My advice after 50 years in the dietetic association

My first recollected food assignment as a young college student was to provide an afternoon snack for a nursery school class. I gave the preschoolers ready to eat crackers and cheese. That was more than 50 years ago. There was not as many ready to eat packaged foods.  The meats, vegetables and fruit were likely not processed. For the grain option, menu planners opted for a slice of bread, 4-6 crackers, 1/2 cup cooked rice, pasta or cooked cereal or 1 cup ready to eat cereal. 

Fast forward 55 years when the 2026 Dietary Guidelines to Eat Real Food seemed to invoke a reluctance among colleagues. My advice after 50 years in the dietetic association:

• Don't let highly processed foods be the default option. If you can't make it in your own kitchen it probably falls into that category.   Americans have to eat less of them, not eliminate. Give alternatives. 
• Diversify plant foods. Plant foods include grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. These add prebiotic fibers and polyphenol nutrients supporting a healthy gut. Diversifying these and trying different varieties is good for a healthy gut as well as the environment.
• Include sources of lean meat and dairy to meet the protein needs of older adults. 
• Emphasize fermented probiotic rich foods.
• Wash and cut vegetables and fruits yourself. Safety, nutrient density and taste is better.
• Make it harder for manufacturers to engineer a ready to eat food meeting nutrition standards. 

What snack would I give to the preschoolers today? Do made from scratch mini muffins (pumpkin sorghum) and a fresh banana sound good?

MAHA Breakfast Cereal

 

In the cafeteria I managed at the Health Sciences Center, customers loved oatmeal. Served from the soup station at the end of the fruit and salad bar, they filled their 10 ounce soup bowl with a hefty ladle of hot cereal. Few customers bought the single serve boxes of cold cereal.

Here’s my recipe for hot cereal made with hulled barley, dried and fresh fruit and milk. Served with chopped nuts.

MAHA Breakfast Cereal

(4-1 cup servings)

Cook barley in water.

1 cup hulled barley

Drain water and soak in milk. (It will absorb)

Stir in fruits.

3 ounce raisins

8 dried figs, sliced

3 ounce cranberries in orange juice

The cereal gets sweeter as it sits in the refrigerator.

This cereal has 9 grams of added sugar when white sugar is added to the fresh cranberries while cooking. It too gets sweeter as it sits in the refrigerator.

Dietary guidelines recommend limiting artificial preservatives and flavors, petroleum based dyes, and ready to eat packaged breakfast options. There is overwhelming evidence to support minimizing intake of ultra processed foods.