School cafeterias rush kids through in three seconds per meal, but slowing down and removing pressure helps them try new foods. An imbalanced gut microbiome drives cravings for junk food, but exposing kids to fermented foods like sauerkraut in a fun, low-stress way can actually shift what they want to eat.
I have a friend who works in a public school. She's an assistant food service director and they feed like 17,000 kids. But she said they have 3 seconds per kid to like get them through the line.
You guys, you got to get them through the line.
You got to get them through. And I'm like, I need to take my time with the littles because you don't want to make it stressful. You want to have that first experience be really great. You just have to kind of get to know the kids and become their ally and their friend and make it a really joyful, fun experience.
Is School of Lunch proof that picky eaters are made, not born?
I think so. I mean, I think actually though, it depends on the state of their microbiome too, right? Like if they're all out of whack there, those bad bugs are kind of running the show, right? It's that gut-brain connection. So if they're way out of whack, then they're just— they just crave like white flour, white sugar. It's about rebalancing their microbiome. I mean, I don't push them that hard, so it's It never becomes like a battle. If they're like, no, no, I really don't wanna try it, I'm like, okay, you know, maybe tomorrow. It's just about really making it not stressful and making it super fun. And they're like running up to the line and they trust us and we're all smiling at them and just encouraging them. So that's why like it's so fun to see them taking, you know, sauerkraut and craving sauerkraut because that's like the good guys are starting to proliferate and they actually are starting to crave it. And that happens a lot with little kindergartners.
