The Problem with Sneaky Deceptive Chefs

Last fall, two books were prominently displayed in bookstores: Jessica Seinfeld's "Deceptively Delicious" and Missy Chase Lapine's "The Sneaky Chef". Both books have a similar concept - so similar that Lapine is suing Seinfeld. The idea is that one of the best ways to get nutritious food into kids is by sneaking it in - making purees of vegetables and fruits, then putting them in recipes where their flavor won't be noticed. Supposedly, you boost the nutritional value of the food without changing the flavor.

I accidentally bought Seinfeld's book last year. I thought it was a book of traditional healthful recipes. I was appalled to read the concepts of sneaking purees into foods and deceiving your family into eating better. I understand the concern that we parents have as we deal with our kids' resistance to certain foods, but sneaking purees into recipes is NOT the way to get fruits and vegetables into our kids.

Kids refuse to eat foods for a variety of reasons, including control, distaste, and neophobia. Neophobia is a well documented survival trait that makes humans resistant to many new things - food, places, situations, other people. It probably saved our ancestor's lives in the hunting and gathering days, when new foods could be poisonous, new places could be dangerous, and new people could be enemies. Show most kids an unfamiliar food, and only the most adventurous will dive in with enthusiasm. For those of us with highly neophobic children, we can take comfort in the fact that those neophiles probably had shorter lifespans a million years ago.

When a parent is met with repeated refusals to eat a particular food, it can start a cycle of desperation. There's frustration that the child is refusing to eat (especially if it's a food the child previously liked), irritation with having to find new food for the child to fill up on, worry that the parent will have to deal with the hungry/grumpy child all day, and concern that the child is not getting good enough nutrition. I know from experience that it is tempting to stop the fighting and arguing and just sneak the food into the child. But it's a terrible idea. Just like so many other parenting areas where it's hard work to teach the child, it can be hard work to raise a good eater. The easier, softer way often has terrible consequences.

I have five philisophical objections to the Sneaky, Deceptive method of feeding your child. (Well, it also just seems like a tremendous amount of work - much harder than introducing new foods over the long run)

First, the puree method is of questionable nutritional value. While the purees themselves are quite healthy, they are included in the recipes in relatively small quantities so as not to affect the taste. Most of the recipes in Deceptively Delicious have between 1/2 and 1 cup of puree added. Since the recipes serve 4-6, this means that an individual serving includes just 2-4 tablespoons of puree. Assuming the child eats the entire portion, it's a nutritionally adequate serving for only the smallest of children.

Second, the puree method blurs the distinction between healthy food and "sometimes" food. If you add pureed cauliflower to chocolate chip cookies or pumpkin and squash puree to cupcakes, it may start to feel like health food. Remember the "low fat" revolution of the eighties and how America just got fatter? That's because we increased our portion size: studies show that people eat up to 45% more when food is labelled low-fat! The puree method has the same problem. Instead of working on teaching our kids to eat fruits and veggies, we can feed them chocolate cookies and feel okay about it, because they're healthy, right? Wrong!

Third, this method has the potential to create distrust between parents and children. The titles of the books say it all: "Sneaky Chef", "Deceptively Delicious". Do you want your kids to view you as sneaky and deceptive? I'd much rather have an honest and open relationship with my kids. Kids are observant, and it's hard to be sneaky for long, especially when you have to feed them 3-5 times per day. When they catch you, it's likely to create drama and increased resistance to eating. All of a sudden, the kids will think they have to dismantle even "safe" foods to make sure there's no smuggled contraband veggies. Plus, it means that you can't get your kids to help you in the kitchen, because you're sneaking! That's a real shame, because one of the best ways to get kids to eat different foods is to have them help prepare meals.

Fourth, the Sneaky, Deceptive method reinforces the idea that there are two kinds of foods: kid foods and adult foods. It shapes the adult mind to believe that kids won't eat good foods, and it shapes the kids to believe that they're not supposed to eat grown-up food. Our kids already face enough pressure from marketers telling them to eat junk food. Do they really need it reinforced at home that even their parents expect them to dislike good food? The idea of kid food is a relatively new one. Until the late 1970s, "children's menus" in restaurants were just smaller portions of regular dishes. The introduction of the Happy Meal created a whole new industry of kid-only foods. Kid's foods tend to be higher in fat and sugar, and lower in nutritive value than regular foods.

Finally, the puree method fails to conquer neophobia. Instead of teaching kids to eat cauliflower, you puree it and use it as a batter for fried mozzarella sticks. So the kids never know that they're eating a vegetable, and they never learn to like it. Using this method, when will kids ever learn to like broccoli? They're not going to be suddenly struck by a love of vegetables when they're 18 on their own! The way you get kids to like new foods is by serving them new foods. Repeatedly. It is only after many repetitions of seeing a new food that neophobe kids will enjoy it (this is not true for sugary foods). And liking the taste is not enough: it has to be in the form they're used to enjoying. We've all had kids refuse to eat a PB&J because it's cut in the wrong shape or it's on a different bread. Can you imagine trying to get a kid to eat cauliflower by explaining to them that they like it on their cheese sticks?

The real problem with the Sneaky, Deceptive Chef is that it helps you to create picky eaters. Not to say that children's pickiness is completely a parent's fault, but we do play a very large role. The problem with creating a picky eater is that it's laying the foundation for a lifetime problem. The research on this is revealing. Studies show that picky eating is not a phase - kids don't outgrow it. Picky eaters eat poorly compared to other children: they consume fewer servings of fruit, vegetables, and protein each day. They also eat more saturated fat and have less dietary variety. Creating picky eaters increases the likelihood that they'll be overweight children, up to 80% of whom will become obese adults. There's a ton of research about these topics, available through a simple Google search.

So if sneaking purees into food is not the way to raise a good eater, then what is? Tomorrow, we'll look at some proven techniques to get kids to eat a variety of foods.