NUTRITION: EDUCATION IS NOT ENOUGH, SO NOW WHAT?

How did we get into the current predicament with our kids' diets? Or, more importantly, how can we get our kids to eat well again?

Study after study shows that unless kids have been eating lots of fruits and veggies since toddlerhood, chances are they're not eating much of them now.

Last week, the Associated Press reviewed 57 scientific studies of federal nutrition education programs aimed at getting children to eat healthier. They saw that only four had any potential whatsoever for improving the way kids eat, or held any hope of helping to rein in the raging epidemic of childhood obesity.

Different educational and direct approaches that have hit the wall included offering free fruit and vegetables to children, awarding prizes to kids who ate their fruits and veggies, as well as educating children on the benefits of a healthy diet and creating healthy meals with them.

Yet, in spite of the federal government's spending more than one billion dollars a year on these and a myriad of other nutritional education programs, the eating habits of our nation's children seem immune to change-and in the meantime, the obesity rates have nearly quintupled among 6- to 11-year-olds and tripled among teens and children ages 2 to 5 since the 1970s.

SO NOW WHAT?

Now that it's been established that neither education nor directly offering healthier choices is enough to turn the tide of our children's poor eating habits today, how do we get from where we are now to where we need to be?

Kids need real nutrition now in ways that they'll accept. Sneak some healthy foods into whatever it is that they will eat. Give their growing bodies something real to work with and build on until they'll accept healthy foods straight up. Sneaking is a tool for parents that works. Use it to your kids' advantage.