They also reduce the likelihood that your kids will like other real foods – foods like fish and broccoli.

Chicken Nuggets aren’t kid-friendly. They’re kid-damaging.

Look at the following comparisons between Coleman’s natural, boneless, skinless breasts, Tyson Chicken Nuggets and Applegate Farms Organic & Natural Chicken Nuggets.

Note:  The comparisons are per 100 grams, a bigger portion than your kids will eat.

For every 100 grams:

• Chicken = 107 calories.
• Tyson nuggets = 300 calories. 
• Applegate Farms nuggets = 205 calories. 

• Chicken = 1.3g of fat (0g saturated fat). 
• Tyson nuggets = 18.9g of fat (4.4g saturated fat).
• Applegate Farms nuggets = 10g of fat (1.7g saturated fat).

• Chicken = 67mg of sodium.
• Tyson nuggets = 522mg of sodium.
• Applegate Farms nuggets = 239mg sodium.

• Chicken = 23g of protein.
• Tyson chicken nuggets = 16g of protein.
• Applegate Farms nuggets = 14g of protein.

If your children eat just 3 Tyson chicken nuggets they're getting approximately 14% of their daily calories but 24% of their daily fat and 28% of their daily sodium.  The calories and "nutrients" are out of whack: that is the definition of junk.

Think of chicken nuggets as a treat, not a staple, and give them to your kids occasionally. Once a week?

Not only will this limit the sodium and fat your kids are ingesting, but it will give you an opportunity to teach your kids about eating foods in proportion to their healthful benefits.

And the added bonus? The fewer salty, high fat foods your kids get used to, the more open they’ll be to foods with different flavors.

Don't train your kids to go looking for the bliss point.

If you must give your children chicken nuggets on a regular basis, dampen their influence on your kids' eating habits.

• At least give your children different brands so your kids get used to varying flavors.

• If your kids won’t accept different brands, then at least buy different shapes of the same brand so your kids will accept foods that look different.

• If your kids won’t accept different shapes, then cut their favorite nuggets (dinosaurs? stars?) into different shapes while they watch.  This way they’ll know that shape doesn’t affect flavor.

 ~ Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits. ~

====================================================================

Sources: Product nutrition labels; Kessler, D. A., MD, 2009. The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite. New York, NY: Rodale. Pollan, M., 2009. Food Rules: an Eater's Manual. New York, NY: Penguin.