Category Archives: Practical Strategies

Emotional Hunger: Prevent and Stop Emotional Eating

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Emotional Hunger: Prevent and Stop Emotional Eating

Earlier this week, I posted about emotional hunger. Emotional hunger is when we feel hungry because of our emotions, not because we physically need to eat.  This behavior shows up even in very young toddlers. What can we as parents do to prevent it from developing, intervene when it strikes, and prevent it from happening once it has developed?  Below are some of my top ways to deal with emotional hunger in kids.

How Parents Can Stop Emotional Eating from Developing

As parents, we cannot control our kids.  They are independent human beings with their own minds, wills, and desires.  However, we do have an enormous amount of influence on them, much of which they (and us) are not even aware of.   Kids’ relationships with food are often strongly influenced by our behaviors as parents.

One thing that has been observed repeatedly in many studies is that parents who use food to soothe their young children when they are experiencing negative emotions will raise children who experience significantly more emotional eating.*  Let me put this another way: If you use food to soothe your unhappy child, you are teaching your child to eat when they are unhappy.

As a parent, I know how distressing it is to see your child unhappy.  Not only do you not like seeing your precious baby upset, but it can also be embarrassing, frustrating, or annoying to you as a parent.  Trust me, even my little angels have thrown tantrums in the grocery store or dissolved into tears because they want something (usually a trip on an airplane, helicopter, boat, or train) that I just cannot possibly provide them with.

I have seen on so many occasions that parents will break down under such circumstances and distract their child with food.  Heck, even I have done it on occasion (but with dried fruit, not chocolate, as the proffered treat).  I think all parents do this every once in a while.  But when this method of dealing with unhappy children becomes the norm rather than a once off rarity, you are teaching your child to soothe with food.  You are educating your child that if they are unhappy, eating will make them feel better.  And as a result, they are more likely to become obese.

How to Deal With Emotional Hunger

Helping your child recognize emotional hunger is only half of the battle.  Once they understand that their hunger is emotionally motivated rather than physically driven, what should they do?  The first thing you must make clear to kids is that the food is not going to solve their problems.  Ultimately, it is not going to improve their emotional situation.

Tell them to wait

That said, do not forbid kids to eat when their emotions are in turmoil.  Children, like adults, always want what they cannot have.  You certainly cannot expect a child to have more self-control than an adult, and few adults can withstand emotional cravings.  Instead, suggest to your child that if they are in an unhappy mood and that is making them want to eat, that they defer it for five minutes.  Children are often mercurial and in five minutes their emotional state could change completely.  Alternatively, they may find another, more constructive, way of self-soothing, or they might simply forget that they wanted to eat.  Because emotional hunger is not physical, it is not enduring in the same way physical hunger is.

Give kids a toolkit

Another way to break the emotional eating habit is to give kids a set of tools to work with.  Kids have to learn how to self-soothe and need to be taught how to appropriately handle emotions.  Some emotions are uncomfortable and we do not like them.  Sadness, anxiety, or loneliness are not good feelings, but they are instructive.  They help teach us what we need and also help us learn to avoid potentially dangerous or counterproductive situations.  Explaining to kids the positive side of bad emotions can be a good way to start.  Then they can view uncomfortable emotions as their friends rather than enemies to be avoided or ignored at all costs.

Sadness: Help children come up with a list of activities that make them happy.  This could be anything from kicking a ball to finger painting to reading a book.  Certain activities like physical activity or singing actually release endorphins that make kids physically feel happy – and they’re healthy, too.

Loneliness: Most children experience loneliness at some point.  Maybe they’re alone in their room while mom takes a nap, or perhaps they just don’t have any friends who can come over to play.  Kids can also feel lonely in a crowd, especially if they are in a group of which they are not a part (such as a new school), or if they are missing a specific person (like a special friend or grandparent).  Suggest that kids who are lonely call a good friend or trusted adult, play with a pet, or connect with someone they care about by looking at photos or writing a letter/drawing a picture to send that person.

