Better eating habits and kids....Need more help!!

[Dace]

Great tips everyone

I have always had picky kids, or I should say I have always indulged my picky kids....let's be real, I created this mess.

I know that I need to take baby steps and just quite bringing the crap into the house, which is what I am doing.

I like the combination of sitting them down for a chat but ending it with this is how it's gonna be so shut up already .

I would like to create a little chart to put up in the kitchen to get them thinking...something to help them start thinking of food in different categories...instead of snack, dessert and meal foods more like living, raw, whole vs dead, processed and fake....I need help working out the categories, but the idea is to get them to make a mental shift. Instead of calling froot loops yummy food they are now a called fake food. Perhaps set up a guideline that tells them they are allowed X number of fake/dead foods per day and they need to squeeze in X number of live, whole, raw foods.

What do you think?

 

[dipence71]

My kids are DD11 and DD17 so it will work with older kids because all mine do is complain and are definitely "tween and full fledged teen" and if I say green DD17 says yellow. But when i told them to stay out of my stuff that is exactly what they wanted so I just buy more of "my" stuff and less and less of theirs because they eat mine. DH on the other hand still wants his full fledged sugary processed crap. And when the kids eat all of mine thaen they start on his and he get sooo mad LOL...
"That's my lunch food.."

hahahahabrewwwhahahaha

 

[freemotion]

You might try the 80/20 rule.....80% real food and 20% "other." They have to eat the good food before they can have the other stuff. What if you had them define each ingredient and it's hazards or benefits before they are allowed to eat it? It will teach them to read labels, too. And to choose foods that have fewer ingredients, and whole ingredients. Like peanut butter that has two ingredients: Peanuts, salt. Or chips that have three ingredients, potatoes, oil, salt. Not Pringles or Doritoes.

Or what about having them make their own snack foods, from recipes you approve and ingredients you control....For example, oatmeal cookies with butter instead of trans fats, cut the sugar by 1/3, and add some nuts and raisins or chopped dried fruits. Maybe replace half the flour with whole wheat. These are surprisingly good.

They can make fruit crisps, homemade pudding with fruit in it and toasted coconut on top....we loved vanilla pudding with banana slices and mom would toast shredded coconut in the oven to top it with.....mmmmm!

Mini pizza's on whole wheat English muffins with homemade pizza sauce (they can make it) are nice and quick, too. We used to make pizza toast, toasted homemade bread with pizza sauce and a sprinkle of parmesan! Kids'll eat anything! But there is a serving of veggies in that sauce!

 

[Dace]

I like the 80/20 rule! Good one Free

 

[onebuggirl]

That will work with my 6 yr old...she is still mold-able. it is the 13 & 16 yrs olds that are making me crazy!

Then they should be old enought to watch the movie Food Inc and read some books like Animal Vegetable Miracle or other resources..maybe?! Good luck. I was lucky to marry a guy that was more than happy to switch to healthy and my daughter was only 7 when we did the switch

 

[Dace]

Oh they will watch it...as soon as it is out on video (DH and I are going out tonight to see it! ) and they have seen The Future of Food...they think I am weird

I am trying to get creative in educating them so that they will be on board.

Any feedback on the re-labeling of food categories idea that I had earlier? Just wondering if that seems weird?

 

[freemotion]

Not at all....I listened to a great lecture by Sally Fallon and she calls foods "nutrient-dense" and "displacing foods." Displacing foods are the current offerings that have little to no nutrition, and we fill up on them and they "displace" real food. Then we have cravings, since our body is still calling for nutrients, and we eat more junk. Well, not really "we...."

People will often hand me an item and ask me to evaluate the label for them. I usually hand it back and say, "You'd be better off eating a styrofoam cup! At least you'd KNOW you were eating plastic and poisonous chemicals!" Then I explain why....I'm not completely mean, after all....

 

[Dace]

In reading thru NT today in the car with my 18yr old, I came across the little bubbles Name this Product...looked thru the back to find one to pique her interest.

Water. corn syrup, hydrogenated coconut and palm kernel oils, sugar, sodium caseinate, polysorbate 60 and sorbitan monostearate, natural and artificial flavors, xanthan gum and guar gum, artificial color.

I asked her to guess what sweet treat that might be...after she gave up I told her. Cool Whip. All that crap in place of simple cream, sugar and vanilla. She got it. Of course that does not mean she is willing to forgo the crap in the immediate moment that she is craving it.... but at least she grasped the concept!

 

[Henrietta23]

Great tips everyone

I have always had picky kids, or I should say I have always indulged my picky kids....let's be real, I created this mess.

I know that I need to take baby steps and just quite bringing the crap into the house, which is what I am doing.

I like the combination of sitting them down for a chat but ending it with this is how it's gonna be so shut up already .

I would like to create a little chart to put up in the kitchen to get them thinking...something to help them start thinking of food in different categories...instead of snack, dessert and meal foods more like living, raw, whole vs dead, processed and fake....I need help working out the categories, but the idea is to get them to make a mental shift. Instead of calling froot loops yummy food they are now a called fake food. Perhaps set up a guideline that tells them they are allowed X number of fake/dead foods per day and they need to squeeze in X number of live, whole, raw foods.

What do you think?

We have a print out of the food pyramid guide on our refrigerator. If my son is asking for something junky I tell him to find it on the pyramid. If he can't then it's a "non-food" and we don't get it. We've still got room for improvement but that helps.

 

[freemotion]

Just bear in mind that the food pyramid was designed by the USDA. United States Department of Agriculture. Their primary job is to sell agricultural products. The primary products today are corn and soy. So the food pyramid is not about health, it is about commerce. It is also one of the reasons this country is obese.

ETA: Oh, sorry, I think you are referring to the pictures on the pyramid, which are of wholesome foods, if memory serves me!