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!
