Imagine
that you possess the means and the knowledge to conduct research studies about
any topic in the early childhood field. Imagine further that you are not
restricted by the reality of the present. What topic would you choose?
If I had the power to conduct
any research study it would be on the quality of food within the United States
and how it affects the learning, behavior and quality of life of children. Research in this area has become popular
recently, but I would do a long term, large scale study. I would look at thousands of children across
all demographics, their diets, behaviors and quality of life. After that year long period of study, every
child (except a control group) would be provided a healthy, non-genetically modified
diet for a year. A researcher team and I
would then reevaluate each child’s behavior and quality of life at the end of
the year. This process would also
require that the families actively participate and provide feedback. I would want a very knowledgeable team to conduct
the study, and this would include working directly with Robyn O’Brien who has
been called food’s “Erin Brockovich.” She
is working to shed light on how the changing landscape of food and health are
impacting the food industry and our economy.
Imagine that your study will make a
major positive contribution to the well-being of children and/or their families. What can you imagine the positive contribution(s)
would be?
I can imagine that my
study would show that children will become better behaved, they will be more
attentive at school, obese children will lose weight, children will be
healthier and their quality of life will improve.
I would hope that this
information would be important to politicians and the FDA, and that it would be
enough to show the importance of removing genetically modified organisms (GMOs)
from our food sources within the United States.
.
Finally, I would hope
that it would encourage families to start taking steps towards eating a less
processed diet.
ReplyDeleteJill
I love this idea! A few years ago Chef Jamie Oliver went around to schools showing them how easy it as to make real food instead of using processed products. The kids loved it! He also showed that it would take as much time to cook as the processed foods. My mom often tells me that when she was in school it was real homemade lunches at school. I wish we could come up with a system to help our children learn to eat healthy and eliminate the processed foods in the process.
Hello Jill,
ReplyDeleteI find this research very important! In the educational field there has been much speculation about junk food enables a child to feel tired and non-attentive. Then too, there has been much discussion about the hormones injected into certain foods, thus leading for children to develop faster. The other day I read an article that aims on differences between sufficient and non-sufficient food households. It would be a pleasure to share this article with colleagues.
Tanya Terrell