Cause I Eats Me Spinach
Contributor: “Dr. J”Dr. J offers his irreverent, slightly irrelevant, but possibly useful opinions on health and fitness. A Florida surgeon and fitness freak with a black belt in karate, he runs 50 miles a week and flies a Cherokee Arrow 200.
As a kid I often watched cartoons on Saturday mornings, especially in the wintertime! One of my favorite cartoons was Popeye the Sailor. Even now I marvel at the excellent artistry and detail of those earlier works drawn by the artists that worked for Paramount pictures.
I don’t remember paying much attention to the commercials, but perhaps they were not as subversive as they are today. The emphasis now, for the most part, is on selling unhealthy foods to their young audience.
What children are watching is more important than you may realize, at least according to Dr David Haslam, a physician who chairs the National Obesity Forum. He feels that the age of four is a crucial point, because once a child starts school “the battle is lost.”
Dr. Haslam suggests that behavior patterns are well established by the ages of four to five. At that point, the child begins school and the home stops being the major place where a child’s diet can be mostly controlled.
Paul Sacher, a research director at a program that aims to encourage obese children to be more healthy, agrees a healthy start in life is vital.
“Children who are obese at a very young age are more likely to become obese adults. Being obese in early childhood is associated with a wide range of health problems from childhood to adulthood.”
Actually, Dr. Haslam goes on to suggest that we must go “back to the start of life” in order to prevent early childhood weight problems and says that during pregnancy is the time to begin interventions with educating the birth mother about healthy habits.
Perhaps moms need to watch more cartoons! As it turns out, the cartoon itself may actually be more effective as a marketing tool than the commercials, which in this particular case can be a good thing according to current research published in the journal Nutrition & Dietetics.
Popeye as a Role Model
Researchers at Mahidol University in Bangkok found the type and amount of vegetables children ate improved after they took part in a program using various modalities to promote eating healthy food, including watching Popeye cartoons.
Lead researcher Professor Chutima Sirikulchayanonta said: “We got the children planting vegetable seeds, taking part in fruit and vegetable tasting parties, cooking vegetable soup, and watching Popeye cartoons. We also sent letters to parents with tips on encouraging their kids to eat fruit and vegetables, and teachers sat with children at lunch to role model healthy eating.”
They studied 26 kindergarten children aged four to five for an eight week period. The researchers recorded the types and amounts of fruit and vegetables that the children ate before and after going through the program.
The researchers found that the children’s vegetable intake doubled and the types of vegetables that they ate increased. Parents also reported that their children talked proudly about their eating vegetables more often at school.
In case you are not watching cartoons any more, and you want to talk proudly about your vegetable eating, perhaps this more sophisticated video about eating spinach will be helpful and instructive.
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Luke!
Glad to see you are heading in that direction!
They also made olive oyl seem beautiful :-)
Always been a Popeye fan. I aspire to have his forearms one day…
I think it’s genius how they not only exaggerated the positive effects of spinach eating, but emphasized the negative effects of constantly eating hamburgers and not exercising with the character “Wimpy”.
Hey Brandon!
LOL! I never thought of that combination!
Hi Dr. J
So I watched the Ninja Turtles a lot when I was a kid…and as a result, I loved pizza. And since the turtles ate pizza with chocolate on it, naturally I tossed some chocolate chips on leftover pizza, heated it up in the microwave, and loved my new creation. (still do)
But like the Turtles, who were uber active and always doing things like running, flips, etc. I was always out in my backyard running around, climbing trees, and whatnot. Combine that with a love of baseball and hockey and you have a pretty active kid. A pretty active kid who ate chocolate chip pizza, mind you. :-p
Sagan!
Very well said!
Imagination is a great tool for kids – I remember that I used to love eating broccoli because it looked like little trees. Turning health into fun is really important… no matter what our age.
Jannie!
Gardens and cartoons are vastly underrated, as are climbing trees :-)
Patrick!
I believe we were both raised in the same part of the country. That area is not known for it’s healthy food items. There is no comparison between over cooked soggy spinach and fresh!
Vered!
I wish there were laws requiring honesty in commercials. Of course that would eliminate the need for an entire industry.
Food commercials targeting kids are appalling. It’s all sugary, fatty stuff and it’s always presented as something that would make them “cool.”
Popeye was part of my youth. Spinach was not. Healthy wood was present, but right alongside unhealthy. Guess what I chose more of? Interesting to that there is evidence that watching Popeye inspires healthy eating. Especially since it is spinach which kids notoriously dislike. But the essesnce here is that if we expose kids to healthier experiences that the chances increase that they will pick up healthy habits.
I’m still impressed that Popeye could eat a whole can of spinach in one gulp.
Wow, the results of that study are very encouraging! And not really surprising to me.
At My Girl’s school they plant veggies and harvest them. And every bit of them get munched!
I’m crazy about spinach. Sauteed in garlic olive oil. With pine nuts — heavenly! And just right with a glass of wine, enjoyed in a tree. :)
Tom & Jerry was another cartoon series with sheer artistry, with less tools often more is done in art.
xo
Tami!
