Should we teach kids about calories?
Replies
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Calories, yes. Nutrition, absolutely.
Along with, as others said, respect, self-discipline, morals, responsibility, etc. etc.0 -
Of course, in due time!
I will teach my daughter what a kilowatt hour is, and won't be afraid she will become obsessed with electricity.
I will teach my son economics, rates of interest, etc. without becoming afraid he'll become Ebenezeer Scrooge.
I will teach them that the sun is a star, that it won't last forever, and that everyone they love will eventually die.
Knowledge is good. Like I said, in time.
When my kids eat ice cream, will I call them "hopelessly bound to be unloved fatsos"?
If they fail to score a goal in soccer, will I yell "get out of the pitch, you loser"?
Of course not. Those are the type of things that actually can damage someone's psyche. Calories are merely teaching the right terminology, I will certainly follow up with basic nutrition and some age-appropriate cooking.0 -
Yes. And more important teach them basic nutrition. And about marketing manipulation.0
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Yes and no. As long as you show them the basics of healthy eating and show by example (not having chips and chocolate in the house for example), I'm pretty sure they will turn out ok. Sometimes showing them the battlegrounds of calorie counting can lead to a frustrating life down the road. Like obsessively counting and not living...on the extreme end.0
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I would put more focus on teaching them about macro and micro nutrients, and calories would be just a natural progression on the information like: if you run around all day, you need to eat more because body needs energy which comes from calories...etc0
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Calorie counting: No
Healthy eating: Yes
Like others have said, there's a chance of eating disorders developing with calorie counting being introduced at a young age. I would have loved some advice on finding a middle ground between enjoying food and being gluttonous.0 -
I think it would be beneficial to teach teenagers to be calorie aware, which isn't so much that they should be taught to count calories, but that they should learn to know how much they should be eating, and how a particular food fits into their daily energy need.
I put on most of my weight in college, and during that time I had no idea that the cookie and energy drink combo I often ate had more calories in it than my dinner.
And as others said, this should be a continuation of overall teaching about healthy eating, micro and macro nutrients etc. etc.0 -
It's probably not good to let companies get a head start "teaching" kids.
Oh man, so THIS.
From the moment they are BORN (And in the case of shaping public opinion in the Third World concerning Breast milk not being as good as Formula) companies are throwing billions of dollars at some of our species' brightest people to manipulate humanity's basic evolutionary weaknesses into eating a certain way.
If you don't teach your kids how to eat right now, there are tons of people happy to do it for you and they're being paid a lot of money for knowing how to do it.0 -
It's probably not good to let companies get a head start "teaching" kids.
Oh man, so THIS.
From the moment they are BORN (And in the case of shaping public opinion in the Third World concerning Breast milk not being as good as Formula) companies are throwing billions of dollars at some of our species' brightest people to manipulate humanity's basic evolutionary weaknesses into eating a certain way.
If you don't teach your kids how to eat right now, there are tons of people happy to do it for you and they're being paid a lot of money for knowing how to do it.
Maybe we should just teach them to say no, then.
And teach them about glycemic index. Which hell, I'm over forty and just starting to learn about.
Leaving this here:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddisalvo/2013/06/29/what-food-addiction-looks-like-in-your-brain/
"The study found that during this period, the high-glycemic-shake participants’ nucleus accumbens—a brain area integrally associated with addictive behaviors—showed intense activation. Dopamine activity in this brain area went cuckoo for cocoa puffs. In effect, the men were experiencing a flavor of the addictive high associated with other chemicals that we already know hook us hard. The brains of the men who drank the low-glycemic shakes didn’t show the same activation pattern."
I love that it's Forbes, not exactly run by a bunch of bleeding edge California health hippies.0 -
Girls stop growing around 18, men around 21... they may stop growing in height before this, but there will still be some growing going on, e.g. young men's' shoulders getting wider, young women's pelvis getting wider, etc.
For this reason (and some others, but this is the main reason), I would not advise calorie counting for teenagers, unless it's under the advice of a paediatric dietitian or paediatrician, i.e. someone who's qualifed to know exactly how many extra calories to add on for growing. Growing takes calories, and the calorie calculators on this site and others like it are for adults and do not give extra calories for growth.
