CHICAGO—What’s good for the goose may be good for the gander, but it may not be so good for the goslings, at least when it comes to dieting.
Parents’ concerns about their own high-fat, high-cholesterol diets should not necessarily be used to model diets for their children, said Fima Lifshitz, MD, chief-of-staff, Miami Children’s Hospital.
While childhood obesity is clearly a problem in the US, children—especially very young children—don’t always need to go on the same sort of low-fat, calorie-restrictive diet that would benefit their parents. Such diets can actually cause harm, said Dr. Lifshitz, during a special presentation at this year’s annual meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Adult concerns about obesity and cardiovascular disease have somewhat overshadowed a basic nutritional fact: children need to consume fats in order to develop normally, Dr. Lifshitz contended.
Keith-Thomas Ayood, EdD, RD, associate professor of pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, agrees. Parental food fears, which sometimes border on obsessional, can be detrimental to children.
Given the number of overweight, sedentary children and teens in this country, some concern about childhood diet is warranted. But Mr. Ayood has observed a number of specific “food phobias” that he believes are inappropriate.
The first is what he termed “ovo-phobia” or fear of eggs. Many adults have come to regard eggs as cholesterol bombs waiting to explode in their children’s arteries. While it is true that eggs do have a high level of cholesterol, this is not as much of a problem for children as for adults.
And even for adults, the thinking about eggs has changed a lot over the last decade. The hard-boiled fact is that eggs are an excellent source of protein and nutrients. An egg a day is not likely to harm children, and probably won’t hurt most adults either, said Mr. Ayood.
Next on the list is “lacto-phobia” or fear of milk. There is a huge calcium crisis in this country because kids aren’t drinking milk. According to Dr. Lifshitz, calcium is crucial during the first two decades of life. “That is when the calcium for bone is laid down, after that you can maintain your calcium level but calcium deposition does not take place.”
Mr. Ayood believes that osteoporosis, now rampant in the US, is a pediatric disease that manifests with geriatric symptoms.
Literature on lactose intolerance indicates that is a fairly common condition among adults, but it tends to be far less prevalent among young children. Again, adult dietary modification need not always be applied to children.
The third food phobia Mr. Ayood has observed is, believe it or not, fear of fruits and vegetables. Perhaps not the produce itself, but the amount that children should consume. The recommendation that kids eat five servings of fruits and vegetables per day seems to frighten a lot of parents; it seems like an awful lot of work.
The reality is, five child-size fruit servings comes to no more than a pint, the equivalent of “a take-out container of wonton soup,” he said.
According to Dr. Lifshitz “carno-phobia” or fear of meat, is another common issue. Many people are afraid of red meat for their children; far fewer know how to adequately substitute non-flesh protein foods.
He held that a 3 ounce serving of flank steak contains all the protein, iron, and zinc that a 10-year-old child needs. Unless the child really likes tofu, tempeh or other vegetable protein sources, and is compliant with vitamin and mineral supplements, it will be very difficult to get equivalent nutrients.
Dr. Lifshitz believes Americans should look to other countries for useful advice about feeding themselves and their children. Japanese nutritional authorities recommend eating 30 different food sources a day. It sounds like a lot, but denizens of sushi restaurants will quickly recognize that a Japanese diet can provide a wide variety of different foods (fish, seaweed, various vegetables, grains, and soy products) in a single meal, but small servings of each. And serving-size is a critical issue.
Gross overeating at meal time, snacking on low-nutrient, high-fat or refined carbohydrate foods between meals, and lack of physical activity are the big drivers of childhood obesity, not moderate consumption of meat, dairy and eggs.
According to Dr. Lifshitz, one of the most pervasive and detrimental effects of parental over-fixation on “healthy” diets is in ruining a child’s joy in eating. Instead of being pleasurable, nurturing, and lively experiences, mealtimes can become fraught with anxiety, guilt, and tension.
“If a child eats a piece of chocolate, he or she shouldn’t feel guilty or fearful for eating ‘junk’ food, because there is nothing wrong with a piece of chocolate,” he argued. The problems come when a diet is either dominated by a single food group (especially low-nutrient foods), or arbitrarily eliminates certain foods. Variety and enjoyment are the keys to lifelong healthy eating.
Mr. Ayood added that parents should be encouraged to get their children involved in food preparation. “Have them cut up the green beans, who cares if the cuts are uneven?” The involvement will pay off big time, as the children learn about and enjoy the varieties of foods and how to cook them.
THE REDUX: Parental concerns about their own fat intake should not necessarily define diets for their children. While childhood obesity is clearly a problem in the US, young children need some dietary fat. Arbitrary elimination of entire food groups based on parental food phobias is not the ideal way to prevent obesity in kids.
