Well
since you asked :-)
One way I have found is to provide food. I am forced to eat a pretty healthy diet, because of a severe allergy problem- but I have found that no matter WHAT I bring to school, there are always students who want to share my lunch with me. They'll take an orange, 1/2 my peanut butter sandwich, or carrot sticks, or whatever. So partly the diet thing is socialization- and you eat what the people you like eat. I've gotten to the point where I keep healthy bars- like organic Cliff bars and good granola bars in my cupboards at school, and sometimes a loaf of wheat bread. I'd bring in cartons of clementines sometimes- and guess what? The kids would eat them, and enjoy them (although my husband then tends to say my job is actually a charity).
And on the education front- a lot of the kids didn't realize just how much sugar was in their drinks- or what that sugar meant in terms of calories, and weight gain. So I put the amount of sugar that is in a big Gulp in a baggy, and the amount in a regular soda in a baggy, and I brought those in to class. That's the sort of tangible physical proof that kids understand. I also drink water constantly in front of my classes- to model water drinking. I encourage every student to have a water bottle on their desk. I tell you, it works. You can tell a kid over and over again to eat well, but if his parents don't, and his friends don't- how is he going to do this? I'm for trying everything I can to make the world better (better as I define it, of course)- and better eating, and better diets, make everyone feel better, so that seems like something to work for. There are loads of studies which give us clues as to how to change people for the better, in terms of nutrition and health- but it's never going to be easy considering the forces that are arrayed against better health. Look at the money the corporate giants have invested in our eating poorly. Go down the aisles and imagine what you'd be throwing out if you avoided corn syrup, and foods too high in salt. But it's not just the food giants- where would the large medical companies be if we weren't chronically unhealthy? Medical companies make a fortune off our diet related illnesses, and diet companies make a fortune off our inability to stay away from poor food choices, and sports facilities make a fortune off our belief that we will be able to exercise away our poor food choices...
Anyway, motivation is certainly one corner stone of the problem- but it's buried in this mass of forces that tend to defeat even people with the desire to eat right. I think that's why I'm rooting for the little guy- people like you and me, and my students- people who want to be healthy, but find that our society seems to be designed to trip us up at every turn even though we might wish to make the right choices. Gosh, I feel like I rambled a bit, but I'm passionate about better food, and getting people healthier- since I really hate the idea of food, which can be such a wonderful thing, being an instrument to cause illness and unhappiness, when it doesn't have to be that way. |