Anxiety: Even kids have things they worry about.  Whether it is schoolwork they don’t feel good at or a friend they’ve bickered with, kids have their own “kid-sized” set of concerns.  Never ever downplay your child’s cares!!! Each of us has our own set of problems that are important to us, regardless of anything else that may be going on in the world.  Do not invalidate your child’s worries.  It is amazing how soothing it can be for a worried child when a parent validates their concerns.  Ask what is bothering your child, listen to your their answer, and repeat it back, along with words of understanding.  (E.g., “I hear that you are nervous because you have a big math test tomorrow.  I know how that feels – it can be pretty scary.”) Sometimes kids are anxious without knowing why or you are not around to talk it through with them.  In those cases, encourage your kids to burn off nervous energy by doing something physical, such as dancing to a favorite song or running a few laps around the playground or schoolyard.

Tiredness: Feeling tired, exhausted, or run down can be the result of too little sleep, broken sleep, or too much activity or stimulation.  Like adults, when kids get tired they can also become cranky and might be tempted to reach for their favorite junk foods.  Tired kids should be encouraged to rest as much as the situation allows.  If they are home and it’s not too early they can simply go to bed a bit earlier than usual.  If it is too early for them to go to sleep, they can lie in the bed or on the couch and “veg out” by reading a book or watching a show (reading a book is better, though, as screens stimulate the brain and can make it harder to get a good night’s sleep).  To calm cravings for food, give kids a warm drink, such as a warm cup of milk (we prefer homemade rice milk). If you want to avoid extra calories, offer kids a warm cup of herbal infusion (some herbs and flowers can even be calming and aid in peaceful sleep – I use linden flower, which has a soft and neutral flavor).  Don’t want to give kids drinks before bed?  Use water in a different way: Give your kids a soothing bubble bath.

Boredom: Kids can get bored no matter how many toys you buy them.  To avoid boredom, try rotating toys.  We keep each set of similar toys in a box and no more than one or two boxes are out at any time.  If our kids get bored, they don’t turn to food – instead, they trade in an existing box for a new box full of toys they haven’t recently played with.  Try also making a list with your kids of projects, games, or activities they’d like to try some time when they are bored.  There are an endless amount of kids activity and craft idea books out there to help you come up with ideas.  Photocopy or scrapbook pages with activity or craft ideas into a “boredom book” your child can pull out when they get bored, rather than reaching for snacks.

Hopefully with a toolkit like this in hand, you will find it easier to determine both what your child’s emotional hunger triggers are and what you can do to fix them – without food.

Preventing and Countering Emotional Hunger

One of the best ways to deal with emotional hunger is to prevent it from arising.  As discussed above, as parents we can do certain things that discourage emotional eating habits from developing, but what do we do if our kids already show signs of emotional eating?  And what do we do if they develop the habit regardless of the way we raised them?  Everyone knows that no matter how good a parent you are, you can do everything right and still your child might do something different! So how can we help our kids to counter emotional hunger in the first place?

The key to stopping emotional hunger from arising in our kids is to set them up for success.  There are four aspects of your child’s daily routine that can go a long way to preventing emotional hunger from developing:

  1. Sleep.  Ensure your child gets enough sleep every night.  Tiredness and lack of sufficient sleep make it difficult for kids to process their emotions.  I know what it is like to have bedtime struggles, so the only advice I have is to set up a bedtime routine that gets your kids to sleep with enough hours left before school for them to get the rest they need.
  2. Exercise.  Too many kids today spend a lot of their day either cooped up at school desks or in front of screens – or both.  Physical activity and movement are scientifically proven to boost mood, so making physical activities and sports a regular part of your child’s routine will also help improve their overall mood.
  3. Connection.  Kids need to connect with others.  Social interaction not only teaches good social skills but it also improves kids’ “emotional quotient” by teaching them how to handle their own (and others’) moods. Close bonds and positive relationships also give a boost to kids’ sense of wellbeing and self esteem.
  4. Relaxation.  These days there is an enormous amount of pressure to fill kids’ every waking moment with activities and stimulation.  I know some kids who are on the go from 7 AM to 10 PM, every day.  This is an overwhelming schedule even for an adult!  Parents do this thinking they are doing the right thing for their kids, by entertaining them without pause.  But all that stimulation can produce stress and kids need a time out sometimes to cool down and relax.  Institute some sort of quiet time in your child’s day.  It may be a nap or it could simply be a peaceful half hour in their day.  Older children can read a book or listen to a book on tape.  If you have the time, reading a book to the family is a great quiet-time bonding opportunity all can enjoy.

