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Timing is everything in life.\u00a0 I am in Padova, Italy, with Boston University students and faculty as part an intensive 4-week, Mediterranean Diet: Food, Culture & Health<\/a> course offered from the College of Health and Rehabilitation: Sargent College.\u00a0 This immersion course, in northern Italy, takes a deep dive into the original science-based, Mediterranean Diet and lifestyle that was studied in the early 1960s.\u00a0\u00a0 At that time, the life expectancy of the Mediterranean folks living in southern Italy, Greece, and the island of Crete was among the longest in the world and the incidence of heart disease, certain cancers, and other diseases was among the lowest.\u00a0 My goal here is to mimic the habits of both the adults and children<\/em>, by eating tons of fruit and veggies along with seafood, pasta, and drinking liters of aqua (water) to stay hydrated.<\/p>\n All was healthy and happy in Italy until I opened my Twitter feed only to find that Kraft Foods launched a new product that is marketed to American parents and kids, called Salad Frosting.\u00a0\u00a0 I soon learned that Salad Frosting wasn\u2019t pureed tossed green salad in a pouch that can be used to frost cupcakes in an attempt to enhance the nutritional value of this treat for kids.\u00a0 Rather, Kraft decided to put their classic ranch salad dressing in a pouch and rebrand it as frosting to trick American children into consuming more salad.\u00a0 Luckily, at this point in time, this is just a social media marketing stunt as the salad \u201cfrosting\u201d isn\u2019t available in your local supermarket\u2026yet.<\/p>\n My initial response to this media campaign is why do we have to covertly coerce American kids into eating Mother Nature\u2019s finest when Italian children, which I have observed in outdoor cafes here, are eating caprese salad or tossed salads with radicchio, tuna, eggs, carrots, and olives on a regular basis?<\/p>\n Concerned that my eyes were deceiving me, I reached out to Gisele Flores, a dietitian who oversees the nutrition quality of lunches at 50 schools in Verona, Italy, to see if Italian children are truly eating salads.\u00a0 \u201cA fresh green salad with seasonal vegetables such as fennel, tomatoes, and carrots is served at least 3 times a week at school lunch.\u00a0 The children douse it with vinegar and local olive oil before they gobble it up,\u201d claims Flores. Because research supports that a diet high in fruits and veggies can help fight obesity, it\u2019s no coincidence that childhood obesity in Italy is less than half of that found with American children.<\/p>\n So why do Italian kiddies eat salad but their American counterparts have to be tricked into eating Mother Nature\u2019s Bounty?\u00a0 Research supports that children will follow the food preferences of their culture and peer group, most importantly, their parents.\u00a0 Monkey see, Monkey Do, Monkey eat.\u00a0 If the parents eat salad, the kiddos will follow.<\/p>\n Eating salad is not unique to Italian children.\u00a0 \u00a0Researchers<\/a> from the University of California and Univesite Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris compared the dinner quality of French and Americans families as childhood obesity is also lower in France than in the United States.\u00a0 Not surprisingly, they found that French children ate more veggies than the American kids, and that the French children ate dinner in multiple courses with veggies often being first before the main course.\u00a0 Translation: They ate the veggie or salad course first before the entr\u00e9e.\u00a0 In comparison, the American kids were served family-style, with the serving bowls or platters of meat, starchy carbohydrates such as pasta or rice, and vegetables placed on the table all at once.\u00a0 This family-style dining creates a free-for-all, with kids picking what and how much they want, or don\u2019t want<\/em>, to heap on their plates.\u00a0\u00a0 Not surprisingly, produce wasn\u2019t the main attraction on the dinner plate of the American kids.\u00a0 The researchers concluded that habitually serving vegetables at the beginning of the meal, when folks are so hungry that they will eat anything that isn\u2019t moving, will help the entire family develop healthy habits starting when the kids are in diapers and remaining on the menu through adulthood.\u00a0 With over 70% of American adults overweight, we may want to take a tip from the European families and start eating salads before the main meal to improve both our diet and health and shrink our waists.<\/p>\n In my opinion, we don\u2019t need to disguise salad dressing as frosting in order to get kids to eat salad or vegetables.\u00a0 We just need to introduce produce early and often at all meals.\u00a0 Because the most influential peer group among children is their parents, there is a wonderful opportunity here for adults to be healthy role models for their children.<\/p>\n If you don\u2019t believe me, come to Italy (or Paris, for that matter) and see all the locales enjoying their wonderful food.<\/p>\n This article originally appear in BU Today.<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Timing is everything in life.\u00a0 I am in Padova, Italy, with Boston University students and faculty as part an intensive 4-week, Mediterranean Diet: Food, Culture & Health course offered from the College of Health and Rehabilitation: Sargent College.\u00a0 This immersion course, in northern Italy, takes a deep dive into the original science-based, Mediterranean Diet and … Continue reading Why Kraft Salad Frosting Is a Wake Up Call For All Of Us<\/span>