Please Don't Be This Parent

It is amazing how possessed some parents are about what and how much their child eats. At the San Diego Zoo, watching elephants eat, a parent started in on her child. "See how the elephant eats everything" she said. I'm no child psychologist, but does she think that her kid is going to relate to the elephant and decide, "wow, she's right, I'll start eating all of my vegetables too". Or does the kid think, "I thought we were here for fun and now I'm being lectured about my vegetables." I vote for the latter. If mom keeps this up soon the kid won't want to go anywhere with mom, as he feels he will always be an open target for criticism.

Please don't be this parent. All the studies that quantify the feeding behaviors between parents and children have shown that when a parent over manages the child's eating, the child will over eat when left on his or her own. A parent's job is to provide a variety of healthy food in a timely manner and letthe child choose to eat the offered foods or not.

I have seen over and over a child signalling that he or she is done with the meal. The parent says "take one more bite before you go". What is this parent trying to accomplish? I am still amazed by how many parents think one more bite of food will make or break a child's nutrition, unlikely. This "one more bite" becomes a knee jerk reaction on the part of the parent, always insisting on the last decision. This is not a successful way to teach a child to take care of him or her self. Nor does it let a child know they can trust their own internal cues for knowing when they have had enough food. We are all born with a natural instinct to eat to survive, and know when we have had enough. The only reason children loose this ability is if we teach them to ignore it, by telling them how much to eat.

Rice is Not a Vegetable

Sometimes I wonder about what people believe is a vegetable. I was at dinner with my parents a few weeks ago and my dad asked for vegetables instead of a potato. The waitress said this was fine. When she brought his plate he asked where his vegetable was. She motioned at the large (probably more than 1 cup) pile of green speckled rice on his plate. My dad seemed confused so the waitress told him that the vegetable was "broccoli rice". Now there are times at restaurants when my dad complains and I would like to become invisible, but this time he was so right. There was probably about 1 tablespoon of broccoli in this rice.

I also see a lots of bagged fried snack food trying to get people to believe they are vegetables. There are pea crisps, fried green beans, carrot chips, and root vegetable chips (yams, sweet potatoes, etc.). Granted these foods started out as vegetables, albeit starchy ones. But frying or baking these in large amount of oil really takes away the spirit of the vegetable. These are now foods that have almost all of their calories from fat whereas vegetable are usually very low in fat. Keep in mind, if it looks like a snack food and tastes like a snack food, it probably is a snack food.

Keep in mind that vegetables are plants that grow naturally from the ground-- with proper conditons and care. Fresh: raw, grilled, baked, roasted or steamed vegetables are the most nutritious and therefore the tastiest. I have no problem with frozen vegetables, and even canned vegetables (but watch out for the salt)are much better than no vegetable at all. But surely rice is not a vegetable.

Groceries for Less

I have been noticing lots of articles in magazines and on line with suggestions for lowing food costs. Advice ranges from coupon clipping to following specific food plans and recipes. All this advice may be helpful to some, but time consuming and expecting too much of a change for others (like shopping at 3 or 4 different stores to get the lowest price).

I would like to offer 1 easy way to lower your cost of groceries $20.00 or more every time you shop. STOP BUYING BOXED CEREAL AND COOKIES. For those adults in the group, stop buying "energy" or breakfast bars-- these are actually cookies enriched with vitamins and minuscule amounts of other esoteric herbs and phytonutrients.

Most breakfast cereal cost about $6.00 a box, with approximately 12 servings. This averages to 50-60 cents a serving, which you might not thing is a lot, but 1 cup of cooked oatmeal is about 4-5 cents a serving, when you buy bulk oatmeal and cook it yourself. Keep in mind that wheat flour, the main ingredient in many cereals cost you about 3-4$ a pound (less for bakers and cereal manufacturers).

Plain oatmeal doesn't appeal to everyone, but you can flavor it with a teaspoon of sugar or colored cookie decorating sugars for extra fun. Add a little pizazz with a little cinnamon and some raisins or other dried fruit. You can also try mixing in fresh fruit and nuts. You can even make it chocolate by mixing in some hot chocolate mix. If you just can't stomach hot oatmeal, there are many easy recipes for home made granola, a combination of oven roasted oats, nuts, and seasonings.

You can't buy most varieties of cookies for less than the cost of 5 pounds of flour, and how many servings are in that box, about 12? That's 25 cents a cookie. There are cookies that cost a whole lot more, but we'll stick with the lowly average chocolate chip cookie.

Replace cookies by making your own. Yes, actually bake them. It doesn't take as much time as you may think. I can make 4 dozen chocolate chip cookies from scratch in about 1/2 an hour. Once a week while my son is in the kitchen doing his homework (which he is constantly asking me to help him with) I make cookies. He gets his work done and I am available if he needs me. Not only do the cookies cost a lot less, I know exactly what is in them. I can use organic ingredients or not, replace some white flour with whole wheat, or use raisins instead of chocolate chips. A home baked oatmeal cookie with whole wheat flour, raisins and nuts would make a great substitute for a breakfast or energy bar at a fraction of the cost.

Just look at your next grocery bill and add up the cost of cereal and cookies. I think you will be surprised.

Don't Put Your Child on Your Diet

January is traditionally the time when many of us decide to make changes. Losing weight is usually among the resolutions most often named. As two thirds of Americans are either over weight or obese, this is a great way to start the year. There are almost as many weight loss diets, strategies and gimmicks as there are people using them. These methods ranges from safe and effective to total cons. Given your temperment, life style, food likes and dislikes, and personality, some eating plans will work for you, other will not. I am not going to go into the pro's and con's of all the diet plans and programs available, but I am here to tell you NOT to put your child on any of these diets.

For all children, except those with specific medically diagnosed illnesses, diets are not appropriate. Encouraging lots of physical activity and offering healthy foods (low fat cheese and meats, seafood, beans, fruits, vegetables and whole grains) is all a child needs. Their body will then grow into it's appropriate and normal weight. Any diet that strictly limits or omits a major food group (carbohydrates, protein, or fat) is unhealthy for a child, and you too. Never use diet shakes, meal replacements, weight loss pills or an over abundance of any supplement as weight loss techniques for children, unless under the direction of a doctor, certified or registered nutritionist or other accredited health care provider.

Children will do best by eating food. Learning to enjoy a variety of healthy and nourishing foods is as important as learning to read, swim or share. As with anything we want our children to learn, we want to establish patterns that will benefit our children now and as adults. Being offered healthful and delicious food choices and encouraging our children to listen to the needs of their bodies prepares a child to naturally make healthy food choices as an adult.