Chapter 21 Creative Food Experiences Importance of Food Experiences to the Total Program Guidelines for Creative Food Activities Getting Started Reducing Sugar in Children’s Diets Childhood Obesity Preventing Obesity

Importance of Food Experiences Concept building Building descriptive language Learning about tastes Observing changes Self-expression Learning about others—social skills Small-muscle development Measuring skills

Guidelines for Creative Food Activities Open-ended Challenging, but not too difficult Varied Process versus product Inexpensive materials Variety of places—indoors and outdoors

Getting Started Planning—ingredients, utensils, objectives Consider children’s developmental levels Set goals—manipulative skills, nutrition knowledge, trying new foods Plan step-by-step procedure Discuss—before and after activity Plan follow-up activities to reinforce learning

Reducing Sugar in Children’s Diets Reduce/eliminate soda consumption Avoid foods high in sugar Avoid overuse of fruit juice Encourage water drinking Avoid processed foods

Improving Young Children’s Diets Whole organic foods Whole grains Eliminate canned fruits and vegetables Raw fruits and vegetables Whole-wheat or soy flour Ground-up raisins, dates, dried fruit in place of sugar

Preventing Obesity National standards defining physically healthy students (NASPE) Regular physical activity FITS study Encourage wide variety of fruits and vegetables Reduce sweets, sweetened beverages, and salty snacks