“I had to put healthy food on one plate and unhealthy food on the other,” she told me. Her teacher, who was standing beside us, looked at her picture and told Madeline that maybe the chicken nuggets should have been on the unhealthy plate instead of the healthy one.
Seeing the bewildered look on my 7-year-old daughter’s face transported me back to 7th grade health class where I learned to classify foods as good and bad. My teacher taught me that I need to eat fruits and vegetables to be healthy, and that eating too much “junk food” is unhealthy and should be avoided.
I lost my mother to metastatic breast cancer a few months ago and was in a vulnerable position. I watched her mother’s health deteriorate during the three years she was ill, but after her mother’s death I became afraid that she would do things that were considered unhealthy. Ta. Shortly after learning to label food in health class, I began to worry that eating “unhealthy” foods would make me sick like my mother. And as a perfectionist honors student, I thought I needed to avoid and follow my teacher’s instructions. I began to limit my food intake, first slowly, then drastically. Less than a year later, I was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa. This disorder took a toll on my mind and body for years to come.
Health class wasn’t the only cause of my eating disorder, but it was a contributing factor. Twenty-five years later, schools still routinely teach children how to label food, even though studies show that such exercise can lead to eating disorders. target.
Austin-based registered dietitian and nutritionist Robert Mendiola said, “I think the school is doing everything it can and I believe it’s the right step to help people make the right food choices. I think we are doing what we are doing,” he said. Eating disorder. “But I also think it will start planting the seeds that will change the way we think about food for a really, really long time.”
Mendiola struggled with an eating disorder as a teenager, but now believes she’s fully recovered. Although he has never taken harmful “healthy eating” lessons, he has seen patients with eating disorders.
Chart review of young patients treated for anorexia A 2015-2020 study at one hospital found that healthy eating education was a trigger for 14 percent of patients, with young adolescents particularly vulnerable.
“The most common cause we hear from parents about eating disorders in their children is their attempt to eat ‘healthier’ foods, often based on messages from schools and the larger culture. I will,” he said. Oona Hansonfamily mentor equip physical strength, Eating Disorder Treatment Program. “With the exception of anaphylactic allergies, no food can harm a child more than the fear of food. A lot of what they are doing is counterproductive.”
For example, some children who are taught to avoid “bad” foods may eventually become attracted to them. “Forbidden fruit tastes the sweetest,” Hanson said. Conversely, children with high levels of anxiety and rule-abiding tendencies may develop a similar fear of “bad” foods and stop eating them altogether. “It can actually lead them down a path of more and more restrictions, and that’s where we’re seeing younger kids developing eating disorders like anorexia.” said Mr Hanson.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention To tell Nutrition education should be an important part of health education programs because it “provides children with the knowledge and skills to make healthy food and drink choices.” Some would argue that this is especially important now that an estimated 1 in 5 children in the United States is obese. But while nutrition education is a good idea in theory, it is often inadequate in practice. Many nutrition education exercises are rooted in food culture and anti-fat biases, and focus on “clean eating,” food labeling exercises, and food diaries where students are asked to record how much they eat and how much they exercise.
Gabi Dobro’s daughter Ana was asked to keep a food diary as part of her high school gym class in 2020. She insisted that she prepare her own meals as soon as Anna started recording her food intake and her physical activity. Dobro was initially relieved when one of her children asked to help prepare meals. But as the weeks went on, she noticed Ana, a gymnast and high-achieving student, was eating significantly less and exercising more. Ana tracked these behaviors in her food diary and she eventually earned her A+ on her assignment.
Farmington resident Dobro said, “Due to the disruption caused by the pandemic, it is believed that she was scored at completion and not checked for actual numbers, but she received an A+ with obvious limitations and symptoms of hyperkinesis. And that strengthened her behavior.” Within months of completing her New York assignment, Ana was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa and hospitalized.
The assignment came at a critical time when Ana was “worried about losing her gymnastics skills, becoming sedentary and unable to eat ‘well’ or ‘healthy’ during quarantine,” she said. said Dobro, whose daughter is now 18 and is recovering. . “The school assignment proved exactly what her predisposition wanted. A very low dietary intake and a large amount of strenuous exercise is a great idea, and having such a regimen is healthy.” It is a target and a necessity.”
Dobro hopes the school curriculum will be updated to include: Further education and awareness about eating disorders. She also encourages teachers to consider key questions before teaching children about nutrition, such as: What motivates me to teach the “healthy eating” lesson? Will my own food choices cause fear, shame, or guilt? If so, before teaching children about food choices, Can these feelings be explored?
Shannon Gillikin, a kindergarten teacher in Charlottesville, said she used to police her food choices by telling her students to bring healthier snacks and drink water instead of juice. However, she has stopped doing this in recent years.
“I think a lot of it has to do with my own personal journey of abandoning my own food culture and learning what food is intuitive to me,” says 14 years of teaching. Mr. Girikin greeted me and said. She also recognizes that it’s not fair to criticize a kindergartener’s food choices when they aren’t grocery shopping or preparing meals. “As a privileged white person, I learned a lot about all the structures that surround my students’ lives. For example, do they live in food deserts? Are they limited in what they can do? I want my students to be happy with their choices and to respect their parents’ contributions.”
While teaching the “Happy Healthy Me” unit, Gillikin was to read a series of books focused on healthy living. and “Jack and the Hungry Giant” (a retelling of “Jack and the Beanstalk” in which the giant uses the USDA’s MyPlate nutrition model to make a meal for Jack). Girikin worried that the books would help label food, so with the permission of the school’s literacy director, she scrapped them and read culturally inclusive fairy tales instead. .
Throughout the school year, Gillikin tries to encourage students to focus on the texture and taste of food rather than whether it’s “healthy” or “unhealthy,” giving them a richer vocabulary to describe food. “I teach my students that no food is inherently good or bad,” Gillikin said. “I tell them that food is fuel, and that different types of fuel are needed at different times.” She also encouraged conversations about her own food traditions, saying, “My Please don’t eat yam’ accept the expression. “We teach our children to respect each other’s food choices, so we hope that as adults they become curious rather than judgmental.”
During a call with my daughter’s nursery school principal, I shared some of Gillikin’s thoughts, as well as my own experiences with anorexia. As a woman recovering from anorexia and as a mother wishing to protect her son and daughter from the disorder that has taken so many years of my life, I have spoken freely about the harmful effects of food labeling. I know that no matter how hard I try to protect my children from eating disorders, there will always be external factors beyond my control, such as school challenges, social media, and genetics. Sometimes the list feels unbearably long. My husband and I try to teach our children the best we can at home by avoiding food labels, refraining from negative comments about our bodies, and eating together as a family.
A few days after my daughter’s allotment, I bought a few pints of ice cream and made a homemade sundae for Madeline and her son Tucker.
“This is delicious!” Madeline said, licking her sticky fingers.
“It’s delicious!” Tucker said, his blue eyes glowing.
“You are so right!” I agreed.
I dipped my spoon into the salted caramel ice cream and enjoyed it to the last bite.
Related resources: National Alliance for Eating Disorders and Sunny Side Up Nutrition created 5 letters Allows caregivers to download, customize and share with teachers to raise awareness and address potential issues with nutrition education.
Malalie Tenoa Tarpley He is a professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the author of an upcoming book, Slip: Recovery, Sickness & the Space in Between, which examines the less-discussed complexities of eating disorders and recovery.
