Are You Feeding Your Child Too Much?

I recently read a study discovering that by age 5 children tend to eat what is on their plate, regardless of how they feel. Perhaps by this age children have heard "clean your plate" so many times that they just do. Or perhaps because when they are given a portion of food they assume this is how much they should eat. Ideally, a child should never be made to feel that they must eat, especially to please others. To create a healthy eater we must let children eat how much they need to eat to become sated ( a feeling of having enough). We can do this by either allowing children to serve themselves or by giving them very small servings (1-2 tablespoons) of foods. Let the child know that if they are hungry they can ask for more.

Sometimes a child allowed to self serve will serve too much. This may be because it is fun to move food from the serving bowl. If this is the case, feel free to step in and remind the child that we serve ourselves what we plan on eating. Let them know that they can practice serving after dinner, perhaps with a scoop in sand or dirt. Other children serve themselves too much food because they are very hungry and believe they will eat all the food on their plate. This happens often at my home. When we see extra food on a child's plate we remind them to take less next time, and that there will be more available if they need seconds. This is a trial and error process, so be patient.

Restaruants are notorious for serving us too much. "Single" servings are becoming so large, 20 years ago they would have been called extra large or jumbo. A hamburger with cheese plus fries may contain as many as 1600 calories; the total amount of calories needed per day for many women. As both children and adults regularly see these inflated portion sizes, we assume they are normal and eat them. Many studies have shown that the larger the portion the more we eat. We don't stop when we feel sated. People eat more chips from a warehouse store bag of snacks than from a grocery store bag. We even eat larger portions when we have large quantities of the food in the house.

I bring all of this to your attention as large portions make for large children and adults- not tall, but overweight or obese. One of the major changes you can make to help avoid obesity is to serve small portions at home or allow family style serving. When dining out, share entrees. Order 3 entrees and an extra plate for four people. Don't let the restaurant decide how much you need to eat. If you buy at warehouse stores, repackage the foods into smaller containers and put these smaller containers in your kitchen. Store the remainder out of sight. You'll save calories and money too.

"Fiber" the Newest Label Scam

You can find calcium in orange juice, vitamin B-12 in cereal and now you can find fiber in cookies, yogurt and ice cream. Fiber???? Well, sort of. Polydextrose is being added to foods that don't naturally contain fiber just like oranges don't naturally have calcium and grains don't have B-12. It is still unclear if single nutrients added to foods acts in the human body like nutrients present in the real food. But we do know that polydextrose does not decrease cholesterol or decrease incidence of heart disease as the naturally occurring fiber found in oats and many other whole foods. It may do nothing more than add bulk to the product--cheap filler. Slate.com has a great article on this topic, http://www.slate.com/id/2213354/pagenum/all/#p2.

So I am again telling you, EAT THE FOOD. The real whole food knows what it is doing. It has nutrients to keep our bodies functioning properly and hundreds of other properties that we haven't even discovered yet. These properties work in conjunction with each other within the food itself and lose their efficacy when separated out and added to some other food product. Stop looking for the Perfect food, it's already out there and it's called unprocessed whole food--fruits, vegetables, eggs, whole grains, vegetable oils, wild fish and grass fed beef.

When you start to see advertising for fiber in foods that are not primarily plant foods, realize that because of the lax labeling laws in the U.S., food companies are using the word "fiber" to entice you into buying their food product. You see fiber and think healthy. Never mind that the fiber in this product is likely not going to do you any good.

Fattening Up Babies

We are so obsessed about weight in this country. Even babies are targets. Babies are supposed to be cubby. They are supposed to have several chins, a neck that is hard to find, and rolls of fat at their thighs, wrists and elbows. For the first year babies should be fed on demand. That means feeding them when they show they are hungry and stopping when they show they are done. A baby fed like this will grow appropriately.

Some babies have less fat than others. Over and over I have heard from moms (who are offering appropriate foods at appropriate times) of smaller, leaner babies that they were told to fatten up their child and get them to eat more. They have been instructed to put powdered milk in foods or slather butter on crackers or in rice cereal.

You should never MAKE your baby eat. This will alter their life-long perception about food intake. They will start eating for external cues instead of internal ones - hunger and fullness. As babies instinctually know how much energy (calories) they need, offering high density, high calorie foods will usually result in the baby eating less quantity. This has been proven is several studies. Babies given watered down formula drank more and those given concentrated formula ate less.

It is not your job to get your child to eat. If you have a thinner baby, you can try offering food more often, maybe every 1 ½ - 2 hours. If babies are hungry they will eat, if they’re not, they won’t. Follow their cues. They know what they are doing.