September's Brown Bag!

         Last Tuesday, September 4, Kari Matheson presented the monthly brown bag entitled, “Tips and Tricks for Helping your Family Eat Healthier.” Her presentation centered around behavioral economics which focuses on the psychological variables involved in making decisions and how these variables can be translated to the way we eat. Brian Wansink, author of Mindless Eating, said, “Our taste resides in our head as well as in our mouth.” Even before the food touches our mouth we are hit with psychological cues including the name of the food, visual appeal, ingredient associations, packaging, lighting, and odors and scents. Kari gave an example of a bakery that was having a hard time selling their brownies. Someone decided to sprinkle some powdered sugar on them and sales went up almost immediately. Therefore, when feeding a family it is important to think about these psychological factors and how changing one or more of them can be the difference between a family member eating vs not eating a food item. Kids can be especially picky when it comes to what they will and won’t eat. Some ideas to help them eat their meals include the following: making stories out of their food, creating visual associations (broccoli=dinosaur trees), involving children in meal planning, giving children food choices, and cutting food into different shapes.        
         After the presentation we put this idea into practice. Everyone made a pancake and mixed in healthy ingredients including flaxseed, sunflower seeds, almonds, and pecans. After the pancake was cooked everyone tried to make it as visually pleasing as possible with fruit, whipped cream, jam, and syrup. Take a look at some of the creations!  

Thank you to all those who came to September’s brown bag, and don’t forget about the next brown bag on October 10! Earthquake lady will be giving a presentation on emergency preparedness!