How To Talk To Kids About Real Food

139 Comments / By Lisa Leake / April 19, 2013 / Kids, Real Food Tips

I have the pleasure of working with some great moms at our elementary school on an upcoming school assembly (for the students) that is all about real food! This is something we’ve never done before at our school, and it supports the initiatives for our new Healthy Child and Earth Committee. When we first started planning out the assembly we were honestly not sure where to start – I mean I talk to adults all day long about real food (you guys!), but a couple hundred kids? Some of which are brand new to the topic? So thankfully another local food blogger, Adri Warrick with The Whole Tulip, shared with us that she uses the red light/green light concept from a kids book called Eat Healthy, Feel Great when she talks to the kids at her school. That bit of information was exactly what we needed to get started, and today I want to share a version of our presentation, that was inspired by this concept, with you that you can easily share with the kids in your life. :)

Thanks to the team of moms I am working with on our school assembly, here is a kid-friendly transcript about eating “real food” that you can literally sit down and read together with your children:

How To Fuel Your Body

Close your eyes and pretend that you are sitting in the coolest, fastest race car you can imagine. Maybe it’s a red race car or a green one or even a car with racing stripes or flames painted down the sides. Now start up that engine, push your foot down on the gas pedal, and start zooming around the race track. Be sure to watch out for other cars – Vroom Vroom!! Wait a second…you are low on gas, which means it is time for a pit stop. What do you think is the best way to fuel your new high-performance machine? Top quality gasoline of course! Only the best quality will give you the best performance. But what would happen if instead you decided to fill your new race car with gloppy, thick mud? Yuck! How do you think that would make your car perform? How fast would it go? I bet it would be slow and feel weighed down. And that’s because – just like with your own body – the fuel that you use is very important to doing your best. Getting exercise along with the food you eat impacts how you feel, think, and perform tasks. Without a balanced and healthy diet – tasks like reading, writing, and even thinking can be harder for your body. So today we are going to learn how to make healthy food choices so you know how to “fuel” your body so you can feel and do your best.

Traffic Light Foods

To understand what foods are good for your body we are going to use this traffic signal. Green Light Foods are “go” foods that will fuel your body in the best way possible by giving you the energy and nutrients your body and brain need to feel top notch. We will also talk about Yellow Light Foods, which are “sometimes” foods – these are okay to eat sometimes. And lastly we will go over Red Light Foods, which are foods you should avoid and try to not put in your body.

Green Light Foods

Once again, Green Light Foods make your body feel and work the best. Many Green Light Foods come from plants. These foods can be picked out of a garden, out of a field, or off of trees. These are foods like bananas, carrots, oranges, avocados, apples, grapes, berries, lettuce, spinach, cauliflower, cucumbers, artichokes, broccoli, green beans, peppers, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and more! There are so many healthy fruits and vegetables to choose from – which ones are your favorites?

Some other Green Light Foods that also come from plants are beans, nuts, seeds, and whole-grains. Beans like black beans, pinto beans, lima beans, and kidney beans are all great for fueling your body. There are also many types of nuts including cashews, pecans, peanuts, walnuts, pistachios, and many more. Seeds can come from plants like sunflowers or pumpkins. And when you think about breads and grains – whole grains are the most nutritious because they still have all the important parts intact – and you can see the difference in bread, pasta, and rice that is brown or tan in color. Not white or light yellow.

Lastly, some Green Light Foods can come from healthy animals as well. Think about foods like eggs, milk, and cheese that come from happy animals. And some meat products like fresh fish and also chicken and beef that come from animals that roam on wide open, grassy fields are good for you as well. The best and most nutritious animal products almost always come from small, local and/or organic farmers. So be sure to get those Green Light Foods from the farmers’ market – or look for the word “organic” on the label.

Remember…Green Light Foods are “go” foods that will give your body the fuel it needs. Just be sure to wash down all those healthy Green Light Foods with lots of water!

–

Yellow Light Foods

Yellow Light Foods are foods that are okay to eat sometimes. Just like the yellow stop light means to slow down, you don’t want to eat too many of these foods. A lot of yellow light foods are made with white flour and sugar. Think about treats you make at home with sugar like cookies that you mix up in a bowl or homemade birthday cake. Also, packaged foods like pretzels, crackers, and white bread are Yellow Light Foods because they are oftentimes made with white flour instead of the healthier whole-wheat flour. Some other yellow light foods are lemonade, chocolate milk, and other sugary drinks. Treats like ice cream as well are yellow light foods, which again means these foods are okay to eat sometimes. But you do have to watch out because some of these foods can also have red light ingredients, which you will learn about next.

So just remember, yellow light means slow down and don’t eat too many of these because they are “sometimes” foods.

–

Red Light Foods

Red Light Foods are foods you want to avoid as much as possible. Most Red Light Foods are made in factories and come in packages. The best way to know if something is a Red Light Food is to read the ingredients on the back of the package. And that is because Red Light Foods contain Red Light Ingredients. Here are some examples…

More About Red Light Ingredients…

–> Red Light Ingredient #1: Artificial Dyes

If a packaged food is bright in color it probably contains artificial dyes.
These are bad because they are fake additives made by food scientists from petroleum (the same substance used to make gasoline!) – so they are not good for your health. These chemicals make some kids so hyper they cannot sit still in class.
Look on the ingredient label for words like Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Red 40, Blue 1, Blue 2, Green 3, and Artificial Color – and avoid them.