I think it is good to teach kids about calories, i.e. what a calorie is and give them a rough guide to how many they need and basic facts like that exercise burns additional calories so people who do a lot of exercise/physical need to eat more to fuel their exercise/activity, and all of that kind of thing, (but not actual calorie counting). There's no reason why teaching kids to be conscious of their food choices would inevitably lead to an eating disorder... what would concern me though is when a parent has a bad relationship with food, the child can then end up picking up that bad relationship, and that's where the problems are likely to arise. So in that case more care needs to be taken, and the parent needs to be aware of what's bad about their relationship with food so they don't end up projecting it all on the kid.
I think it's important not to classify food into two separate groups "healthy" and "unhealthy" and instead teach the child that you need to look at the whole diet to determine if the diet is healthy. Kids need to know they can enjoy what foods they want in moderation. I teach my kids that they can have restaurant food, sweets etc, sometimes but that it's not healthy to eat it to eat that kind of food all the time... I focus more on teaching them what protein, fat, carbohydrate, vitamins, minerals and fibre are, which foods contain them, and the importance of getting enough protein, or matching their fat and carbohydrate intake to their activity levels, and why their bodies need plenty of vitamins, minerals and fibre. I focus on this rather than on calories. They're too young to really get calories anyway, but when they're older I will teach it to them from a science point of view, i.e. calorie is a unit of energy and the calorie count on the food tells you how much energy there is in the food.
I think it's very important with kids to encourage physical activity. Food and calories is really only half of the equation, and kids in the past did not get fat, and none of them were counting calories, or even knew or cared what a calorie was. Until recently, kids stayed at a health weight through physical activity. It's only a problem nowadays because kids spend too long staring at screens, are driven everywhere, don't get enough time or opportunities to play outdoors, do sports, etc. I spend entire days outside as a child, only coming in for meals and even having to be dragged in at bedtime or if the weather got so severe that my mum would not let us stay outside (light rain etc we carried on playing outdoors and just got muddy.)
Calorie counting really should only be done by people who already have a weight problem (this goes for children and adults), because a lot of people can stay at a healthy weight just by being physically active and paying attention to eating a balanced diet. In other words, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. For someone who's successfully maintiaining a healthy diet without calorie counting, it's not only pointless to count calories, it may cause problems (e.g. obsession, eating the wrong amount of calories because their body doesn't match the calorie calulator) where there wasn't any problems before......... The vast majority of kids don't need to count calories, and will stay thin (or get thin) with an active lifestyle and being careful to get a balanced diet..... for kids that are already obese and are not losing fat doing this, then yes do take them to a paediatrician and it may well be the case that a calorie controlled diet is what the child needs - under the supervision of the paediatrician/paediatric dietitian who will ensure that they're getting enough calories to keep growing normally, while losing the fat slowly. And of course teach kids about good nutrition and the importance of exercise.... just that IMO there's no point to having kids count calories or have a "calorie budget" unless they already have a weight problem and the paediatrician recommends calorie counting as a way to fix it.0 -
My daughters see me count calories. They know about it. I am homeschooling so we made macros etc a school project
They also saw me slim down and I told them that if they ever wanted or needed to know how to loose weight, I could tell them.
I have a treat once in a while and I am informed not obsessive. At the same time that is what I want to model.0 -
My daughter is in Primary 3 at school here in Scotland, and she was taught this year about foods, calories, healthy foods, junk foods and things like protein, nutrition, dairy, fruit and grains, etc. I felt she learned a lot although she is skinny (some people think she is underweight sometimes) she still eats junk food. I try my best to make sure she has enough of what she really needs.
I don't think it is a bad image for them to learn from early on although I have saw her sometimes say to me when I am dieting (I'm using Slimfast at the moment) how many calories is in that mum, or can I start counting calories. Obviously I tell her no, she doesn't need to go on a diet, it's just because I am overweight and I'm older.
