Cookies and the Cycle of Guilty Eating

Everything that is wrong with the nutrition mindset can be summed up in two words: WhoNu? cookies. 

When did everything we eat have to be nutritious?  And why can't cookies just be cookies?  The answer has got to be when we started feeling guilty about the way we eat.  The problem is, that instead of making things better, cookies that are souped-up on steroids only make things worse.

Give your kids cookies with added nutrients because you worry they aren't getting the nutrition they need from "real" foods and you'll train their taste buds away from "real" foods—the first ingredient in the chocolate cookies is sugar. Then you'll have to give your kids cookies with added nutrients to make sure they get the right nutrition.  It's a vicious cycle.  (Never mind the fact that adding nutrients is a form of  Manufacturing Magic and it doesn't make a food nutritious.)

Just as importantly, give your kids cookies with added nutrients and you won't be teaching your kids to enjoy their treats guilt-free.

As far as I can tell, there is only one reason to serve kids these cookies: guilt.

1. We feel guilty that our kids don't eat enough healthy food to get the nutrients they need.
2. We feel guilty that our kids eat too many cookies —and other sweets and treats.

In fact, the manufacturer plays to parental guilt, "Our cookies are intended to replace other cookies or indulgent snacks that offer no nutritional value..."  

I, for one, believe we should teach kids to eat indulgent snacks, to enjoy them, to savor them, to revel in them! That's what treats are for.  And really, no matter what you do to a cookie, it's still a cookie.

Remember, it doesn't matter what your kids eat. What matters is how often they eat it.

Ironically, it's easier to teach kids to eat right when you give them indulgent treats.

When you blur the boundaries between healthy food and treats, it's hard to:

• Convince your kids to limit their intake of treats.  
• Teach your kids the importance of eating healthy foods.

After all, when the cookies deliver as much iron as a cup of spinach, why should your kids eat the actual spinach? Give your kids Oreo cookies, however, and the difference is clear.

(Of course, the nutrition in WhoNu? cookies isn't all it's cracked up to be. Read why Fooducate gives WhoNu? cookies a C-.)

Eating cookies for their nutritional value promotes the idea that there are "good" foods and there are "bad" foods and teaches your kids to feel guilty when they eat the "wrong" things.

You'd be better off teaching your kids: 

• To eat foods in proportion to their healthful benefits 
• That adding nutrients to a food doesn't make it nutritious
• That indulging in treats is a good thing—as long as it's done in moderation.

~Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~

When There Are No Good Food Choices

Imagine you’re at a lunchtime event with your toddler.  The menu: bagels with three flavors of cream cheese, cookies, and cupcakes.  What do you do?

Here’s what the dad standing next to me did: “Son, you have to eat your bagel before you can have that cupcake.”

I hate it when there are no good options.  Even though bread is basically my favorite food group—Read Manna from Heaven—bagels are not up there on the nutrition index.

That’s why I’m always surprised when parents make their toddlers eat a bagel before they eat a cookie.  As if the bagel were a salad.

In this situation, the only thing you can do is abandon any notion of nutrition.  Instead:

• Tell your kids that the hosts decided to put out treats for lunch.  (In other words, tell  your kids the truth.)
• Let your kids eat whichever items they want (since they’re all nutritional losers).
• Take the hunger “edge” off, and then go get a real lunch.
• Limit goodies for the remainder of the day, since your kids will have already eaten their treats.

Most parents will probably think this is a radical strategy, but I think it’s time for these habits to come “out of the closet.”

Teaching kids that a bagel with cream cheese is the healthy part of the meal is like teaching them the world is flat.

I didn’t do a nutritional analysis of the cookies and cupcakes that were served that day.  But, compared to a typical bagel with cream cheese (which has about 480 calories and 20 grams of fat), one slice of Entenmann’s Chocolate Fudge Cake is a bargain: it has 200 fewer calories, and about half the fat.  The cake even has the same amount of fiber!

True, the chocolate cake has less protein and more sugar than the bagel and cream cheese, but it has roughly the same amount of protein and more calcium than the cream cheese. (Maybe your kids should eat the cake on the bagel!)

If you’re brave enough to face the truth about bagels, read La Crème de la Crème

When there are no good food choices, the most important thing you can teach your kids is HOW MUCH to eat.  

I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say that parents are more focused on teaching kids what to eat than they are on teaching kids when, why and how much to eat.    This strategy works OK when there are healthy foods on the menu.  “Eat these peas; they’re good for you.”

