I am a mother of a seven year old girl, with a big personality and big dreams. She wants to be a chef. Actually, she would correct me – “I want to be a chef on TV, mommy!” All moms want to encourage their children’s passions, right? So I try to have her cook with me, I talk about ingredients, I encourage her to watch Rachel Ray on The Food Network vs. Wizards of Waverly Place, and I buy her books and toys that get kids excited about cooking.

That’s where I was a bit disappointed. So many “kids’ play cooking” options are not so healthy. I grew up with the Holly Hobbie Oven, so of course I’d love to buy her the 2009 Easy Bake Oven, but when I took a look at the ingredients in those Easy Bake pouches, I nearly collapsed! Not only are they loaded with nasty preservatives and artificial colors and flavors, but trans fats too! It’s like health was a foreign word to the developers of these products who just build them for fun alone. How disappointing, and what a market miss. So I’m buying the oven, but needing to make my own recipes from scratch that my daughter can bake in her own oven and little pan, while I bake in mine.

Even the “pretend food” offerings out there are disappointing – heavy on fast food, confectionery and sweet baked goods, but really slim pickings on anything that looked remotely healthy with the exception of a large bag of plastic fruits which didn’t look very fun. What about play carrots and dips? Play-versions of crackers and apple slices? Where are the play versions of nuts or yogurts? Or just standard meals like pasta or meat and veggies…

Right now, it is difficult for parents to encourage healthy eating, healthy cooking, and healthy snacking because everything in our society points to how exciting it is to eat and cook unhealthy foods. I look forward to the day when choosing the healthy option is not only the obvious answer for kids, but it’s also fun for kids. In the world of juice, First Juice offers beverages for young children that are healthy formulations in convenient sippy-top bottles, which make both moms and kids happy. I hope that in the future, when encouraging my kids to eat and cook well, there will be more tools available to help encourage them in a fun and healthy way.

Cheryl Thomas
First Juice, Inc.

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