Change For the Future: Developing Children's Palates Early On

It is nearly impossible to research the life-long effects of children’s eating habits without running into the words “junk food” at every turn. Every news article and research publication tosses around the phrase like it’s trivial, because that’s how junk food has become. It wasn’t until I had read the words about 100 times that I finally asked myself, how did those two words come together? “Junk” and “food.” “Junk food?” Sounds ridiculously unappetizing if you ask me. But the facts are that in today’s food society (of which this writer is not exempt), junk food has become a staple of our daily intake. We don’t even have a lucid definition for the elements that the term encompasses.

Once upon a time, chicken nuggets were considered junk food. Now they make their way onto school’s weekly lunch menus. The same goes for pizza, hamburgers, hotdogs, tacos, french fries, potato chips, and corn dogs. And I’m not making this information up; each one of these items was featured on the most recent weekly lunch menu of my own high school alma mater.

Although legislation mandating changes to school lunches has already passed, it is equally as important to look back and question why these poor habits arose in the first place. More and more research is being done on the conditioning of children’s palates at very early ages. Chef Bobo, a cook for a private school in New York City, knows the importance of developing children’s taste buds early on. He began his Eat Right Now food program in 2002 and blogs about the success he has had over the years. In his experience, turning children on to new, healthy foods takes time. When we eat processed, packaged junk foods (that are chock-full of sugar and salt) beginning at an early age, then we learn to crave those foods and only those foods. Converting kids into healthy-food eaters can take years, in his experience, but with enough persistence their palates catch on. CNN blogger Shahreen Abedin found that one small taste of her infant’s organic baby food left her with a bad taste in her mouth, even though her baby couldn’t get enough. This isn’t because of the stigma associated with baby foods. It’s simply because her palate had developed a penchant for the salty, sugary, packaged foods that now dominate our grocery store shelves.

The importance of developing a child’s palate for vegetables, fruits, and unprocessed food at an early age is slowly but surely being recognized. Conventional wisdom tells us that if children are taught to be polite and kind then they will act accordingly as adults. The same kind of childhood conditioning applies to foods; teach children to eat healthy foods now, and they just might have a shot at being healthy eaters their whole lives.

For a great "how-to" guide on conditioning a child's palate go to:

TLC Cooking: How to Develop a Child's Palate

For some inspirational child-palate-developing recipes go to:

Five Days of Food to Tempt Children's Palates