Adding a Dose of Health to Pizza Day at School

I regularly talk to parents about adding healthier options to their family's diet. I don't think this needs to begin with a complete overhaul of deeply set habits... just baby steps, for starters!

For example, I teach that maybe it's just drinking a glass or two more of pure water everyday. Or adding one more green vegetable. Taking a spoonful of quality fish oil. Having some fruit along with that jelly donut at breakfast!! You get my point.

At my daughter's school, once a month is pizza day to raise money for the graduating class' annual trip to D.C. To be perfectly honest, it's all crap! Cardboard box pizza lacking any trace of nutritional value or live food, carrots (yay!) with ranch dressing for dipping (BOOOOOO!), a brownie and juice. Pop for the older kids. Could we serve up a larger spike in insulin to these poor kids?? I can almost hear the oxygen being choked out of their little cells.... there's NO LIFE in that "food"! Apparently, the concern over the childhood obesity epidemic goes out the window once a month so that the graduating class can take their trip! Oh, and we expect kids to focus, remember, learn and remain alert after ingesting that??

As a side note: 1) Since when does a tasty little treat from nature (carrots) require dipping? 2) ranch dressing is one of the most toxic chemical cocktails on the planet! Go ahead, try to find anything in it that adds to our levels of sufficiency or purity! Nada.

On pizza day, after I do my deep breathing exercises, I prepare a 'healthier' version of this meal for my daughter... so she doesn't feel like a complete outcast for being the offspring of two nutritionally well-versed parents! The night before, we bake an organic pizza together. (If you knew me you wouldn't have to ask if we bake it from scratch, silly!) Then we pack organic carrots without any dipping concoctions. (One time I did pack some hummus for her to dip. She could take it or leave it, so I left it!) I throw in a few cucumber slices for bonus "green points". In the past I've even given her a petite square of organic dark chocolate to be consumed only once the carrots and cukes are happily digesting. Remember, build health first, then you have room to make some 'choices'. She thinks she has died and gone to kid heaven when I do that! For a drink it's the only time she gets anything other than water with her lunch. I'll pack very diluted organic lemonade.

Obviously, this isn't the most nutrient dense meal I could create for her. But it does prove my point - making healthier choices doesn't have to be difficult. What's really interesting to watch is how the other kids in class think her lunch looks 'cool'! Even if they didn't, we're OK with that. Trust me!