Healthy eating a hard sell for New Jersey teens

A 13-year-old girl smelled the steamed carrot, and after a taste decided she couldn’t eat it. Briana Salaam shook her head no, and took it out of her mouth. ``You just have to adjust your taste buds,’’ her teacher, Towana Wise, told the class of teens. ``You’re young, and this is the best time to develop good eating habits. It’s not going to kill you.’’ To teach teenagers about the importance of eating healthy food, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey has incorporated hands-on nutrition workshops into its summer program for urban high school students in the Newark area. Talking to children about nutrition and healthy eating habits is especially important because of rising obesity rates in children, said Emma Davis-Kovacs, acting state director for the Department of Agriculture’s division of food and nutrition. ``We have research that is clearly showing that this generation is in jeopardy of having shorter life expectancies because of issues brought on by obesity: type 2 diabetes, hypertension, heart conditions,’’ she said. About 20 percent of New Jersey’s sixth-graders are obese and 18 percent are overweight, according to a study of 2,393 student records from 40 randomly selected public schools. The state agriculture department helps provide nutritiously balanced meals to children from economically disadvantaged areas through a federally sponsored summer food program. It’s an extension of the decades-old federal National School Lunch Act that furnishes meals to children during the school year. About 52,000 children across New Jersey receive free lunches during the summer. The program’s biggest service area is in Newark, where about 20 percent of those children live, said Cherrie Walker, assistant state coordinator for the summer food service program for children. She said children need to be thinking about the long-term effects of what they eat. ``Back in the day, we thought only old people had hypertension and high blood pressure and diabetes,’’ she said. ``Now we see kids younger than teens that have diabetic issues and hypertension and high blood pressure. Our children are getting sicker at a younger age than in the past.’’ Some teens in the program questioned why they were supposed to be eating these specially designed healthy meals, said Clinton Dozier, director of the pre-college program at UMDNJ’s School of Health Related Professions. ``There was some resistance,’’ he said. ``They needed information about how they could enjoy nutritionally balanced meals.’’ A registered dietitian, Colleen Johnson, prepared an orientation for the students, and eventually it grew to four sessions. ``We can talk to young folks, and we can give them demonstrations,’’ Dozier said. ``But if we involve them, were engaging them intellectually and were engaging them emotionally and hopefully that will be long lasting and it will be a lifestyle of healthy eating for them.’’ Now, in addition to language arts, math and science, the teens in the program _ which includes UMDNJ, Rutgers and the New Jersey Institute of Technology with school districts in Newark, East Orange and Irvington _ also cook. They learn about the food pyramid and why nutrition is important, but many are still squeamish about adding vegetables to their diets. Imani Clark, 14, said she eats broccoli, but only with cheese. ``I don’t like mushy, nasty vegetables,’’ she said, pointing at a plate of greens as onions wafted through the classroom and kitchen. The students had just stir-fried carrots and cauliflower, peppers, onions and garlic with light soy. In an earlier session, they blended smoothies with low-fat yogurt and fruit. ``If they try it here and there, they might like the different taste,’’ Wise said. ``The more they have them, in the long run they’re going to benefit from the nutrients of these foods.’’ Yet when they got to the UMDNJ cafeteria at lunch time, most of the teens threw away broccoli, which was added to their plates as part of the summer lunch program. ``It was always very challenging to get the kids to eat a balanced, healthy meal,’’ Johnson said. She said many of the students will participate in the program again next summer, and maybe some of the lessons over time will sink in. ``It’s really important to keep introducing it and to keep trying different ways to get them to eat healthy food,’’ she said. ``Eventually you usually do strike the right chord.’’