Since Jessica Seinfeld's cookbook, Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food, was published late last year, she has—along with her husband Jerry Seinfeld—been in a battle of words with author Missy Chase Lapine. In a lawsuit filed by Lapine last month, she claims that Jessica blatantly copied her cookbook—The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids' Favorite Meals—from the concept to the content to the cover art. In addition, she claims that comedian Jerry's attacks on her when he appeared on David Letterman's show and E! News constitute defamation. According to Lapine, Jerry called her "angry" and a "wacko" and proceeded to imply that she is a dangerous stalker who has been lying in wait for an opportunity to attack the celebrity couple.

While Lapine's lawsuit said the Seinfelds engaged in "conduct that gives new meaning to the terms 'arrogance' and 'greed,' the couple's attorney filed papers last week attacking the action as giving "new meaning to the terms 'objectively unreasonable' and 'publicity stunt.' In the answer to Lapine's allegations, the couple said that Jessica was sneaking healthy foods into their children's meals for some time and that the things Jerry said on television were simply "overstatements of opinion for comic effect."



Photo: ©stockxpert.com/NickLander

Just as the Seinfelds and Lapine are debating the facts about these cookbooks, to some degree, food experts have debated the legitimacy of the ideas contained in them. While some nutritionists say this is a bad idea that gives children the impression that they never have to eat healthy foods, others think that—when done carefully—being a sneaky chef can teach children how to eat right.


"I actually like the concept because kids are so sensitive to bitter flavors—they have 10,000 taste buds, while adults only have 2,000 to 3,000—like the bitter sensations in most vegetables," said Texas-based nutritionist Natalie Butler. "I think it's a great way to get kids to eat vegetables without immediately rejecting them because of that bitter flavor."

But Butler, who creates the "Nutrition by Natalie" series of videos on YouTube's PsycheTruth channel, said that even though parents can successfully get their children to eat vegetables by pureeing and hiding them in foods they like, such as brownies and macaroni and cheese, that does not mean these dreaded foods should never appear on the dinner table. Butler suggests that parents also present these healthy foods on their children's plates, in order to instill the importance of eating them, while having the hidden back up plan if finicky children refuse them. 


                                
                                   Photo: ©sxc.hu/MFinderup (Mette Finderup)


"I don't think that it's right to incorporate vegetables into the foods and never see vegetables on their plates or see their parents eat regular vegetables. I think it definitely has to be a combination," she said. "The fact is that kids do not eat enough vegetables and childhood obesity is epidemic. So we do have issues at hand—regardless of whether people think that it's right to put vegetables in prepared foods or not—the point is that we're trying to get nutrients into their bodies and that's really what it boils down to."


Butler added that because children's taste buds change so frequently, hiding healthy foods can actually help them develop an appreciation for them. "Two weeks after eating foods that have vegetables in them, even if they're kind of convoluted with other flavors, you begin to create a desire for that flavor," Butler said. "Once you have prepared the macaroni and cheese recipe—which has the richness of butternut squash or yam—when you go back to regular mac and cheese, you can taste the lack of these flavors. That's the good thing about kids; they can develop a taste for the vegetables."


Sources:

Butler, Natalie. (2008, January 14). Personal communication via telephone.
Heller, Matthew. (2008). Seinfelds Fight Back Against Cookbook Author. Retrieved January 25, 2008 from The Hollywood Reporter, ESQ.
Seinfeld, Wife Sued Over Cookbook Spat. Retrieved January 7, 2008 from The Smoking Gun.

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