Play With Your Food
In order to create healthy eating habits, we must reframe our relationship with food.
“Don’t play with your food!”
I remember my mom exclaiming as a child. However, to me, food was always a canvas for the imagination. It had a play appeal that I couldn’t help but explore, so as a child, I didn’t know why my mom would get so upset. I didn’t understand that she was a busy working mom. She didn’t have time to watch me create a volcano with my mashed potatoes or pretend my broccoli was a mystical forest. I also didn’t process why I needed to eat certain things at certain times. The whole concept of three well-balanced meals a day was a completely foreign concept to me.
While I remember hazily learning about the food pyramid, the context of why I needed to pay attention to it went in one ear and out the other. I’m sure my teachers and mother did their best to administer healthy food choices, but I can’t recall zip. Do you know what I can recall? Play.
Play was a way of life as a child. It was the opportunity for adventure in the midst of normality. There were all kinds of play. From creating snow forts to hanging out on the jungle gym and building new worlds out of legos; play was exciting, it was engaging and most of all, it was liberating. So, why can’t we play with our food?
Research shows that play is critical for healthy childhood development.
Play provides an outlet for a child’s imagination which in turn strengthens dexterity, physical, cognitive and emotional strength. It is the gateway to healthy brain development and helps a child learn not only about the world but gives them a further understanding of self. Studies even show that play leads to a higher IQ, which allows for faster learning and better memory.
Healthy food also has mind sharpening powers.
Healthy food goes hand in hand with brain development. Balanced nutrition helps a child avoid detrimental health problems, maintain a healthy weight, and stabilizes energy levels. It is important for children to learn how to eat healthy from an early age because the habits that they gain as children continue with them for the rest of their lives.
Insert a food pyramid.
You’d think healthy eating would be easy, right? I mean, we have all seen a food pyramid so we should know how to eat healthily. However, the reality of the situation is that American children are not eating healthy food. According to the White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity that Michelle Obama led, childhood obesity has been on the rise for decades. There are many factors for this, some of which being race/ethnic, socioeconomic, and regional disparities. These disparities all have one thing in common: there’s a lack of healthy food being embraced in the United States.
Parents are strapped for time, money and resources.
Believe it or not, healthy food can be hard to find in some communities. According to the American Heart Association, there are upwards to 30 million Americans who live in food deserts, which are rural or urban areas where there are limitations to affordable, fresh, and healthy food. Simultaneously, the pace of modern life has Americans opting into the convenience of fast-food and the pleasure of soft-drinks because it’s easy and cheap. These factors are aiding the rise of obesity in children, ultimately leading to long-term health problems.
Children are our future.
We are mindful that children are our future, so we decided to step back and observe this issue in order to find solutions. By utilizing a human-centered approach, my MassArt Master of Design Innovation cohorts and I transformed hours of data gathering and user testing into a line of products that blend play and health. While it won’t solve all problems tied to childhood obesity, it will certainly push towards a smarter, healthier, and more fun future.
It all can’t be fun and games…or can it?
Introducing Real Yummy: a brand that encourages play and healthy eating. Since getting children to eat healthily is a struggle for most parents, it’s important to reframe the problem and find a solution that makes it fun for kids and easy for parents. Through our research, we found that in today’s world, parents have limited time to grocery shop, cook and engage with their children. According to Statistia, in the U.S. alone, there were about 126.2 million single-family households in 2017. That’s a household where one parent is most likely taking care of all the children, working a job and doing all the cooking, as well as any other task you can possibly think of. Therefore, we have found a solution that helps a parent make quick seamless healthy decisions at a grocery store or farmers market. A solution that helps parents learn and create fast meals that promote a nutritional lifestyle and a solution that gives children the autonomy to create and play: Real Yummy! Play, eat, learn, and grow.
A Real Yummy solution.
Real Yummy consists of three main products with one mission, make healthy eating, fun and easy for parents and hungry children.
Real Yummy Snack Pack
The first is a kid-friendly easy cleanup snack pack. Enjoy fun, playful, and stress-free healthy snack recipes that’ll make your child want to eat all their vegetables. Count ingredients and learn nutritional tips along the way. This snack pack focuses on building healthy eating patterns while developing imagination, dexterity and cognitive strength.
Real Yummy Adventures
The second product melds fun and fun facts by blending food with culture and science. Two varieties of the pack include country-specific recipes, along with mats that set the scene for different occupations like paleontology. Through easy-to-create recipes, engaging step-by-step instructions, and fun facts linked to the theme of the mat, we’re innovating our relationship with food. We use food to not only encourage your child’s healthy eating habits but to expand their curiosity about the world around them.
Real Yummy Play-box
The third product aims to offer fun communication between parents and children during in-school lunchtime. Real Yummy Play-box is a cool lunchbox for children from 5 to 10 years-old where parents can use legos to customize the lid of the play-box and set up different shapes, messages or landscapes. Meanwhile, they also can use models inside the box to easily decorate food. The Real Yummy Play-box will not only get your child’s attention, but it’ll also create special moments between you and your child while increasing their appetite for healthy food.
