Avoid Over Eating

I am reading David Kessler's book "The End of Overeating". He has totally reinforced my motivation to convince parents to stop feeding their children an abundance of processed foods. Kessler's book focuses on why we over eat. He takes the reader through the way the brain can react to food cues, smells, and stimulus which then create memories and habits. He then discusses how most of our foods, all those that are processed, are scientifically manufactured to increase our desire and addiction for the food. Lastly he talks about how to break the habits of over eating.

Kessler's premise is that we are all fighting a battle against "Big Food" where food is manipulated to give us the most pleasure with the least effort. Many of the doctors and scientists that he interviews for this book, and the studies that he uses to support their findings are based not only on people who are over weight or obese, but on drug abusers, alcoholics, gamblers and smokers. Addictive behaviors all produce similar reactions in the brain. Foods are structured to melt away in our mouths with almost no chewing. The tastes of salt, sugar and fat are balanced in a way to produce the biggest WOW, and to last even after the food is out of our mouths, leaving us wanting more. As these foods melt away so quickly, we eat more and more, way before our brains tell us we are full. We become accustomed to eating large portions of foods. Habits are formed along with extra weight.

So the most important action you can take to teach your child how to eat is to avoid processed foods. This includes almost all chain restaurant foods (and many others), salty and sweet snacks foods, candy, soda, breakfast cereals and many ready to eat canned and frozen meals. Provide your children with real food: fruit, vegetables, whole grains (oatmeal, brown rice, corn, whole wheat noodles and breads), lean meats, eggs, cheese, nuts, seeds, beans, sea food, and baked goods with real food ingredients only (flour, sugar, butter).

Insist that your children sit down and eat, chew their food, and let their bodies, mouths and minds realize that they have eaten and are satisfied. Serve portions that are small so children see what an appropriate portion looks like, and then allow for seconds if your child still senses hunger. Read Kessler's book- it will really show you how to create a healthy eater in yourself and your child.

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.

Mom's on a Diet

When I hit 40 I found my eye sight was not quite what it used to be but bifocals took care of this slight imposition. Now in my early 50's I found that my weight is slowly creeping upward, despite my 6 day a week work-out routine. I want to loose 15-18 pounds. Ten pounds of post baby weight I never lost after my second child and another 5-8 pounds that has snuck up on me. So what is a mother of two young and impressionable children to do, especially when that mom is a Dietitian?

A parent on a "diet" will impact a child (mine are 7 and 12)and I don't believe in diets. Children can take in the wrong message from a parent making too much of their diet. I believe in making changes that can be made without adding any stress, tension or feelings of hunger or deprivation. Changes need to be life long.

So I decided to eat less, one portion of food (i.e. 1/2 cup to 1 cup portions mostly). I put myself on a 1500 calories plan as I am only 5"4". I eat 6 times a day with 400 calories at breakfast, lunch and dinner, plus three 100 calorie snacks. I eat what I want, both healthy foods that I enjoy and potato chips, nuts, cookies and ice cream which I also enjoy. I am just eating less, 1/2 cup of ice cream is 120 calories (Dryers Slow Churn) and Trader Joes reduced fat potato chips, 1ounce, is also about 120 calories. So a lunch of 2 scrambled eggs, 1 oz. chips, 1 large apple and 1 square of dark chocolate is 367 calories. No special foods, shakes, bars or recipes. My kids see me eating. I tell my husband that I don't want my body to think it is being starved, so I always eat all of my calories. I eat any "left over" calories in addition to the 100 snack calories dedicated for evening snack, as dessert.

I am loosing about 1 pound a week, 10 pounds down so far. What will I do when I reach my goal? I may not make it to my goal as at some point my body may stop loosing weight. At that point I will just keep the same eating pattern and be the way I am. If I do reach my goal and am still loosing weight I will add a few more calories until I neither gain nor loose weight.

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.

Stop MIcro Managing Your Child's Eating?

We all want our children to eat healthy foods and there are many ways to allow this to happen. Our first job is to offer healthy foods often. A hungry child will eat, so the more often healthy foods are offered, the more of them will be eaten. But children are sometimes fearful of food, not hungry, or more interested in trying to get you what they want instead of eating. All of these actions can lead to the same disastrous result: a power struggle of over who gets their way. We can avoid this struggle by not over managing how much and what our child eats. Remember, you offer what you would like your child to eat. Then the rest is up to them. They can eat and nourish their body or choose not to eat with the consequence of hunger coming very soon. The beauty of this is that you were not the “bad guy” in this scenario. Hunger caused the discomfort, the result of them choosing not to eat.

But some parents can not let go of this managerial stance and let hunger and fullness do its job. They micro-manage a child’s eating. These are the parents that you see deciding for the child what food should be eaten first. Supposedly this ensures that nutritious foods will be eaten first when the child is most hungry. Perhaps, but a child given a variety of food over time will in fact choose foods that meet their nutritional needs. Telling a child what they need to eat first undermines their need for some independence and their reliance and confidence in their own internal cues that guide them naturally.

I often hear “you need to take one more bite”, as if that last bite guarantees the exact amount of calories or nutrients necessary at that moment in time. Or a parent who requires that a child finish a certain amount of a food. A child instinctively knows how much food they need, the more we trust them the more they will make good decisions.

Interestingly, there have been several studies that show that the more we manage our children’s eating decisions, the more likely they are to become over weight and have emotional problems with foods. The study observed parents eat a meal with their child. Immediately after the meal the children were put in a room without parents. There were activities in the room as well as a variety of snacks. It was observed that the children whose parents had over managed their child’s lunch where more likely to eat again, right after lunch. These children where also the ones who where already over weight.