Conclusion

Emotional hunger can plague anyone, from very young toddlers through to the elderly.  Eating just because we want to assuage our emotions can lead to overeating, unhealthy eating, and weight gain.  Unfortunately, kids can establish these habits and patterns very young.  Using the tips and advice in this post can help you learn what to do: A) as a parent, in order to prevent habits from developing; B) to help your child avoid eating for emotional reasons; and C) to prevent emotional hunger from arising by changing your child’s daily routines.  With these tips in hand, we can start to say goodbye to emotional hunger!

*Farrow C, Haycraft E, Blissett J. Teaching our children when to eat: how parental feeding practices inform the development of emotional eating—a longitudinal experimental design Am J Clin Nutr May 2015 vol. 101 no. 5 908-913

Mindfulness: Using Awareness to Eat Healthy

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Mindfulness: Using Awareness to Eat Healthy

It seems like buzzwords like mindfulness, meditation, and awareness are becoming more commonly accepted.  When I was younger, these concepts raised images of gurus, hippies, and quacks.  Today, the health benefits of meditation are undisputed, and mindfulness and living in the present are becoming lifestyles in their own right.  This made me wonder: Could mindfulness be used to teach our kids to eat more healthfully?

Mindless Eating

A lot of the food we eat, we eat mindlessly.  I am guilty party numero uno in this regard: I see mealtimes as my “time out” from the stress of being a full-time wife and mother, so whenever I can snatch a moment to sit at the table and eat, I grab a good book and read.  Of course there are many manifestations of this: some people eat while they watch television, some while they read, and even some while they’re driving.  Our kids are no exception.  If they’re not eating in front of the boob tube, they’re likely to be eating on the go or while horsing around with their friends.  Even in the hour-long child minding my kids attend while I go to the gym, the carers put the TV on while the kids eat their snacks.

The problem with eating mindlessly is that we don’t tend to think about what we are eating, or how much.  On the one hand this is a really bad thing because it often leads us to eat too much of the wrong foods.  We end up eating an extra dozen handfuls of popcorn, an extra bread roll, or an extra helping of pasta.  On the other hand, we can turn this to our advantage.  If our kids are eating mindlessly, they will end up eating more healthy stuff, like salad, veggies, and fresh fruit.  It is up to us as their parents to replace the cookie jar with a bowl of fresh fruit and to relegate the serving bowl of pasta to the sideboard while a big bowl of salad takes pride of place on the table.

Using mindless eating as a trick to get kids to eat more healthfully only works when our children are eating at home.  But as kids grow up, head off to school, and take on more and more activities, the number of opportunities we have to trick them into eating healthfully decreases.  This is when we need to educate our kids in the skills they need to make good eating decisions.

Applying Mindfulness to Eating

Mindfulness goes beyond simply living in the moment.  When it comes to eating, it is actually all-encompassing.  Often, we taste the first and last few bites of a meal, but the intervening majority of flavor is lost on us.  We frequently eat and cannot remember how much we consumed.  We habitually underestimate how much and how many we have eaten.  We don’t even know if we are hungry or full.  We don’t pay attention.  And the majority of us overeat as a result.  And that includes our kids.

By applying a mindfulness approach, we bring our focus back fully onto our food.  We pay attention to all those details, including:

  • How fast or slow am I eating?
  • How long does it take me to eat this meal/snack?
  • What is the texture of the food?
  • How does the food taste?
  • How does eating this food make me feel?
  • What memories, feelings, or emotions do I associate with this food?
  • Am I hungry, not hungry, or full?
  • Do I want to take each bite?
  • What will be the consequences of eating this food?

Teaching Your Kids Mindful Eating

Getting kids to slow down and savor their food may seem a daunting task, but it is a skill that can be taught.  Try this simple exercise with your kids and repeat it as frequently as possible until the act of being mindful and aware becomes familiar and a matter of course.

