Food education

heniko

I'm curious ... in the country you live what kind of food education did you get as a child (and also your chidren) - either from your parents or school?

Here, in France I think has lots of faults but overall the system of education is much better then I have seen --- from watching Jamie Olivers show ... Food quality is higher, children are read the menu, are taught about where food comes from, etc

What I have seen in the TV it may be wrong so I am here asking all of you how you feel it is ...

rileamoyer

bump

Elizabeth_C34

I don't recall ever being taught about food growing up. At the very least, if they did try to teach it, it didn't stick and wasn't reinforced at home or outside the classroom.

My family always ate very poorly as well.

vim_n_vigor

I remember in kindergarten getting a piece of celery with peanut butter and raisins on it and being told that was a healthy snack. My son who is in preschool is getting much better already. Once a week they have a dietician that comes in a talks to them about food. They have planted some vegetables in the classroom and she always has new treats for them to try.

heniko

That's great to hear jjdevore After seeing the Jamie Oliver shows I was very disheartened ...

Grimmerick

I remember in first grade a cartoon with an owl and some other animal, that taught us about the food groups and about eating fruits and vegetables but that was about it. Then we would go to lunch and have not great choices, plus you could buy extra chocolate chip cookies and chocolate milks, in high school we had taco bell days and papa johns pizza days. So not great food education on the east coast of the US. I was a military brat so I attended a few schools with varying monetary budgets but it was the same, junk food is cheaper and easier. I think now schools are trying harder though.

jldaley09

The only education we got here in the States is the food pyramid. I was never taught about where food came from, the only time it was addressed was when They would do a TV Special about the mistreatment of animals on something like Dateline and if there was an E. coli outbreak. I never knew anything about big corporations or the corn stuffing of beef to "finish" them off, With the availability of Big box stores that carried everything, I dont think people cared where it came from until recent years. Its a tragedy, if more people knew where their food came from or the amount of processing there was then more people might make a difference. Thanks to recent sustainability efforts, movies and movements supporting local I think more people know about it but still so many are uneducated about the impact big food business has on our lives.

heniko

thanks for all your thoughts friends!

GypsyWagon

I grew up in the sixties/seventies and was lucky enough to have grandparents that had grown up on farms. They had a huge garden and preserved/froze so much of what we ate. So, I was pretty lucky...even though I grew up in the SouthEast and most everything was fried or "seasoned" with bacon grease. :frown: We learned about the food pyramid in school, and I remember this commercial being on a lot during the Saturday Morning Cartoons. http://youtu.be/U3jgo5ea_zc

My 5 year old daughter and I are vegetarians, and I've worked really hard to educate her to make healthy choices. We've only ever given her milk and water as beverages and limit her sweets and treats. She gets the occassional junk food, but 95% of what she eats are whole, organic foods. She can tell you which of the foods on her plate are proteins, and she knows what "sometimes foods" and "anytime foods" are. We're not perfect, she gets the occassional shake and order of fries from "In N Out" and a doughnut every once in a while. It's a balancing act. I think kids are smart enough to make mostly good choices if they understand what they're eating and what's at stake.