A Conscious Guide to Turning Junk Food into Real Food

“Avoid foods you see advertised on television.” ~ Michael Pollan

Are you tired of the idea that it is fine for children to always eat low quality food? I know that I am. In fact, sometimes it seems as though people believe that is all that kids will eat. If that is what they are exposed to eating, that is what they will want because that is all they know.

If children watch TV with commercials the requests can come at early age. My son used to ask for anything that came with prizes or a chance to win something. I would explain to him that if the food was good enough by itself, they wouldn’t have to offer you a prize to buy it. The yogurt that I was buying from a small upstate NY producer was organic, not advertised on TV and definitely did not come with prizes. It also was not full of food coloring, high fructose corn syrup or other artificial ingredients. As he got older and saw what was offered at school and on TV, he began to lose interest in it.

In the interest of full disclosure, I struggle with my son’s self-imposed food limitations. And when he is out, he is happy to have a soda or other things that he doesn't get regularly at home. While he was exposed to all sorts of foods and flavors from a very early age, gradually as he reached the age of 3 or 4, he began eliminating things that he used to love. He still eats some fairly sophisticated foods but at the same time he has simply decided that he doesn’t eat other foods and therefore, he just doesn’t eat them for now. I am confident that what he eats will again increase as he gets older as he already is adding new things gradually into his diet.

Last year, I taught an afterschool cooking class at my son’s school and the kids ranged from 3rd- 5th grade. It’s not the first time that I’ve taught young people. It was one of the first things that I did when I left culinary school and I also have a good amount of experience teaching teens. Most of my students have been open to eating many different foods. I have kids eating kale (and asking to make it again), seaweed, beans, squash, miso vegetable soup with soba noodles and arugula. We've baked cookies with maple syrup instead of white sugar and they eat a whole array of things that many adults don’t eat. Maybe it’s that the young people who take my classes already have an interest in food or maybe it’s that exposing them to different foods that taste good and having them help in the preparation increases their interest in trying new things.

I understand it is true that many pre-school and elementary school kids can be picky. Even within the same home, siblings who have been exposed to the same food every day can have very different dietary habits. I speak with parents all the time who have one child who eats almost anything and then the sister or brother eats very few things. While it may be true that at certain ages some kids can be limited in what they will eat, that doesn’t mean what they eat has to be low quality. 

There are certain foods that many American kids eat often and truth be told, adults occasionally enjoy them too. My son happens to love burgers. As with any foods, however, not all burgers and chicken tenders are created equally. In fact, most of these foods that are mass produced are extremely low quality but they don’t have to be. There are ways to take these foods from being bad for our health to decent meals that can nourish us. Let’s take a look:

1. Make grass-fed burgers at home. If your child loves burgers and you want to have burger night buy high quality meat. Grass-fed beef is available in some stores, through local farmers and online. If you can’t get grass-fed, consider organic meat or at least something that is hormone and antibiotic free. Starting with the highest quality meat can take a burger from junk food to a good meal. The same standards hold true for the cheese if you’re making a cheese burger.
2. Buy uncured grass-fed hot dogs. Truth be told, I ate a lot of hot dogs growing up and even though they were kosher, I don’t really want to think about what may have gone into making them. Having said that, I know what a good hot dog tastes like and there is nothing like it when you want one. If your child loves hot dogs and/or if you want one now and then, there are great tasting uncured grass-fed and organic beef hot dogs available in the market. It's also a great opportunity to eat some saurkraut which has many health benefits including aiding in digestion and improving your immune system.
3. Pay attention to the bun. Use sprouted buns or whole grain organic buns or at least a bun that doesn’t contain high fructose corn syrup. Make sure you read the labels because many burger and hot dog buns contain high fructose corn syrup as well as also sorts of artificial ingredients including artificial colors.
4. Use organic chicken to make chicken tenders. Some store bought chicken nuggets and patties aren’t even whole pieces of meat but rather are ground bits of parts that have reformed. When you make these from scratch at home, not only do you control the quality of the chicken but you control the quality of the breadcrumbs and oil as well. If you aren’t buying organic chicken, at least look for chicken that has been humanely raised without antibiotics and use that as a starting point for your meal.
5. Try making kale chips. Ok, they are not potato chips but they are crunchy and salty and most people love them. Kale is a nutritional powerhouse which most people never eat. My students ask to make them regularly and my son has continued to love these since he was very young. Give them a try. Pre-heat your oven to 300 degrees. Remove kale from the stem and make bite size pieces from the leaves. Toss on a baking sheet with a very small amount (just enough to lightly coat) of extra virgin olive oil and sea salt. Check after about 10 minutes. You want it crispy like a chip so if it's a little wilty, give it a minute or two more. Be careful...it can go from not quite done to overdone quickly.

Before I had my son, I had an ideal of what people should eat. Raising a child has made me more flexible. The above list represents my adapting my standards for high quality ingredients to the foods that American children eat most often. This is a starting point. I have many other ideas and suggestions. If you want to know more you can visit www.TheConsciousPlate.com.