–While Sally is on vacation (think “Relaxation”!), we’re bringing back some of our earlier blogs that are definitely worth a re-read!
—by Sally Beare
How many people struggle to feed their kids the right food or even know what the right food is? Probably most of us.
It’s all very well for us to know that sprouted alfalfa and fermented pickle is good for us, but try telling that to the kids when they’re envisioning hot dogs and ice cream for dinner! It can be hard work to get the right food into our children, but it’s worth it. What we put into them will provide the foundation for their health for the rest of their lives, and even affect their DNA, which in turn will affect the DNA of their own offspring.
It is not at all an unreasonable concern that much of the human population is devolving due to eating the wrong foods and keeping ourselves bolstered up by medical drugs. Those drugs conveniently remove many problems from sight, but what kind of time bomb is ticking away under the surface? We already know that childhood obesity is an epidemic and that the next generation is actually predicted to have a shorter lifespan than ours as a result of bad diet.
In the Longevity Hot Spots, there isn’t any junk food to poison children with as a ‘treat’, so the children there are fit and healthy, with high IQs (since our brains are, like the rest of us, made from food) and well-preserved DNA.
So what about the rest of us – what should we feed our kids? The answer is that if you have now worked out what a healthy diet is for you, the same principles apply to your kids. They need lots of fruit and vegetables, raw when possible, whole grains rather than refined grains, not too much wheat, adequate protein including vegetable protein (such as nuts and seeds), limited dairy products (these can cause snotty noses and asthma, and are not in fact good sources of bioavailable calcium) and both omega 3 and omega 6 essential fats. They don’t need sugar, chips, fries or processed meat. I struggle as much as the next parent to feed my children well, but I would like to pass on whatever tips I have which you might find useful, so here they are. (DON’T throw your toddler’s bowl of food across the garden after you have spent an hour making it and they have refused it, as I once did when I was feeling particularly sleep-deprived).
- Make mealtimes ceremonious by lighting a candle and setting the table – they also enjoy helping with that especially if you give them a task such as picking some flowers from the garden to decorate the table or, better still, allowing them to help light the candle (under adult supervision of course).
- Present the food in a way that makes them interested – make it pretty or arrange it into a face shape.
- If they claim not to like something without having tried it (such as beets or red pepper or any other vegetable), just keep putting it within their sight without forcing them to eat it. Often, after refusing several times, they will make up their own mind that they want to try it, especially when they see other people having it.
- Many recipe books for children recommend hiding vegetables in sauces. If, like my son, yours can spot microscopic specks of vegetable and refuse to eat the entire dish as a result, this may not be the best strategy. I find that my children prefer to know what food is – for example an egg, a carrot, some broccoli; rather than complicated sauces (this means it doesn’t take so long to cook for them either!).
- If your kids only like fish if it is covered in batter and comes from a frozen packet, try blending white fish with dried coconut and some lemon zest and juice, forming it into mini-fishcakes, then rolling it in flour and cooking it in a frying pan in olive oil on a fairly low heat. Mine love to dip these in a tamari and sesame seed sauce, and they even eat them when I add garlic and coriander to the fishcakes.
- Try steaming broccoli for just a short time so it is still quite crunchy, then drizzling a little olive oil and a few shavings of parmesan over it. Put it in a bowl on the table and watch them fight over it.
- Kids like a bit of competition when eating – what one is having the other(s) may want to try.
- Try putting a range of healthy foods on the table so they can pick and choose for themselves.
- Try starving them out – if hot dogs and ice cream aren’t available, they’ll have to eat what’s there!
- Kids like what they are used to, but they can also get bored of having the same thing, so try to keep food interesting by rotating the menu. Introduce new foods gradually.
- Never force kids to eat. However, if they are in the habit of leaving half their food and then expecting cookies half an hour later because they are suddenly hungry, make it clear that you are not prepared to indulge them.
What is your favorite healthy way to feed your children? We’d love you to share your ideas in the comment box below!
