Teaching Middle Schoolers About Real Food is Possible!
A while back I told our 6th grade son’s teachers about a neat experiment they might want to try with the kids. Somehow that turned into me going into school a couple weeks ago to talk to 60 kids about nutrition! What a blast it was, to have such an engaged audience who were truly interested in what I was sharing. Yep, you heard me right. These middle schoolers were so into this presentation that they got in trouble several times for being so talkative! I told the teachers that it was really OK, I loved how obvious it was that they were so excited to interact on the topic of food!
I’ll give you a condensed run down of what I covered…
- Does anyone here like to cook? What kinds of things do you like to cook? (This could’ve gone on for a while, they loved telling me what they like to cook, and if it was eggs I’d say, “That’s awesome, those are SO good for you!” If it was Kraft Macaroni & Cheese or something similar I’d say, “You’re kidding! Have you ever looked at that ingredient label, it’s full of junk!” and they’d all crack up.)
- Who likes to watch sports? I don’t at all, but my husband and teenager do, and there’s always some “big” game on that I just don’t care about. Well, you may not feel that way about nutrition, but we all need to eat and no one likes to be sick. How many have grandparents who can’t walk well or who may need to give themselves shots or people you love who are sick or overweight… I want to teach you that it doesn’t have to be that way.
- As you head into your teen years you will have a lot going on in your bodies, and I want to talk to you about how you can avoid or at least drastically reduce things like…
- Acne
- Moodiness/depression (Here I talked to them a little about how it’s ok to feel down sometimes, but if it’s a LOT, or they just don’t feel motivated to do anything – you know when something isn’t right. Be sure to talk to an adult that you trust if you feel that way.)
- Weight or health issues that more and more teens and even little kids are dealing with, like diabetes – a disease where your body can’t regulate the right amount of sugar in your blood, or hyperactivity – trouble concentrating, or maybe trouble falling asleep.
- Can anyone think of why more kids these days are dealing with weight issues or health issues like hyperactivity or diabetes?
- MANY times, not all the time, it’s from what we’re eating.
- I want you to understand that not ALL cancer or health issues are from food, sometimes it’s due to environmental stuff like cigarettes or other things we just don’t know yet, but many problems really CAN be avoided by improving diet. (If someone they love got cancer next week, I didn’t want them to assume it was for sure due to junk food or to say that to them!) Once you learn more, you can gently help others learn too, like your parents or friends, but the best thing you can do is be an example.
- Do you know ONE thing you could do that would make a huge difference? (They took some good guesses…)
- Get rid of soda pop! How many of you have had soda in the last week?
- Who knows why soda is so bad? (We talked about the dangers of high fructose corn syrup and artificial sweeteners and how they can cause weight gain, acne, heart problems, etc. We also talked about phosphoric acid.)
- I encouraged them to drink it only once a month or so, or on special occasions, but otherwise to replace with other things! (I told them about our homemade kefir soda or more natural soda for rare occasions made with sugar instead of HFCS or fake sweeteners. They asked my son about the homemade soda pop, “Is it good?” Good thing he said, “Yeah”, or he’d have gotten it when he got home!)
- Because I don’t have time to cover everything I’d like to today, the other thing I wanted to talk to you about is breakfast.
- Does anyone want to share what they had for breakfast? Raise your hands if you had eggs… (“Good!”) Raise your hands if you had Pop tarts? (“Ewww!”) The kids said, “But they’re so good!” I replied, “I know, I used to love them, too — but I want to show you that Real Food is really good, even better actually than eating all those chemicals, especially once your taste buds recover. Besides, you can make your OWN pop tarts that taste better and are better for you!!”
- I need a volunteer to read the ingredient label on these Pop tarts… (Everyone got a good chuckle as the weird ingredients were read out loud; the teacher had to finish and even he couldn’t pronounce some of that stuff.)
- Remember, “If you can’t pronounce it, don’t eat it!”
- Now tell me, how many of you drink milk? How many drink low fat milk? (We talked about how badly we NEED the healthy fats that are in whole milk. I mentioned soy milk and soy products being fake and very bad for us.)
- Next, what do you spread on your toast in the morning?
- I had another volunteer read the ingredient label on a package of margarine–with another long list of weird unpronounceable ingredients.
- Next I had someone read the real butter ingredient label: cream, salt.
