How to Celebrate Dr. Seuss Without Short-Circuiting Your Child’s Brain
Dr. Seuss is considered so foundational to youth literacy in the United States, that the National Education Association celebrates Read Across America Day each year on his birthday. March 2 is annually marked with events at schools, libraries and community centers across the country with activities that reflect a Seussical worldview while encouraging kids to read.
The recognitions befit a man who filled pages full of colors and words and pictures that were decipherable if not always sensical. It’s a particular brand of vibrant whimsy that is credited with encouraging generations of children to lose themselves in the magic of books without sacrificing the traits that make being a kid so much dang fun.
At the school my kids attend, the party extends the entire week of March 2 with spirit days (Crazy Sock Day! Pajama Day! Dress Like an Old Person Day!) and a reading bingo competition where kids can earn prizes for reading in unique locations or situations . As a parent, I love having a week where my kids are excited to get dressed for school and are constantly sneaking off to some corner of the house to read quietly for five minutes. Thanks be to Seuss.
No proper Seussical observance would be complete without the trademark dish Green Eggs and Ham. Indoctrinated by Sam I Am’s rhyming rhetoric from an early age, you’ll find nary a Grumpy Grinch when presenting green eggs to grade school students. It’s a fun way to start the morning.
It’s also a great opportunity to sneak veggies into your child’s breakfast.
Simply adding spinach to eggs and blending them for a few seconds prior to cooking is a fast and easy path to an amazing technicolor dream breakfast. Given unofficial Superfood Status for its numerous health benefits, spinach boasts a higher concentration of nutrients than other fruits and vegetables. Nearly magical is the ability of blended spinach to act as a bright greening agent to foods without altering taste or texture.
Our family came across this cheat code during the process of clearing artificial food dyes from our kitchen a few years back after looking into the work of Ben Feingold, MD. While having patients follow an allergy diet developed at Mayo Clinic in the 1950s to treat asthma, Dr. Feingold found that removing food dyes, preservatives and artificial sweeteners also decreased hyperactivity as well as other problematic behaviors in some kids.
The concept sounded simple enough until we realized how pervasive artificial colors are in United States food culture. Apparently, companies sell more pickles when they’re dyed to the perfect shade of antifreeze green. Macaroni and Cheese sells better when its orange hue is cranked to retinal searing levels. And everything looks a little more delicious when viewed through Red 40 tinted glasses.
Cutting out most processed foods can make The Feingold Diet a drastic paradigm shift for most adults and can be an even bigger ask for kids. It took a lot of effort to keep our children on board as they saw their friends constantly getting candy at school as rewards and during classroom parties. My wife spent a lot of time searching for ways to make food fun through natural means and finding sources from which to stockpile Feingold-approved treats in our rural outpost at a reasonable price.
Over the years, it’s become easier to adopt Dr. Feingold’s recommendations. Public demand for foods with all-natural ingredients has gained enough momentum that food and beverage companies are motivated to produce more products without the use of artificial colors or flavors. The change has occurred briskly, in no small part due to the fact that companies were already releasing these products in mass quantities in order to stay competitive in European markets which had already banned many artificial ingredients used routinely in American foods over a decade ago.
The benefits of following a clean diet have been noticeable enough for us to stick with it, though we do allow for occasional divergences now that we’ve seen exactly how it affects different members of our family. To varying degrees, we have seen a decrease in hyperactivity and impulse control issues. Our kids tend to eat better at mealtimes when they aren’t filling their bellies with fake food, and they’ve learned the art of reading labels at a young age. We are less likely to settle for unhealthy foods while on-the-go, and we enjoy finding ways to use real food to make delicious snacks and meals.
If you have yet to delve into the world of natural eating, it can be difficult to imagine that you will like dishes such as blended spinach eggs. But you’ll never know until you give it a try.
After all. It’s what Sam I Am would encourage you to do.
Christian Dashiell writes about parenting, adoption, race and culture. He enjoys honing his BBQ Jedi skills and is always looking for an excuse to load his smoker to the brim.