Have your child take a few raisins, some sunflower seeds, a cracker, a stick of celery, or another small snack the first time you try this, but you can also try this at the dinner table as a family.  Begin by asking your child to describe how they are feeling.  Are they hungry or full? Heavy or light? Relaxed or anxious?  What is their mood, and does it affect their desire to eat?  What do they think will be the consequences of their eating this snack?  (Will it give them energy, make them gain weight, or make them feel more or less hungry?)  Have your child pick up the food in his/her hand.  Ask them to describe it in intimate detail.  Is it heavy or light?  Is it wrinkled or smooth?  How does it feel sitting on their skin? Comfortable or uncomfortable?  What color is it?  What texture?  Have your child bring the food up to their nose and inhale.  What does it smell like?  Is the smell strong or weak?  Does this smell remind them of any thing, person, or experience?  Have them place the snack in their mouth or take a bite of it.  Before they chew have them assess how it feels in their mouth.  Is it dry or wet? Warm or cold? Does the texture feel different on their tongue than it did in their hand?  Does the food have a taste even before they begin to chew?  Does it feel heavy on their tongue or light?  Is it melting or solid?  Ask them to chew but not yet swallow.  What does the food taste like?  Is it sweet, sour, salty, bitter, or umami?  Does it remind them of anything?  Does it affect their emotions at all?  What is the texture of the food?  Is it chewy or crunchy? Hard or soft?  How does the texture change the longer they chew it?  How does the flavor change?  Tell your child to swallow.  As they do so, have them focus on the feeling of the food sliding down their throat.  Have them imagine it sliding down into their stomach.  Now ask them how they feel.  Do they feel more or less hungry?  How is their emotional state?  Do they feel satisfied? Guilty?  Repeat with the remaining snack.

The Results of Mindfulness

Mindfulness and awareness may or may not motivate your child to make more healthy food choices away from home.  They still might not choose to order salad when all their friends order greasy pizza.  But mindfulness can help them be more aware of their bodies and their emotions as they eat.  By nurturing mindfulness related to eating, you will make it impossible for them to continue to eat mindlessly.  Whether they want to or not, they will suddenly find themselves “zoning in” when eating instead of “zoning out.”  Unwittingly, they will begin to be aware of how much they are eating, how fast they are eating, and how they feel about the food they are eating.  It will make them stop and think twice before heading to the snack machines – asking themselves if they are really hungry right now.

Mindful eating can really help kids to make better food choices.  It can also help them to lose weight or to stay at a healthy weight.  It will also help them confront their emotions surrounding food.  If eating certain foods makes them feel sluggish or guilty, their awareness of this can help them choose to avoid those foods in the future.

Another benefit of mindful eating is that it gives kids a sense of consequences.  The judgment center of kids’ brains doesn’t fully develop until their early 20’s.  But by making consequences very clear and by teaching kids to consider the consequences of their eating habits, we introduce them to a useful skill that can be applied across the board in their lives.

Good for Relationships

Teaching kids the skills of mindfulness when eating can also be good for your relationship with them.  In effect, teaching mindfulness is a form of granting stewardship.  Instead of micromanaging and trying to control all of your child’s eating habits, you are teaching them the skills they need to make good food choices.  Handing over the control to your kids, at least when they are out of the house, gives them a sense of power and control.

Power and control are essential for any human being.  None of us likes the feeling of being powerless, and that includes even very young children.  Anyone who has had a baby spit their food or formula out at them or refuse a particular type of food has run into this head on.  If we want to inspire healthy kids, we cannot just focus on the last two words.  Of course we want healthy kids, but we also want inspired kids!

Mindfulness is one tool of many that we as parents can deploy to teach our kids to make good food choices.  By teaching them this skill, we can also give them the gift of being able to say to them that we trust them to make good decisions on their own.  Being granted power, control, and stewardship over their own eating habits can be hugely empowering for kids of all ages.  This does not mean they are without guidance!  This means we provide them the guidance, the help, and the aid they need to learn how to make good decisions without wresting the control away from them.

Happy Mindful Eating!

I hope this tutorial on teaching mindful eating proves helpful.  In fact, it is the kind of timeless wisdom we can all benefit from, no matter what our age.  Mindfulness can stop us from reaching into the office candy dish when we don’t really want another chocolate, and it can stop us from going back for seconds when we are no longer hungry.  But unlike conventional diets, mindfulness does not deprive anyone of the foods they want.  It simply makes us more alert to our behaviors and empowers us to make good decisions.  For an adult, this can be hugely liberating and for a child it is even more inspirational and empowering.

