The Lost Art of Feeding Kids: What Italy Taught Me about Why Children Need Real Food

the long version

"A lively story about food, family and identity that will make even the most inexperienced among us want to start chopping and cooking. When journalist Jeannie Marshall moved to Rome with her husband, she immersed herself in Italy's famous culinary traditions. But when the couple's son was born a few years later, Marshall began to see how Italy's great food culture was eroding, especially within young families. Like their American counterparts, Italian children were eating sugary cereal in the morning and packaged, processed, salt- and fat-laden snacks throughout the day. Busy Italian parents were rejecting local markets for supermarkets, and introducing their toddlers to fast food restaurants. So Marshall set on a quest to discover why "kid food" is proliferating around the world. Why do Americans feed their children with branded food products? Is it really possible that an old, healthy and delicious food culture like Italy's can be changed in just one generation? The story offers insight into our battle with the food companies, with our own desires and with our culture. Through discussions with food crusaders such as Alice Waters, with chefs, nutritionists, parents and Italian food vendors as well as with the big food companies such as PepsiCo and Nestle, Marshall gets behind the problems with our children's diets and offers a fresh, new perspective that will change the way we view cooking and eating"--