Underage & Overweight

FM Staff

By Frances M. Berg Hatherleigh Press 2004, $24.95 (hardcover)

True, this book is primarily aimed at parents, not foodservice directors. Nevertheless, the information it contains and the advice it gives are supremely relevant to professionals whose responsibilities include child nutrition and—in an increasing number of cases—nutrition education.

Berg starts with the depressing statistics and their likely individual and societal consequences. She also discusses some of the likeliest culprits (yes,they include schools, but they get off fairly easily compared with family eating habits and the fast food culture of the commercial foodservice world) and how they've contributed to the overall problem.

But then comes the best part for those looking for more than hand-wringing or finger-pointing. Her seven-point plan for raising healthier, thinner children focuses not so much on diets or what they eat as it does on the attitude toward eating and food that accompanies it.

“Learning how to eat well," she writes, "begins by stopping all diets, meal skipping, chaotic eating and restoring normal eating as a priority.”

That is a philosophy anyone dealing-with child nutrition issues should be interested in learning more about.