But when there are no good foods on the menu, instead of searching around for the “best” food option—and then erroneously labeling whatever you’ve found as healthy—try shifting gears.

Here are the things your kids should consider:

• How hungry are they?
• How much junk have they had lately?
• Are they likely to want sweets and treats later in the day?
• Is there are particularly tempting treat they haven’t tasted before?

How your kids answer these questions will help you (and them) determine how much they should eat: 1 cookie?  1 cookie and ½ a bagel? 1 cookie, ½ a bagel, ½ a cupcake?

Children need to know how to manage bad choices.  The world is full of situations where there are no nutritional winners.

Think pancakes, muffins or bagels.  Grilled cheese, chicken nuggets, French fries.  How your kids manage these moments will dictate how well they eat—both now, and forever.

~Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~ 

Virus Sufferers Choose Granola

If you think of granola as a healthy snack then you are probably suffering from a condition I call Selective Attention and the Feel Better Approach (SAAFBA).  You should seek medical attention immediately!

This disease, known to afflict a wide range of people, is particularly virulent when it strikes parents.  Sufferers of SAATFBA typically develop a unique form of tunnel vision: undesirable nutrients are rendered invisible thereby causing victims to recognize only select (positive) attributes of the food they (or their kids) are eating.

If you look at granola and see a variant of cookies there’s no need to worry: you’re SAATFBA-free.

Sufferers of SAATFBA have been known to wander around playgrounds saying things such as:

• “At least it is made from whole grains.”
• “But it has calcium.”
• “They’re baked, not fried.”

Whereas mild cases of SAATFBA are not known to have lasting effects, chronic cases in families often produce children who prefer junk to real food.

Why? Child sufferers of SAAFBA end up developing such a strong attachment to undesirable nutrients that they end up eating only the foods that contain them.

Sometimes, children even end up preferring food that is “worse” than the original offering.

For example, children frequently exposed to chocolate milk for the calcium end up developing a preference for chocolate – and other similarly sweet foods -- and not for milk.

In the same way, granola creates a preference for cookies, not for oats or other whole grains.  Read Cookies for Breakfast?

If you and your family are afflicted with SAATFBA the treatment is easy (but I have to warn you, many people find it painful).  You must…

1) Avoid reading both the nutrition labels and the nutrition claims printed on food products. Read Why Nobody Needs Nutrition Labels.

2) Classify processed foods according to the habits they produce, not their “best” nutrients.  In other words, chocolate milk must be classified as chocolate and granola classified as a cookie. 

3) Dole out foods according to how frequently you want your children to eat the food’s “worst” incarnation, not its “best.”  In other words, granola shares time with cookies not with oatmeal (unless it’s highly sweetened oatmeal and then it shares time with cookies too).

When people recover from SAATFBA they automatically treat granola like cookies.

These numbers --  for 30 grams of granola and the equivalent (one) Kashi cookie -- show you why:

Calories

• Quaker Granola Bites - Chocolate Flavor: 135
• Kashi TLC Oatmeal Dark Chocolate cookie: 130

Sugar

• Quaker Granola Bites - Chocolate Flavor: 9g
• Kashi TLC Oatmeal Dark Chocolate cookie: 8g

Fat

• Quaker Granola Bites - Chocolate Flavor: 5g
• Kashi TLC Oatmeal Dark Chocolate cookie: 5g

Sodium

• Quaker Granola Bites - Chocolate Flavor: 45mg
• Kashi TLC Oatmeal Dark Chocolate cookie: 65mg

Fiber

• Quaker Granola Bites - Chocolate Flavor: 3g
• Kashi TLC Oatmeal Dark Chocolate cookie 4g

Of course, the Quaker Granola Bites - Chocolate Flavor comes in a 20g packet – a smaller amount than the 30g cookie -- so if your children eat the Granola Bites they’ll consume fewer calories, less sugar, etc. than the numbers presented here, but the effect on their habits will be the same.

SAATFBA CAN be eradicated.

Since children develop food preferences from the “kid-friendly” aspect of a product – the sugar, the crunch, etc. -- and from the other foods they associate an item with – i.e. granola with cookies – parents seeking a cure from SAATFBA must see every food through their children’s eyes, and then administer it accordingly.

~ Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits. ~

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http://www.kashi.com/products/tlc_cookies_oatmeal_dark_chocolate accessed 6/10/10.

http://www.quakeroats.com/Products/Compare.aspx?id=3692f1b4-b9b1-4eb2-8cfb-c809641eb0fc - accessed 6/10/10