- If you like pancakes or waffles (not the boxed kind, right?!), what syrup do you use?
- I read them the label on the icky syrup from the store, and then showed them how there isn’t an ingredient label on the real maple syrup and tried to have them guess what was in that one? By now they were catching on and knew that it was just maple syrup.
- We talked about breakfast meats and how good they are for us if they’re from a farm where the animals are out on pasture and treated humanely. They thought the conditions in factory farms were terrible when we talked about that.
- I planned to show the short MEATRIX film on Youtube, but the school computer wouldn’t let it upload, so I asked the kids to remember to look at it later at home.
- Then I wanted to show them how easy it is to make themselves a healthy breakfast in the mornings, so I had some helpers and we made this French Toast Frittata. Thankfully everyone loved it because making enough for that many kids was no easy task, good thing it’s a simple recipe! (And also it's a good thing I had plenty, because many kids came back for 3rd and 4th helpings!)
Me and my big fat mouth
There were only a couple glitches that day, because I’m afraid I offended the teachers, and I really like them both a lot. One teacher is addicted to Mountain Dew and has to have one a day at lunch. Although after I got on him a bit, with the kids egging me on and loving it, he did say he had white milk for lunch that day!
Also, since I was trying to hurry to make the French Toast Frittata, I was side-arm-slopping globs of bacon grease into the electric pans and the other teacher said, “Vegetarians might not like this huh…?” I said something like, “Yeah, but unfortunately they won’t feel great for long without enough animal foods in their diet.” Then I saw her face and had an “oh crap” moment and asked, “You’re not vegetarian are you?” She nodded slowly and said, “For 30 years and still feeling good.” Then I back-scrambled and we had a chat about what animal products she does eat (eggs & cheese) and she mentioned that she’d have to look into the information I shared about soy not being good for you. UGH.
Success!
Besides that, it all went great and my son said that since then a lot of the kids have been talking about making French Toast Frittata for their breakfasts. He also said later that day at lunch he saw a bunch of kids reading labels in the lunchroom. YESSSS!
A couple posts on vegetarianism:
A couple more you might want to check out if you haven't already:
Lauren Ayers says
Back before I retired from teaching, I had two years when I was able to offer my students sardines as a snack. It began when I brought in a can of sardines to show them. “Hands up if you have anyone in your family who has cancer.” More hands than I expected! “Hands up if anyone in your family has had a heart attack.” Again, rather a lot of hands. “How about diabetes?” Even more hands!
Then I asked how many of them would like to know a way to have a better memory. Many hands!
Get sick less often? Again, many hands.
Not get zits when you’re in high school? Lots of hands.
(I didn’t mention weight, didn’t want to put anyone on the spot.)
Then I explained that there are certain nutrients, both vitamins A and D and omega-3 oils, which are sort of like a vitamin, that are in sardines and some other fish (but not all). These nutrients make people healthy enough to not get cancer, heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. Or colds, flu, and zits.
The problem nowadays, I explained, is that people hardly eat fish. They are now expensive (partly because there are now only a tenth of the fish in the ocean that there used to be because of over-fishing and pollution, which we had discussed in class).
But in the old days people were healthier because they ate fish 2-5 times a week. School cafeterias had fish every Friday, for the sake of Catholic kids (but that stopped in 1972 when the Pope said good Catholics didn’t need to skip meat on Fridays). Moms bought a lot of tuna– but now it’s expensive and people are wary of the mercury in it. Livestock lived on pasture, hens ate bugs, and there were trout in streams.
There is only one really affordable fish now– sardines in a can. (Chunk tuna and wild caught salmon are also affordable.) Luckily, being so small, sardines haven’t bio-accumulated mercury like larger fish have. (I mentioned that I haven’t had any albacore tuna for 20 years.)
Then I said I would show them that I can eat sardines– scales, bones, and guts and all! Many astonished gasps when I did!
Finally, I said they could all try sardines for themselves the next day if they brought back a signed permission slip. (That’s what I negotiated with the principle, and my letter briefly summarizing their benefits passed scrutiny also.)
The next day, kids blew into the room waving their permission slips and we began the Sardine Adventure. I put tiny little pieces of sardine in mini cups so they could make the attempt.
I didn’t even think about offering lemon juice or salsa (a traditional way in Mexico to eat sardines), which would have made them more palatable to the kids who tried but couldn’t tolerate the fishiness, about a third of the class.
