Dancing Donuts in Kindergarten

We homeschooled when our kids were little, and one thing I remember was creating a homemade board game for them to learn about healthy eating, based on the Food Pyramid. Remember seeing this diagram? (I used to wonder how anyone could eat up to 11 servings of bread, cereal, rice, and pasta but I didn't question the overall government recommendation.)



In 2005 the government changed the diagram and included advice to exercise. Part of the advice is good: eat a variety of fruits and vegetables and go easy on fruit juice. But the recommendation to eat at least "half your grains as whole grains" and to eat low-fat dairy and meats is wrong. (The Primal Blueprint, Wheat Belly, Good Calories Bad Calories explain why in detail. Click the Learn tab for more.)


At the left is the current pyramid; you've proably seen it on boxes at the grocery store, along with this very simple diagram called MyPlate.





I was reminded of my homemade food game when I read this story by Joanne (aprimalfamily.com ) who was shocked when her son Michael came home from kindergarten with a coloring page of MyPlate. Why? Because they eat primally, and she didn't want him being taught that grains are healthy. 

Joanne wrote:"Yes the schools teach the kids all about healthy eating, based on lots of flawed research and because the government tells them to teach it. The thing that really gets me angry is that my son has no voice when this happens. There are so few resources for our Primal/Paleo kids to see a fair representation that is fun and engaging for them to understand how we eat. Instead he sits with all his friends coloring happy macaroni noodles, dancing bread and a heart hugging a wheat stalk! Ugh….smack head on wall!

Tell me you wouldn’t have been red in the face when that came home from school. Of course my lovely son could tell me all about how he doesn’t like bread because it makes his stomach hurt ... so I am proud of him for knowing what is good for him to eat and what is not. Yet..the happy peer pressure situation at school while they all color donuts with feet bothered me...."

 

 

So Michael's dad created a primal version of the diagram that he took to school to show the class how he eats. Good for Michael!  Joanne points out that their version does contain dairy, which is not consideral paleo although some full-fat dairy is allowed in the primal version of the diet. She has posted a PDF for anyone who wants to use this diagram with her own kids.   

This just inspired me to create another game (too bad I don't have any 2-5 year olds to test this). Give each child this drawing, and have lots of cards showing individual pictures of food items in a pile upside down. (find food images to print online or in magazines.) Each child draws one card,  decides if it's a fruit, veg, meat, nut, good oil, or dairy, and places the card in the correct area of the Primal MyPlate.

Include pictures of junk food, especially boxed cookies and snacks...these get tossed into the trash! (a plastic mesh strawberry basket.)  When all the cards are gone from the pile, each child chooses one food from the cards on his primal MyPlate and helps mom prepare it for lunch or dinner.

Another version: all the food cards are distributed between the players; as you draw from the other player's hand, you either put the card on the MyPlate drawing or in the junk-food trash. When all the cards are gone, the child with the most cards on his MyPlate gets to choose something for lunch.

Games aside, setting a good example for children is the best way for them to learn healthy eating habits early, and they'll get a good start in life.