Eat Your Spinach

Suppose you take a group of recently weaned babies who had not formed opinions about what foods they preferred. You place various food items in front of them and give them complete freedom to choose whatever they desire. Would they somehow instinctively reach for foods beneficial to their health, or would they grab the cookie dough ice cream, Cool Ranch Doritos, and Pepsi?

Pediatrician Clara M. Davis conducted this experiment in the late 1920s. She published the results in 1939 in the Canadian Medical Association Journal under the title “Results of the Self-Selection of Diets by Young Children.” If you are wondering who would allow their kids be part of such an experiment, she found 15 children of single teen-age mothers and widows living in poverty in the Chicago area who were having trouble caring for their children’s needs. 

Everything the kids ate was measured and recorded. Blood was tested, height and weight were periodically measured, and bowel movements examined. According to Davis, the kids thrived. Davis said we all have “body wisdom” that will lead us instinctively to eat a healthy diet.

Before you start this practice with your kid, however, you should know that the foods presented were fairly restricted. Here is the list: 

1. Water, 2. Sweet milk, 3. Sour (lactic) milk, 4. Sea salt (Seisal), 5. Apples, 6. Bananas, 7. Orange juice, 8. Fresh pineapple, 9. Peaches, 10. Tomatoes, 11. Beets, 12. Carrots, 13. Peas, 14. Turnips, 15. Cauliflower, 16. Cabbage, 17. Spinach, 18. Potatoes, 19. Lettuce, 20. Oatmeal, 21. Wheat, 22. Corn meal, 23. Barley, 24. Ry-Krisp, 25. Beef, 26. Lamb, 27. Bone marrow, 28. Bone jelly, 29. Chicken, 30. Sweetbreads, 31. Brains, 32. Liver, 33. Kidneys, 34. Fish (haddock).

Note that all of these foods are reasonably nutritious, although in a few cases they may be hard to find. Perhaps readers can enlighten me about Sea salt (Seisal). Bone jelly sounds disgusting. Sweetbreads are made from the thymus and pancreas glands of calves and lambs and sound even more disgusting. I have eaten brains (my family is Pennsylvania Dutch), but brains and kidneys would not be my first choice of meat. You can evidently still buy Ry-Krisp crackers made from rye flour, but I haven’t seen any in my local grocery store.

Not every food was prepared for every meal. The foods were rotated according to a schedule. A child would point to a particular dish, and a nurse sitting by with a spoon would then feed that dish to the child. I’m assuming that the food must have had the consistency of modern baby food, since these kids had recently been weaned.

Davis noted that the kids ate weird combinations of foods, but in the end they seemed to balance out what they needed to thrive. (Ms. Davis said they “throve,” which is a word I plan to start using.)

An article by Stephen Strauss (Canadian Medical Association Journal, Nov., 7, 2006) noted that the study had flaws. This was before computers and spread sheets, and boxes and boxes of data were collected. After Ms. Davis died in 1959, those boxes were tossed. We also don’t have longevity data.  

In addition, Davis had planned to add processed foods but ran into problems of cost (some of the study was done during the Depression). We also didn’t have as many processed foods in that era.

As an American adult, I am well aware that my nutritional intake is less than ideal. Turnips? Cabbage? Cauliflower? What about Oreos, or Pinot Grigio, or Son of Baconator? I’m sure I’d be far more healthy if I stuck to the list provided by Ms. Davis, but it’s too late. 

~ Roy Christman