Real food for kids

My husband sent me a link to a video tonight, and I thought Dwell Well readers might like to watch it, too.

It’s a speech by celebrity Chef Jamie Oliver, who I’ve always liked—despite the fact that he started a Tupperware-style home-based business thing recently. That kind of cheesed me out, but whatever. I still love his recipes and his passion. And his accent.

I don’t watch much TV (unless Yo Gabba Gabba counts), so I haven’t seen his new Food Revolution show , where he takes on the city of Huntington, West Virginia, and its unhealthy eating habits. But really, he’s taking on America’s unhealthy eating habits.

In a nutshell, Jamie is encouraging us to eat real food—not processed junk; to insist that our schools, governments and business leaders offer healthful choices to students and workers; and to teach our children where food comes from and how to cook it—a skill that hasn’t been passed on by the last few generations.

At one point during the speech, Jamie played a video clip (I assume from his TV show) of himself in a classroom of young children, asking the kids to identify various vegetables as he held them up. The kids couldn’t even get the basic ones, like tomatoes and potatoes, right.

My kids aren’t strangers to processed foods. It’s tough to avoid them entirely. And one of my girls just about cries when I put anything green or leafy on her plate.

But they’ve been cooking at my side since they were about 15 months old and gardening with me since before that. They’ll eat grilled chicken and rice, if that’s what’s for dinner, and they don’t care a bit when I put pureed sweet potatoes in the pancake batter. Ask the oldest what her favorite food is and she might say, “steamed clams.” And, at ages 2 and 4, they know their potatoes from their tomatoes.

The video was a good reminder, though, to keep things real in the kitchen and to continue to involve them in preparing our family’s food, even if it means extra messes and more time.

On a related note, SNAP is hosting a “Beginning Organic Gardening” class on Tuesday from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at 212 W. Second Ave., Suite 100, downtown Spokane. I’ve been to one other SNAP class on green living in the past and it was excellent. I still refer to the materials the instructors gave out that day.

To R.S.V.P., call (509) 744-3370 ext. 242.

If you’re interested in learning more about these issues, these books are a good place to start:

In Defense of Food , by Michael Pollan

The Art of Simple Food , by Alice Waters

Jamie’s Food Revolution , by Jamie Oliver (and any of his cookbooks)

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle , by Barbara Kingsolver