One challenge I have in keeping this blog, is the question as to whether I should post healthy ideas that no one in my family liked. I go back and forth between,
“Someone’s kids will like it, even though mine didn’t”, and
“If my kids didn’t like it, chances are other kids won’t either!”
So, here is what was scheduled to write about today, which no one would eat, and quite frankly, I wasn’t fond of either.
Sweet Potato Swirls
These beauties consisted of mashed sweet potatoes, piped through a cake decorating bag onto a cookie sheet and baked.
The problem with them is that they turned cold pretty quickly, they weren’t crunchy , or airy like I hoped, and were too much work for what they were.
So, because I don’t want to totally waste your time here today, I thought it would be a good post to update you on the USDA’s report on Children’s dietary intake . No matter what you think of the USDA and their Food Pyramid, this report is quite fascinating. They use reports such as these, as they construct the new dietary guidelines for 2010. I’ll just share one portion. First of all, for the full report .
Portions I thought were interesting:
Among 2-18 year olds, about half of all empty calories come from six specific foods and beverages:
- soda,
- fruit drinks,
- dairy desserts,
- grain desserts,
- pizza, and
- whole milk (Reedy, 2010).
Mean intake of total vegetables in NHANES 2001-04 among 1-8 yr old children was only 0.8 to 1.0 servings/day, and for older children, 1.2 to 1.5 servings/day (NCI, 2010e).
- Largest vegetable source was from a category that includes vegetable components of pizza, pasta and pasta dishes, condiments, lettuce, tomatoes, vegetable medleys, burgers, rice and mixed rice dishes, string beans, soups, Mexican mixed dishes, chicken and chicken mixed dishes, and tomato sauces.
- Fried white potatoes accounted for one-third (33%) of intake from starchy vegetables,
- followed by potato/corn/other chips (26%);
- other white potatoes (23%); and
- corn (7%).
- Carrots were the top vegetable consumed in the orange vegetable subgroup, comprising 62% of children’s intake, with sweet potatoes accounting for only 5%.
Hmmmm, looks like our kids aren’t getting enough vegetables. And what they are getting are the crappiest of the vegetables, in the most processed form. In your social circle, do you find this is true?
One challenge I have in keeping this blog, is the question as to whether I should post healthy ideas that no one in my family liked. I go back and forth between,
“Someone’s kids will like it, even though mine didn’t”, and
“If my kids didn’t like it, chances are other kids won’t either!”
So, here is what was scheduled to write about today, which no one would eat, and quite frankly, I wasn’t fond of either.
These beauties consisted of mashed sweet potatoes, piped through a cake decorating bag onto a cookie sheet and baked.
The problem with them is that they turned cold pretty quickly, they weren’t crunchy , or airy like I hoped, and were too much work for what they were.
So, because I don’t want to totally waste your time here today, I thought it would be a good post to update you on the USDA’s report on Children’s dietary intake . No matter what you think of the USDA and their Food Pyramid, this report is quite fascinating. They use reports such as these, as they construct the new dietary guidelines for 2010. I’ll just share one portion. First of all, for the full report .
Portions I thought were interesting:
Among 2-18 year olds, about half of all empty calories come from six specific foods and beverages:
Mean intake of total vegetables in NHANES 2001-04 among 1-8 yr old children was only 0.8 to 1.0 servings/day, and for older children, 1.2 to 1.5 servings/day (NCI, 2010e).
Hmmmm, looks like our kids aren’t getting enough vegetables. And what they are getting are the crappiest of the vegetables, in the most processed form. In your social circle, do you find this is true?