Horizon Organic - Helping Kids Eat Smart

Helping Kids Eat Smart
by Dr. Alan Greene - Last reviewed October 2006

Helping Kids Eat Smart

Encourage your children's teachers to teach the class at least a little about good nutrition at the beginning of each year. If eating well is confirmed by this outside authority and is tied in with success at school, it will help.
Connect with the parents of your child's class. Encourage parents to band together to help healthy food be the norm for that class. Make a list of the kinds of foods that would be great in lunches and the kinds of foods to avoid. What's cool in a particular classroom is more important to kids than what's cool nationally.

Try fortune vegetables instead of fortune cookies. I can remember being told, "Don't play with your food." I'm telling you the opposite. Learn to play with your children's food. You'll have a great time and make a big difference for them.

Make good food fun for kids. Have their friends over for a healthy cookout. When I was younger, we had a vegetable party. Different vegetables were on numbered plates spread throughout the house. Each guest had a score card, on which they tried to identify the vegetables (some were quite unusual). There was a taste test (vegetables were rated for appearance, aroma, texture, and flavor), and awards were given to the best (and worst) vegetables. We also tried to pick which person (celebrity or acquaintance) most reminded us of each vegetable and why.

See Dr. Greene's Top 10 list of the most important organic foods to eat.

Learn more about Dr. Allen Greene, pediatrician and organic advocate.

How has Dr. Greene come to be an advocate for organic food?