Every day I would put individual sardines into paper cups on a tray and the kids would take them outside a minute before the recess bell to eat, then I put the cups in a plastic bag and tied the end so the ‘fragrance’ wouldn’t fill the air!
Sometimes I would be offered a sardine spinal cord, which I nick-named “spaghetti,” and I’d accept it to model eating the whole thing.
I called the Sacramento Bee about this unusual snack and they actually sent a reporter out one day! It’s no longer in their archives but I posted it to my website:
https://goodschoolfood.weebly.com/sardines.html
A nutritionist friend had the idea that a cafeteria could offer these (which no kid would try unless they had a similar Q & A as my students had, to give them kid-friendly reasons for trying them) if (IF) each sardine was drizzled in lemon juice, wrapped in a lettuce leave, and place inside a plastic sandwich bag (I don’t think waxed paper would work, alas). Then the juices would stay in the bag and whatever wasn’t eaten would too. We don’t want to alienate all the non-fish-eaters. A lot of schools now serve lunch outside, so that would help a lot!
P.S.
Alternatively, since very few schools would go to this much trouble for their students’ health, some food service director could find ways to incorporate microencapsulated fish oil into foods like pizza. It would have to be labeled so veggie kids would know. But this microencapsulated fish oil is really UN-fishy, and it’s actually natural, just fish oil encapsulated in fish gelatin (and not a problem for allergic kids, according to the DSM company which makes this product, called Meg-3). It’s been used in Minute Maid juice and Wonder Bread! So a school district could buy sacks of the stuff and incorporate it into whatever they make on site (some districts still have kitchen and actually bake bread or rolls, or make their own salad dressing, etc.).
KitchenKop says
Lauren I love that story!!! Isn’t it cool how excited kids get about healthy food?!
Kelly
Amy says
You go, girl!
Thanks be to God for you doing this!
Teresa says
Kelly,
Your french toast recipe is yummy! I made it this morn and it is the best ever. I usually don’t care for it much but my dh loves it so i tried yours and WOW. It is a keeper. Thanks so much.
Amy K says
Great Job! Could you speak to all the 6th grade classes – I would love my son’s class to hear it too!!!
Diana@Spain in Iowa says
What a great story to share with us Kelly! It’s great to hear that the school allowed you to come in and share. I’m sure many kids will remember what you taught them for many years to come. Bravo!!
annie says
That’s great that you were able to make an impact on such a large group of students.
Senior year in high school was where I learned about nutrition, albeit SAD and started my path towards learning about real food. I was thankful being made aware of how food can affect us in many ways. It makes me wish I could I learned about it even earlier.
Kate @ Modern Alternative Mama says
I’m glad you’re getting the word out there — and that they let you! With the adults in the building probably all like those teachers (vegetarian, into soy, drink pop daily, etc.) — it’s a surprise that they were open to it. But at least those kids are now paying attention. Did you get any phone calls about it, after the kids went home and lectured their parents about the “junk” in the house? LOL
I have to watch what I tell my kids because we ran to Walmart to get sugar for kombucha and my 3-year-old says “People buy poison. Why do they buy poison?” We were near the cleaning products aisle so I said “Well, sometimes they need it,” and hoped anyone who was listening thought she meant that. Ha…. (She didn’t, she meant the “fake food.” She is convinced anything outside the produce section at Walmart is ‘junk’ or ‘poison.’)
Mindy says
Awesome, Kelly! You’re an inspiration!
Lilly says
Great job Kelly! It is people like you that are making a difference. The children at my daughter’s school have been downright mean about her healthy eating. The teacher’s attitudes have not been much better.
Heather says
That’s awesome Kelly! I would not have guessed that a mainstream school would be open to you talking about nutrition. What lucky kids to be in your son’s class!!