For anyone interested in using mindfulness and emotional awareness as the keys to resolving weight or food issues, I strongly encourage you to contact my good friend and personal inspiration, Kylie Ryan.  And no, she didn’t pay me to say that.  I just think she’s awesome and good at what she does, and I know you will, too.

Breastfeeding: How to Eat Healthy

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Breastfeeding: How to Eat Healthy

It was not so long ago that I had newborns in the house.  After all, my littlest one is not yet a year an a half and my oldest is not even three yet!  So I know the rush to do everything that needs to be done – the housework, cooking, cleaning, laundry, and of course looking after a demanding new baby!  Add to that the stress of sleep deprivation and interrupted sleep cycles and you have a recipe for disaster.   I am so glad I prepared meals and stocked my freezers well in advance of having babies (my husband jokes that we’re only allowed to eat out of the freezers after a baby comes).   If I hadn’t had the foresight to do that, goodness only know what I would have been eating!

I think a lot of new mums are in the same situation.  You’re so harried and busy caring for your house and family that it’s hard to care for yourself.  I remember a time when a shower felt like a luxury!  So it is extremely tempting to resort to convenience foods or to just grab whatever packaged food comes to hand that you can shove in your mouth in a spare moment between changing leaky nappies/diapers and rocking a colicky baby.

Here are some helpful ideas for way to eat healthy during that crucial and formative first six months of breastfeeding when life is hectic and sleep is short:

Prepare Before Baby

The best piece of advice I can give is to prepare lots and lots of meals in advance.  You can package some of them in bigger family-size containers for nights when you’re too worn out to make dinner, but make sure to package the majority of them in single-serving takeout containers so you can have them for yourself.  Be generous with portions.  Remember, breastfeeding can make you really hungry!  In the morning take one out to thaw and heat it up for lunch.  It’s amazing how refreshed a healthy, homemade meal will make you feel!

Stock up on Healthy Snacks

Not all snacks are created equal.  Find some healthy snacks that are energy and nutrient-dense so you can get the fuel you need in a short period of time.  Almonds are a favorite – they are so good for your milk and they will give you the healthy fats and proteins you need to produce thick, rich milk.  Healthy oatmeal cookies (recipe coming soon) are also good for milk production (add brewers’ yeast, wheat germ, and flax seeds/linseeds to turn regular oatmeal cookies into “lactation cookies” – although I have no idea if these really work!).  Other healthy snacks include healthy crackers like quinoa crackers, fresh and dried fruit, fruit leather (as long as no sugar is added), or crunchy freeze dried fruits and vegetables.

Drink Smoothies

Smoothies are so easy to make!  Just throw a bunch of ingredients in a blender and off you go.  Turn ordinary smoothies into a complete meal by adding whey or yogurt, nut butter, or even oats.  Boost the nutrient profile by tossing in seeds like chia seeds (high in omega 3s, which you will want to regain your memory after sleep deprivation and children steal it from you) and flax seeds/linseeds (good for boosting milk production).  Smoothies are great because you can put them in a travel cup and drink them as you go about your day.  You’ll discover you can even drink them while you nurse your baby!  They’re really filling and so easy.

Find Easy Foods

Keep a stock of easy foods on hand for when you have just a few minutes to prepare a meal for yourself.  Buy dry beans, soak them overnight, and boil them, then store them in the fridge.  They’ll keep for a few days and they make for a really nutritious and filling meal or snack.   Also, stock up on frozen vegetables.  Check that the only ingredient is the vegetables to avoid extra salt and sugar you don’t need.  Lots of veggies are available this way now, even in pre-made mixes.  For instance, you can get frozen stir-fry mix.  Toss it frozen straight into a hot pan and you’ll have a whole meal in a few minutes.   I am also a big fan of eggs (as I don’t eat meat) – they’re a pretty whole food and very nutrient dense, but they are also really quick and easy to prepare in a variety of ways.  Try baking an egg in the center of an avocado for some extra healthy fats.