–> Red Light Ingredient #2: Hydrogenated Oils

If a food is made with Hydrogenated Oil that means it contains trans fat – some examples are store-bought frosting, sprinkles and margarine (fake butter).
This is bad because eating a lot of trans fat is not good for your organs including your heart, which is part of your body’s engine!
Look for the words Hydrogenated or Partially Hydrogenated Oil on the ingredient label – and avoid them.

–> Red Light Ingredient #3: High Fructose Corn Syrup

High Fructose Corn Syrup is a sugar made from corn – corn kernels are not bad, but High Fructose Corn Syrup is and it is in a lot of packaged sweet treats like soda, fake syrup, and also things that don’t even look like they are treats, like jelly.
Eating too much of any kind of sugar can make you overweight and unhealthy, which can really slow you down.
Look for the word High Fructose Corn Syrup on the label and avoid it.

–> Red Light Ingredient #4: Words You Cannot Pronounce or Would Not Cook With At Home

Avoid other ingredients that you have never heard of and would not cook with at home.
Here are some examples – can you even pronounce these words?
- Monosodium Glutamate (MSG – a salty additive)
- Maltodextrin (another highly processed food additive made from corn)
- Aspartame (fake sugar)
- Sodium Benzoate (a chemical to make food last longer – what’s also called a preservative)
- Propylene Glycol (also used as antifreeze in cars and boats!)

Pictured are some foods that contain Red Light Ingredients and are not good for your health – instead focus on eating foods and ingredients that you are familiar with and would cook with at home…like the Green Light Foods we talked about earlier!

Red Light Foods – These Foods Contain Red Light Ingredients

One more Red Light Food to watch out for is all “fast food.” Think again of the Green Light Foods, like a pumpkin for example. What would happen if your Halloween pumpkin was still sitting on your front porch? It would be all rotted and nasty. Well believe it or not fast food meals that are even as old as you…6, 7, 8 years old or even older still practically look brand new! That is because the chemical additives that aren’t good for you can make processed food last for what seems like forever. That doesn’t sound like something that would do a good job fueling your body! So remember, red light means stop – so the next time you pick up a packaged food “stop” to see if it contains any red light ingredients.

Be A Label Detective

Now, it is your job to be a label detective so you can figure out if the food you are about to eat is a Green Light Food, Yellow Light Food, or Red Light Food. Even if a food package has a fun cartoon character on the front or you see a commercial about it on TV it or it says “fruit” on the box it can still contain Red Light Ingredients, which is why you have to turn the package over and read the ingredient label. Let’s start by reading a couple labels together.

At first these look like they could possibly be yellow light foods, but read the ingredient label next to it to find all the Red Light Ingredients (items that are hard to pronounce and that you would not cook with at home)!

Remember if a Green Light Food has an ingredient label at all the list will be short (5 or less ingredients) and it will not contain any white flour, sugar, or Red Light Ingredients. But the best Green Light Foods for your body do not even come in a package or have an ingredient list at all!

The Best Green Light Foods Have No Labels

It is really important to fuel your body with LOTS of Green Light Foods every single day – especially fruits and veggies – so you can feel good and be healthy! Plus don’t forget to wash down all those Green Light Foods with plenty of water and also be sure to get lots of exercise as well. When you feel your best…you do your best!

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Speaking of kids, one of the ways I make my children’s real food lunches fun is by adding little notes from Lunchbox Love. Yes, I could probably write my own notes on my own paper, but let’s face it – they wouldn’t be nearly as cute or creative or fun and chances are at some point I would probably forget to keep doing it. Having the Lunchbox Love cards with our school lunch supplies is a great reminder for me, and not only do they have a heartfelt message (or a blank spot where you can write your own!), but the other side also has fun facts, jokes or other tidbits. I started sending these cards in my 2nd grader’s lunch at the beginning of the school year and she was so excited about them she said to me, “Mom, can you please buy me a frame to keep all these notes in?” We settled on a little box and sure enough she has quite the collection now that the school year is mostly over. And now that my kindergartener is learning to read we’ve been sending them in her lunch as well…just like big sis. :) So anyway, yes Lunchbox Love is one of sponsors, but I am here to tell you even if they weren’t I’d still be buying and sending these little notes with my girls (who in turn share them with their friends) so you’ll have to take a look at what they offer. Also be sure to check out their “grown up” notes as well that would be great to give with teacher gifts at the end of the year or to moms on Mother’s Day. Just like the name – we love these cards

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About The Author

Lisa Leake

Lisa is a wife, mother, foodie, blogger, and #1 New York Times Best-selling author who is on a mission to cut out processed food.

How To Talk To Kids About Real Food

How To Fuel Your Body

Traffic Light Foods

Green Light Foods

Yellow Light Foods