There is a good side and bad side to every situation, I feel it is each individual parent's choice in the matter, whether you believe it would be beneficial to your child(ren) or whether you believe it would reflect badly on your child(ren).0 -
I tried to talk to my sister about healthy eating yesterday to stop her falling down the slippery slope our mum and I had. Unfortunately she wasn't interested in listening but she's quite active so hopefully she'll be fine.0
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Children should be taught about nutrition in general but maybe lax on the calorie counting till they get a little older. My friend's 8 year old girl eats what ever she wants but moves around like speedy gonzales and is as thin as a rail. She's growing and very active so I don't she needs to be concerned about calorie counting, nor would she be interested.
Parents can teach by example. If you frequently calorie count your kids will notice it and one day when weight loss is important to them they will follow suite.
When I was a teenager I started getting a little chucky and it really bothered me when I was 16. I think for me at that age it would have been a good time to be introduced to calorie counting.0 -
Probably don't need to before puberty. Unless there's an obesity/overweight issue with a child, most kids eat enough to sustain. I would institute whole foods into their diet though so they get used to eating it as they get older. Habits are what people learn and starting them off with good ones makes it easier to stick to.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition0 -
We try to teach our children about good food choices and eating habits. Unfortunately, my step daughter's mother doesn't care and shoves sweats in her face all the time stating "well, she wanted them". Yeah, when you give a 7 and 4 yr old the choice, they'll usually choose donuts over an apple. Then the 7 yr old wonders why her siblings are happy, healthy and active, while she is chunky and lazy. We do what we can when we have her but her mother counteracts everything we try to teach.0
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I don't think calories teaching is needed in most cases.
Stay active, eat when hungry not bored would cover most kids and adults for that matter.
This is more of our house. My 14 year old daughter is starting to read labels, she watches mostly for fat and sodium for some reason LOL she eats when hungry and if she's not sleeping she's outside bike riding, swimming, running or playing soccer. The woman across the street is concerned her daughter (same age) is gaining weight. I said well send her outside when my daughter is out there, but her kids are too hot, too cold, too tired or too I don't want to be outside. However, she does runs with us when we invite her.0 -
As part of a broader nutrition, health and fitness class, absolutely yes. It would have to be part of a curriculum that has already emphasised the importance of eating properly, and exercising regularly, for it to be a positive experience.0
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Well, they have already taught my 8 year-old daughter calories etc at school as part of making healthy choices (which included exercise, applying sunscreen etc), so I don't get a choice on that one! She is interested in food labels, and reads them. I was a bit worried it would make her obsessive, and still am a little bit, but it actually allows us to open up a discussion about moderation for certain types of food, the importance of portion size and making sure your body is fueled for what you are asking it to do. And the importance of reading food labels BEFORE you buy food at the store so you understand what you are getting.
She has had a fair amount of healthy food messages from school, from me, from her swim coach etc. which all seems to be quite balanced IMO, although I did have to contradict a message she got from school that grains are "good" and you should make sure you eat them "a lot". I just said that foods aren't "good" or "bad", and that lots of grains aren't the best choice if they fill you up and stop you from leaving space for other foods your body needs. She thought about that one and argued with me a bit which is good.0 -
I think if you can teach it as information, without the emotional baggage, then yes. It is just a measuring tool to help gauge correct portion sizes.0
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Yes, I think that anything introduced early at age-appropriate levels of teaching is better in the long run.
If you equip a child with the tools to live, they then make their own choices as they go forwards. That doesn't mean to say that we don't need to remind or support people in their learning, we should be prepared to talk about it openly.
I didn't know anything about calories until I started on MFP other than that 'Counting calories is hard, strict, unfulfilling and time consuming'.
When I started, I found it the easiest thing ever to keep track of. It's also much quicker than searching through any expensive log-book for how many points something might be. It fits into our lives so easily and it's become a routine now
Kaela x0 -
Just don't buy a lot of crap food for them and feed them balanced meals along with active sports participation. Teens and young adults should learn about calorie counting probably though. I didn't really know anything about calorie counting until I was in college and even then didn't really practice it until the last couple of years but I always ate balanced meals and worked out. I've been in shape my whole life. It definitely helps me more now that I am getting older though.0
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My kids keep telling me that food x or y isn't healthy, apparently it's taught at schools these days!
