Healthier Homes Around the Globe: Obesity stems from the lack of cooking skills to combine healthy, tasty foods, according to advocate and eminent TED speaker, Jamie Oliver. Children who have been eating processed foods since they were babies, children who never see their mothers cook do not know that a French fry comes from a potato. Many don’t even know what a potato is.
Ask your child, “Where does breakfast come from?” And prepare yourself to hear “from Kellogg’s, Captain Crunch or McDonald’s” than from wheat or corn or chickens.
Check out this video – you will be glued to the screen – Jamie Oliver’s TED Talk: “Teach every Child About Food”. It’s guaranteed: you will start learning to cook with the kids. Jamie Oliver: Teach Every Child How to Cook
Global Perspective: Compare what your child had for breakfast today with some of these breakfasts that families eat around the world…
Typical Breakfasts around the world
Sweden: Coffee/milk and toast with cheeses.
South Africa: “Pap” which is corn meal with sugar & milk
North Africa: Coffee and millet bread or spreads with spices. Popular dish is Chakchouka which is eggs poached in red pepper sauce.
Costa Rica: Gallo Pinto – spiced rice and beans (onions, peppers, cilantro)
Australia: Cereal or toast with – you guessed it – Vegemite. (everyone from Australia knows about Vegemite on toast) Vegemite is very high in vitamin B
America: granola bar, pop tart, cereal with milk, fast food breakfast sandwich
Ireland: Breakfast cereal. Apparently the Irish eat more breakfast cereal per person than anywhere in the world. At least according to Kellogg’s who report it is, hands down, the most popular cereal brand in Ireland. Too bad – Ireland’s own steel cut oats that are rich in flavor with nutty texture and lots of heart healthy minerals and vitamins (and made from real oatmeal that is never been genetically modified.) We hope Ireland will keep her traditions in tact.
Norway: Salmon and toast, cereal and/or coffee – possibly eggs or fruit
Japan: Steamed rice, miso soup, side dishes (fish, vegetables etc)
France: fresh bread (or croissant) and coffee
It has been said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. What did you have for breakfast today?
Love, Tara
Tara Pelton is a researcher and writer specializing in global issues important to women and families. She is owner of Expect Success Media, and author of “Marketing from the Heart”, a new approach to promotion social media. Ms Pelton is author of “Stop the Pain”, an ebook on women’s health, fiction for teens. In her spare time she volunteers teaching dance to youth and the elderly in Los Angeles, CA.