Using Peer Pressure to Help Children Eat Healthy Lunches.... Really?

I am not against healthy school lunches, really I am not. I want my child to learn to make healthy choices when eating at school, and fully support initiatives to increase the standard of school lunches. However, we do pack lunches for my daughter most days, because while school lunches have come a long way since the rectangle, grease covered, cardboard slab that passed as pizza when I was a child, they still have a long way to go before I would call them "healthy choices". Each week when we receive the lunch menu from school, we sit down and talk about what is being offered, what she would like to have at school, and if that is a healthy choice or not. (Now admittedly there are times when I let her go ahead and have the school lunch she wants, even if it is not the best choice because I want her to learn that it is okay to splurge.... once in a while!)

As part of my desire (okay, obsession really) with teaching my daughter about healthy eating, I am always looking for ways to make healthy food interesting for her. I ran across this site recently from a posting I saw on Facebook, and while I think that most of the ideas presented on this page are good, and fully support changes to make school lunches healthier, I am appalled at a couple of the suggestions that were given to help promote healthy eating in children.

The biggest issue I had was that the site was promoting taking extra food to school to "share with friends."

Really? Share with a friend? You have got to be kidding me!

As a parent of a child that has food allergies, there is no way I want my child to "share" another child's lunch. I find that incredibly irresponsible to even suggest that children should be sharing food at school! Now I know that no matter what we as parents say, kids will share their lunches with friends. However, to openly promote sharing lunches, even if it is under the guise of teaching kids to make healthy options, is like playing Russian Roulette (at least in my mind it is)! The authors of that site have no idea if sharing that "healthy nut (insert favorite food allergen here) contaminated item" would cause an allergic reaction in my child, or another's child! (DISCLAIMER: in no way am I saying that parents don't have the right to bring their favorite food allergen containing item to school, just please don't share it with my tree nut allergen kid!)

And don't even get me started on the sties statement that using peer pressure is a great way to help children select "healthy options."

Peer Pressure?

What?

Honestly, I had to go back and reread that because I could not have read that correct.... but I did. Peer Pressure. Great. Let's go right ahead and promote the use of peer pressure to get our children to do something. I can see it now....

Mom: Amy Jo... eat your carrots. Belinda Sue does, and she is such a good, healthy girl. Don't you want to be a good, healthy girl too?

Amy Jo: Okay Mom

Now, fast forward to teen years....

Amy Jo: Belinda Sue does (Insert whatever teen behavior scares the crap out of you), and she wants me to do it with her. I want to be like her, so.... okay!

Now, this may seem far fetched to some of you. But honestly, in a world where we rank ourselves against our peers, and it starts earlier in childhood then I remember as kid (and no, I am NOT that old), do we really want to promote peer pressure.... even in doing the right thing?

While I know what my answer to that is, that is a question that needs to be answered individually.

So bottom line is that while I think that the article had some good points, to me the flaws really did outweigh the positive. Not a resource I would recommend to others!

If you are interested, here are some better resources:

http://www.nourishinteractive.com/nutrition-games/learning-healthy-eating-fitness-childhood-habits
http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes_menus/collections/healthy_eating_kids
http://www.fns.usda.gov/eatsmartplayhardhealthylifestyle/

and because I feel that, even if you do not have a food allergy kid, it helps to be informed:

http://www.foodallergy.org/