One of our favorite blogs is Dr. Dina Rose’s aptly named, It’s Not About Nutrition. You see, Dr. Rose does not come from the medical or nutrition fields, rather Sociology. She is a food sociologist (see below). And yet, each and every one of her blog posts hits the spot with solid advice for parents struggling with children who need to eat healthily.

We recently interviewed Dina to learn more. Fascinating…

[Fooducate] What is a food sociologist?

[Dina Rose] At its most basic, sociology is an attempt to understand and explain the way that individuals and groups interact within a society.  One of the main things sociologists study is how people socialize (or teach) members about a group’s culture, norms and ideologies.  As a food sociologist I apply this perspective to understanding how parents teach their children about food and eating.

[Fooducate] When did parental food struggles and your sociology background click to form “It’s Not About Nutrition?”

[DR] I began my career in sociology specializing in criminology, but when my daughter was born in 2001 I became interested in the question of how parents teach their children to eat right.  My mother died of obesity-related illnesses when I was 5 months pregnant with my daughter.  Food and weight were huge issues for my mother, and while I’ll never know how much her obesity led to her death, I do know it led to a life of misery around food.  My mother had worked hard not to transmit her food issues to me, but I wanted to do even better with my daughter.

When I looked at my own young daughter I realized that I didn’t want to know how to get the best nutrients into her, I wanted to know how to teach her to live happily around food.  That meant I wanted her to have a normal relationship to food: to know when to eat, when to stop, how to get through a buffet or a party without overeating, how to eat a couple of cookies instead of the whole box.

With these questions in mind, I began to observe other parents, to read the scientific literature, to think and write about this issue.  Pretty soon it became clear that nutrition wasn’t the vehicle for eating right; instead habits were.

[Fooducate] Is “It’s Not About Nutrition” throwing away 100 years of nutrition science? Surely there must be something we can learn from Registered Dietitians.

[DR] Of course we can learn from the experts.  And we don’t have to throw away knowledge.  But we have to put nutrition into perspective.

When it comes to teaching children about eating, the details sometimes get in the way.  Kids don’t eat nutrients, they eat food that has flavor, texture, appearance, aroma, temperature… these are the things that matter to them.  Parents who ignore this (or who are swayed to look at nutrients instead) are hampered in their efforts to teach their children to eat.  Chocolate milk teaches kids an appreciation for chocolate, not for milk.  And milk doesn’t taste anything like broccoli.  The biggest challenge Americans have is to teach their children to eat more fruits and vegetables. Parents don’t need a nutritionist to tell them that, or to tell them that donuts are not apples.

Parents know what to feed their kids.  What they frequently don’t know is how to get their kids to eat the foods that they serve.  Nutrition has nothing to offer parents with regard to that.

If you want to teach your kids to eat right you have to move beyond nutrition to focus on behavior, to focus on habits.

Once the basics are in place—once kids are eating more fruits and vegetables than processed foods and more than junk—then you can call the Dietitian and refine their eating.  Until then, focusing on nutrition is like focusing on the quality of your car stereo when don’t even own a car.

[Fooducate] You mention the birth and early years of your daughter’s life as the impetus for your service and blog. How have the early school years been from a food perspective?  (As a parent, I’m seeing more outside influence, and not the good kind, on my children. It’s getting harder to get them to eat the healthy foods they once enjoyed. ) What can I do?

[DR] School is an excellent opportunity to teach kids how to deal with the food world.  We don’t focus on the quality of food so much as focus on how often different foods should be consumed.  My problem isn’t so much with school lunch as it is with school snack.  (See my post Polly Want a Cracker? if you want to read how I really feel.)  Endless crackers, cookies, popcorn, granola bars… it makes me nuts.  I believe these kinds of food should be featured for snack once or twice a week, and the rest of the time kids (actually all people) should snack primarily on fruit and vegetables.

In our home we balance out this onslaught by schools by eating very little “snack food.” When my daughter objects we talk about proportion.

Having said that, my daughter does ask for more candy and ice cream than she used to.  We solve this problem by agreeing on the number of times per week she eats these items (once or twice) and she gets to choose when she gets them.  We increase her level of control now by giving her money and letting her purchase the goods.

[Fooducate] What are your top 3 tips for parents who are struggling to get their kids to eat healthily?

[DR] 1) Instead of worrying about introducing new foods, establish a style of eating that includes the following structure:

• Don’t eat the same foods two days in a row or twice in a day.  This will get your kids used to the idea that you eat different foods and that idea will lay the foundation for introducing new foods.
• Make sure your kids eat more fresh, natural foods than anything that comes out of a box or a can.

Both of these can be achieved (and should be achieved) without introducing new foods.  Simply cycle through, and reapportion, foods your kids already eat.

2) Take the pressure off your kids by serving small portions, by never asking your kids to eat more and by never linking eating “well” to getting dessert.

3) Look at why your kids eat the way they do (are they afraid new foods will taste bad, do they have a cautious personality, are they in a control struggle with you) and parent that aspect of your child.

[Fooducate] How do you shop for food? Do you read nutrition labels?

[DR] In general I buy fresh, unprocessed foods that don’t require label-reading.  I do read labels when it comes to breads, cereals and a few other select items to make sure that whole grain really means whole grain, and to make sure the list of ingredients is relatively short.

When I buy junk, I just buy it.

[Fooducate] What’s your favorite food?

Pizza.

[Fooducate] How do people hear about your service, and aren’t they apprehensive when they hear you are not a dietitian?

People hear about me in a variety of ways. 1)My blog itsnotaboutnutrition.com; 2) through twitter (@DrDrRose); 3) through guest-posting; 4) traditional media interviews; 5) local advertising and 6) word of mouth.

Rather than be wary of me because I’m not a nutritionist, people find my perspective refreshing, easy to understand, and reassuring.  They say that I make sense!

[Fooducate] Well you certainly make sense to us! Thank you.

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