Thursday August 16, 2007 | 6 comments
From Australia’s The Advertiser
Australia’s Minister of Health, John Hill, launched an AUD $14 million, four year campaign to teach young children, and especially toddlers, the benefits of a healthy life style. The program is aptly named Start Right Eat Right. Children aged under five will be the target of this new state government initiative to combat the growing obesity epidemic.
“We have an epidemic facing us in terms of obesity, as a government, as a state and as a community we have to address this,” Mr. Hill said. According to this article in The Advertiser, 1 in 5 children is overweight or obese. I believe that statistics is similar to ours in the U.S. It certainly sounds like something we need to do here as well. Their program includes fresh fruit and yogurt in the morning and tea in the afternoon. Who knew the Aussies were so progressive.
Until we can develop a program which encourages parents with young children and pre-schoolers to improve their food selections, we are sure to cripple our already ailing medical institutions with the glut of serious health problems that are predisposed by obesity. Tea offers health benefits that are unique among the beverage options that are readily available. No other single beverage has the amount of health benefits that are found in tea, and is an affordable choice and readily available. Young children especially get the majority of their calories from the beverages they consume. I believe the key is to introduce tea to children before they are conditioned to seek beverages with high sugar content. Wake up America…it’s time for TEA!
Can any TChing members from countries with a deep tradition of unsweetened tea-drinking tell us if, when, and how tea is introduced into the diet of children in their cultures? It seems that here in the US, the big corporate beverage industry insists on adding corn syrup, sugar, or some array of artificial sweeteners to all convenience beverages. And since the culture of convenience isn’t likely going anywhere (at least here in the USA), it would be great to provide evidence that unsweetened tea can be a marketable option for the fast food industry for children and adults alike. In other words, can the claim “Kids won’t drink unsweetened tea” be refuted with any factual data from across the globe?
Eric – Interesting question which I’ll look forward to hearing responses to. From my vantage point, it’s about early introduction. Have you ever tasted baby food in a jar? I must confess it was a few decades ago when I was feeding my daughter but the taste was very bland, or should I say tasteless. That showed me that a hungry baby ate food that was offered to them. We both know that when properly prepared, green and white tea can be actually sweet. Why would we anticipate a problem with an introduction to such a beverage?
I am not an ice tea drinker myself but I am encouraged by the offerings of “all natural” teas without sweeteners. Ito En – Japans largest manufacturer of bottled ice tea, has a wonderful product. Health food stores have many selections to choose from. This is about parental influence. There are many products that are high visibility items that are not appropriate for children. Soda is a perfect example as well as coffee.
Kids are always eager to imitate their elders, I think. I brew tea in front of my 2-year old…so now she can imitate my moves somewhat with her teapot. Cute when she does that. As a result, she also wants to drink tea. I dilute it with water and no additive. Often when she refuses plain water, I would offer her “Tea?” That she rarely refuses and would savor it quite eagerly.
I’m not really sure at what age to introduce a kid to iced tea would be. As a kid, I couldn’t stand the taste of iced tea, both sweetened and unsweetened. It wasn’t until hot, loose leaf tea that I began to drink tea. I still don’t like to drink iced tea as the taste is just so different when it’s chilled. Perhaps if I just keep drinking it I’ll like it and permanently kick the soda habit for good.
I’m not sure if it’s scientific fact, but I recall hearing that kids tend to be pickier about what they eat in part because their taste buds have a greater sensitivity than adults whose taste receptors have muted with age. So they may reject certain foods because they are able to detect objectionable flavors that we, their parents, cannot detect. I’m not sure if that relates in any way to tea but it’s instructive about why baby food may taste more bland to our adult palates. I’m not so sure it’s advisable to repeatedly give a child something we hope they will like as adults especially if they immediately reject it as children. There may be more to learn about when tea, like Brussel Sprouts, has the capacity to be a pleasant taste sensation rather than “that nasty stuff Mom & Dad forced on me”.
I agree Eric. I would never push tea on kids if they don’t like it. What we’re seeing is a strong desire for kids to model or want what their parents are drinking. IF they don’t like it, they won’t ask for more. For kids I’ve shared it with, I’ve included a squirt of blood orange juice and they LOVED it. I wanted to insure a positive response to their first trial of “tea”. Phyll seems to have the best approach with his little one.