Great to hear about what you wonderful moms did!
Janell!
Love the spinach synergy, and the beautiful story about your family!
Before I saw this post the other day, I had just been to Trader Joe’s and bought (once again) two big bags of organic spinach so I could blend them into my protein drink. I have to have two protein drinks a day and up until now had not been eating (much of anything) many vegetables. So now, I’m adding back the spinach and it’s wonderful. What a treat for me (at this point).
One if the ways I introduced veges to my kids was by planting and letting them eat from the garden. I enjoyed the same with my grandpa who dug turnips out of the ground for us and we’d eat them. A great way to learn about foods that are good for us.
My children are young adults now but when they were in elementary school a group of us moms decided to clean up the food we brought in for their school parties. We did away with so many sweet limiting it to one cookie or one cupcake.
We brought in fresh fruit, vegetables and dip, cheese and crackers, popcorn and trail mix. The kids loved it!
I have found that with adults and children if you put the good stuff out there they will eat it.
Karen!
It’s never too late to set a good example. You for him, or him for you :-)
Carla!
It is great to get it right off the tree!
Roy!
I eat spinach several times a week also!
Blake!
Sounds like you have a beautiful family!
Sahar!
I always got a kick out of that name. Did you know that Olive Oyl was in the original comic strip for ten years before Popeye came on board? The original cougar, lol!
Upside down tomatoes!
Thank you for your comment!
Karen!
Yes we do :-)
I remember babysitting a little boy who loved Popeye and his spinach! It would be nice if programming for children had role models like that for children to look up to. Real men eat veggies.
I really think that Popeye works in this case because he has a compulsory act related to becoming big and strong. And kids, being the curious little critters they are, want to try and find out if eating Spinach really does make you able to lift 20 ton anchors over your head.
That being said, I find this particularly interesting because as a kid my mother told me that eating any vegetable was good for me, not just spinach. And likewise when I was a kid, I was taught a tomato was a vegetable. (Which.. well, that’s an entirely other debate. Anyway..) And here I am, a year later after I started eating tomatoes and vegetables whole and 200lbs skinnier. :)
I love Popeye, spinach, and Olive Oil. Remember her?
My wife and I try to help our 18 month-old daughter to eat plenty of fruits and veggies.. lucky for us she likes them. We let her see us eat them as well. Always fun to see her try new ones.
A friend and fellow commenter here and I were discussing this today. Somewhat related, I have a pet peeve of “fitness-minded” adults who eat all the greens, the veggies, etc., in pursuit of a smokin’ hot body, but then let their kids eat like crap; Fruity Pebbles, no veggies, etc.
To me that action is a non-verbal way of saying to your children, “I love you my children, but I just happen to love me more.”
BTW: I eat spinach every day of my life!! Usually in a salad, or an omelet with smidge of feta!
This is a great post. I do my best to give my kids healthy food at home because I know that once they leave the house it’s out of my control.
Every year we go apple picking and the boys love to eat the apples right off the tree. It’s so much fun!!!
I have to admit that I did not feed my boys well when they were growing up and now they have very bad eating habits that do not include many vegetables. I would go back and redo this if I could. But my oldest has been expanding his tastes at college and this week, while home, actually asked for green beans!
Bobbie!
The fresh spinach that I eat is much different than the canned stuff I had to face as a kid. Unfortunately, in the south they can take fresh vegetables and add things while cooking them that you don’t want to know about :-)
Diane!
That’s a wonderful example of the validity of this study! I bet your son is growing some strong muscles too :-)
Jody!
Like you most of the veggies I was exposed to as a kid were over cooked to the point of cruelty :-) Learning to appreciate fresh vegetables was easy and made a huge difference in my diet.
I wish there were actual laws enforcing honesty in commercials.
I loved Popeye!!!! But like Bobbie, did not try as a youth. The family eating style in my growing up years was not the best & we did eat veggies but lots of canned ones.. frozen too but canned a lot. Not much info out there back then & money was tight…. I digress.
This makes so much sense Dr. J! Don’t we always preach how it has to start in the home!!!! Parents need to set an example.
I just saw a commercial about a kid in school doing well on a test because he ate right.. what did the “mom” pull out of her WalMart shopping bag???? Sugary cereal & those toaster streusel pastries… nothing like sugar to hype ya hop for a good test.. NOT!!!!!
Great post!!!!
Very interesting. I have a real life example. My 7 year old wasn’t a big fan of tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, etc. This spring we planted a garden with those very vegetables. He was fascinated with the garden and really took “ownership” of it. Guess what? He loves all those vegetables now.
This brings back memories… I used to watch the Popeye re-runs when I was young! :)
However, I didn’t try spinach for the first time until just a few months ago (I’m 32). In my case, I think it had more to do with the foods that we were introduced (or not introduced) to as young children. Spinach was not one of those foods.
My husband on the other hand, loves spinach and grew up a bit in the south. His mother always prepared spinach, black eyed peas and ocra (these are all new to me!).
I agree with the advertising aimed at children though too.