Our children are in the middle of an obesity crisis and are not getting the nutrition they need for their growing bodies, reports the Lempert Report. The solution ultimately rests with parents. In fact there are a number of cookbooks, which give parents tips on hiding healthy vegetables in kids' meals, sneaking good nutrition into their diets.
At the same time, there are a number of books written by foodie parents wanting to share their love of food and adventure with kids. They include: My Two-Year-Old Eats Octopus: Raising Children Who Love to Eat Everything by Nancy Tringali Piho; Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father's Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater by Matthew Amster-Burton, and Too Many Cooks: Kitchen Adventures with 1 Mom, 4 Kids, and 102 Recipes by Emily Franklin.
These books are meant for koodies. You ask, what is a koodie? A kid keenly interested in food, whether it be eating, cooking or watching reruns on the Food Channel. Koodies are kids who have an ardent or refined interest in food; a mini-gourmet; usually trained by one or both parents to have an unusual and sometimes fanatic desire to eat unusual foods, such as sushi, pad Thai, or smoked salmon rather than chicken nuggets. They give "rock star" status to chefs, and use networking sites to create videos and share recipes. These kids are tech-savvy and have at their fingertips a voice in the new media, which they understand how to use all too well.
Our children are our future, and as these new koodies evolve, look for both CPG brands and restaurants to make their kids' meals more nutritious, offer foods that aren't boring and offer a culinary experience. Koodies are here, and as they mature into adulthood, look for the food world to be led by a new generation who really know their food. Yes, the future of food might just rest in the skillets and bowls of these koodies.