Personally I think it's damn if you do, damn if you don't. Whether you teach your kids to eat what they want in moderation or you only rarely let them have treats, they will eat whatever they want once they are out of the house.0 -
True but I think keeping the treats to special occasions or at least limiting them is the way to go. That's how it was growing up for me and all my siblings except one lead healthy lifestyles as adults.The one that is overweight has other health issues so the eating thing is the least of the problems.My kids keep telling me that food x or y isn't healthy, apparently it's taught at schools these days!
Personally I think it's damn if you do, damn if you don't. Whether you teach your kids to eat what they want in moderation or you only rarely let them have treats, they will eat whatever they want once they are out of the house.0 -
I don't think it's necessary to teach children, especially small children, to count caloires, but I also don't see how it possible to teach them proper nutrition and eating habits without imparting some knowledge of calories.0
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Teach them about calories? Sure. Counting calories, no way. Millions and millions of people live healthful lives which result in being healthy people without counting calories. Counting calories is for people who have broken themselves. I personally used it as a tool to get myself on a proper track...I've maintained easily for a year without logging and just focusing on proper nutrition, appropriate portions, and regular exercise...that's really what we should be teaching our kids.
Obsessing about every little calorie gets pretty old and really is overwhelmingly unnecessary when you're consistently living a healthful life.0 -
Nutrition education is pathetic in schools. Yes teach your kids about nutrition. No one taught be and here I am... here you are and here most americans are...with aditional unwanted weight.
Children could be taught diffrently than teens obviously. I dont know what the lesson plans should be but age appropriate. I know I was taught in schools about nutrition and by my parents. Problem was when I got out on my own I didn't really understnad the importance, or what was healthy really. OK fruits and veggies...um yeah but its a lot more complicated than that understanding my body is something that has not come natural to me and I am betting from the obesity epidemic it doesnt come as natural to others either.
People on this thread keep saying its easy to each your family healthy food...well I think the OP has a valid question, because childhood obesity is high. It cant be that easy to teach- everyone cant be getting it wrong. I think education is power and maybe reading labels should be saved for an older child but I think its important. I know I wouldnt be in this situation if I had proper education on the subject.0 -
I think it's a great idea to teach kids about calories - not in a 'count how many you eat or you will get fat' way - more introducing the idea that food provides energy, and different foods provide different amount of energy. From there you could introduce nutrients, the concept that energy can never be destroyed, yada, yada. You could give examples of how different types of athletes eat to support their sports activities, that sort of thing. Keep it in a 'wow, isn't it cool what your body can do?' tone. Tie it in with math, physics, physiology, branch out to as many different sciences as possible. Heck, you could even bring in the redesign of the nutritional labels as an example of marketing tactics. :laugh: Might as well get as much bang for your buck as you can.
You can do a lot with that topic, give the kid the knowledge that what they eat affects them physically while not getting into calorie counting, or labeling foods as good/bad/junk, or giving them the impression that they should be micromanaging their diet.0 -
Probably don't need to before puberty. Unless there's an obesity/overweight issue with a child, most kids eat enough to sustain. I would institute whole foods into their diet though so they get used to eating it as they get older. Habits are what people learn and starting them off with good ones makes it easier to stick to.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
Generally, this. I think teaching them about nutrition and fitness may prevent having to deal with calorie counting later in life in large part... Promote a healthy body image in your child... Teach them what a healthy look is and promote that. Too many of them have a body image concept that is created on a computer screen using photo-shop... They need to understand how to get a healthy looking body... Which is NOT anorexic... Too many kids have an unhealthy body image... That is more the issue IMHO at that age.0 -
I say yes. It's science. They should know how the body works and how it gets fueled. But our parents never thought about that crap. And also considering cultural differences, a lot of people don't care or think about calories and that explains cultural obesity. (I'm spanish so my cultural bias goes there.)
Yes, kids should know about that but hopefully parents don't also attach thier own crazy obsessions about calorie counting if that's the case. Teach them, let them know what can happen with calorie abuse and then let them do the rest.0
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