Donna Bauman says
Here’s the article link that is why this teacher won’t speak to me anymore… (I did show her the article and I also tried to resolve it with both the teacher and principal and got nowhere… which is why I wrote it…) I think this group will understand….
https://www.newsobserver.com/2010/05/05/467111/all-sugared-up-and-set-to-be-tested.html#ixzz0n3mgeG7z
Donna Bauman says
Glad you were able to do that. It is hard not to fully offend the teachers as many times they are doing the wrong things too. One year my son’s teacher was pregnant and she had different kids go buy her a coke every day in the vending machine… yikes…on so many levels…. I think if you make the comments with a good heart that helps. Although I have permanently offended my son’s 3rd grade teacher because I stood up to say that I don’t think we should have candy for end of grade testing and wrote a letter to the editor about it after I realized it was a school-wide problem and talking to the teacher and principal didn’t help. Apparently I lost a lot of points on that… but you know what… it is the truth and sometimes we just have to say the truth and let the chips fall as they will… Go Kelly Go!
Heather M says
Yeah……Go team Kelly. You are so awesome. That is great the kids were listening and interested. I take every opportunity I get to talk about healthy food and it drives people nuts, but I can’t help it like you.
jenna Food WIth Kid Appeal says
oh, one more thing. for all you parents out there delighted that Kelly brought this to her school, you can do the same! Your school may be more willing to have you participate in a health fair, classroom demonstrations, evening all campus events, etc. Look for a window of opportunity and make a pitch. Get involved in the PTA/PTO or wellness committee, start one if there isn’t one, feel your teacher up, ask if food/nutrition/plant life cycle etc is taught in any particular session, and see if they would be open to you presenting on something. Get to know your child’s health/fitness teacher. They do teach nutrition and many would love help from an enthusiastic parent. I’m sure there are plenty of naysayers at every school, but I suspect that between the principal, the teachers, health fitness, the nurse who may offer services/outreach at evening/fund-raiser events etc. there would be a champion for parents getting involved.
If we as parents ask our school to help raise the food IQ of students, it will happen, slowly, one school, one class at a time.
jenna Food WIth Kid Appeal says
Awesome story Kelly. People don’t give kids enough credit when it comes to “nutrition.” People assume that because kids like to eat junk, that they won’t if educated, make different choice. I believe that in the majority of cases, kids only eat it because they don’t really GET how bad it is for them and because of availability. If it were gone, they knew the dangers AND real food there in it’s place, most kids will dig in.
My big mouth got me called by the principal again too when I tried to teach elementary students that fiber in veggies = good poop = no brain fog = better learning. I shared my “poop” lesson censorship on FB and high school teacher commented that she once gave an extra credit assignment when her class was studying gases for her students to research the make-up of a fart. Almost all the kids did the assignment (a rarity) but she got a slap on the wrist by the principal. So sad that teachers can’t use a topic that makes kids a captive audience to teach chemistry.
karen says
Oh Kelly, you planted 60 seeds along w/ 2 teachers…BRAVO, girlfriend….Let the rest go. You’re done. I’m so delighted. Kids are so hoppin’ cool. I bet they laughed when you said “that’s junk!” because they KNEW it already somewhere deep.
They just need an adult to validate their feelings.
I’m thrilled they got to not only SEE you but to experience your cooking. I probably experienced “satiety” up until margarine was invented, then my Mum would switch back and forth and we even had TAB and Metrecal around. UGH. It wasn’t until I was about 51 when I first experience genuine satiety again and that’s when it was sugggested by my Weston Price mentor to have bratworst and sauerkraut for breakfast. OMGoodness….how Divine was that???!!!!! I’m from German/Scottish descent and was heavenly!!!
Yesterday, I had a 3 egg omelet and didn’t eat again until 8 pm where upon I had a salad before going to bed. I’ve never been so [mentally & spritually]happy.
Your work is crucial and I’m sure you wonder “Why me and why this message?” *chuckle*…But we are fueled not only by our real food but by a Force that is bigger than all of it and that helps us, eh??
BRAVO, Girlfriend. I wish I had been there~ Now do it in the teachers’ lounge. God knows they need your information.
Hugs.
karen
Martha says
Awesome!
JoAnna says
Well done, Kelly!!
Soli says
Wow, I wonder how many schools would allow such a talk to happen at all. Kudos to this one and for everyone having such a good time.
Musings of a Housewife says
LOL about you and your big fat mouth, I would SO get myself into trouble in that situation! But how great that you got a chance to do this, and it sounds like your presentation was AWESOME. I wouldn’t have known where to begin!
Liz Ferguson says
Great job Kelly — I’m so glad you had this opportunity!
Alexia says
Go you!!!
sounds like you had a fabulous time.
There is nothing quite like a room full of kids ENTHRALLED with what you are saying.