Buy Some New Kitchen Gadgets

Certain kitchen gadgets are worth every penny.  My top three for a nursing mom would be: blender, rice cooker, and bread machine.  Blenders are amazing for making smoothies and pureed soups, but are also crucial if you want to make your own baby food.  When my husband came home with my first rice cooker, I looked at him as if he was crazy.  “Why do I need that?!  I always make it on the stove – it’s easy.”  Folks, with a rice cooker it’s easier.  Just put in rice and water, push the button, and walk away.  We’ve been using the same el-cheapo version from K-Mart for years and it’s still turning out great rice night after night.  Finally, the bread machine… if my husband was a salesman, he would probably sell bread machines.  Ours is a Breville and it’s been around for a good 12 years now.  I’ve even dropped it from a pretty high height and it’s still going strong.  A bread machine allows you to make healthy, fresh bread with the push of a button.  Think how nice it would be to take two minutes to put in some ingredients and out comes hot bread 3 hours later!  You can even put it on a timer and have it ready first thing in the morning for breakfast.  (Bonus: soup maker.  We call this the “wife replacer.”  Toss in all your soup ingredients, push a button and walk away.)  (Bonus for wealthy people: Thermomix.  This is one gadget that I have tried and used but not been particularly impressed by.  To me, the instructions take just as long to figure out as it would to prepare the food conventionally.  But for healthy quick meals it probably can’t be beat – if you can figure out the instructions!)

Resort to the Tried & True

There’s nothing wrong with resorting to tried and true classics!  Unsweetened muesli is packed with lots of good nutrition.  Try a bowl of plain yogurt with fruit (for the love of health, don’t choose one full of sugar!).  Or have a sandwich.  Fill it with veggies and spread the hummus and tahina on thick.

I hope you find these tips and tricks helpful.  I wish when I had my first baby I knew what I know now!

Trick Your Kids Into Eating Healthy At Home

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Trick Your Kids Into Eating Healthy At Home

Yesterday, we considered some clever psychological ways to trick our kids (and possibly ourselves) into eating healthier when out of the house.  But a lot of the food our kids eat is in fact eaten at home.  Fortunately, there are lots of ways to trick our kids into eating less and eating healthier at home, beginning with the way we do our grocery shopping, and continuing on to the way we serve (and even market) our homemade meals.  Bon apetite!

In the Store

Going food shopping?  We all know it’s a bad idea to go to the grocery store when we’re hungry – it encourages impulse buying, especially of convenience food items.  Shopping hungry doesn’t necessarily make us buy more, it makes us buy worse… and that unhealthy food will feed our families for the next week.

Another grocery shopping trick to still those cravings is to chew gum, especially mint flavor.  Chewing gum tricks your body into thinking its eating and, as your stomach expectantly waits for its (nonexistent) food delivery, you will be able to do your grocery shopping uninhibited.  People who chew gum while shopping buy 7% less junk food.

Begin your shopping trip in the produce section.  Spend some time there.  Browse the vegetables and, if your kids are with you, talk to them about them.  Spend at least 10 minutes there – shoppers who spend this long in the produce section tend to buy more produce than shoppers who rush through… and fresh produce is the healthiest thing you can buy in the entire grocery store, really!

Don’t be afraid to “cheat.”  Who cares what people thing when they see you buying bagged salad?!  They may think you’re lazy, but do it anyway.  We’re all busy mums and bagged, pre-washed salads make it so much easier to serve salad for dinner.  Today, you can buy bags of just greens, but more and more grocery stores are offering complete pre-mixed options that come with other veggies already mixed in, or in separate packets in the bag.  Heck, I’ve even been know to cheat by buying the bagged Asian salad mix – and dumping it into the pan for a quick stir-fry.  If bagged salad means you’re more likely to serve salad for dinner, do it!!!!!  As parents, we tend to feel like better parents if we’re serving our kids fresh vegetables, so why not skip some steps and take credit for being a good parent?  Serve them bagged salad or steamed frozen veggies and feel proud while you do it!

Smart shoppers looking to save money will often buy the economy size, so save yourself some money and buy all means get the healthy option in the biggest size available!  But don’t leave it that way when you get home – subdivide them immediately.  Today you can buy special reusable cereal containers that even come in half sizes.  I have a whole pantry full of them and I use them for everything, from muesli to rice.   Seeing the smaller container when serving will encourage kids to take less.

At Home

Get organized!  People eat less when their kitchens are clean and organized, possibly because it sucks to make food when you know you’ll be messing up a clean, shiny countertop.  The same principle applies to other places where you tend to sit and eat, like at your desk at work.  People surrounded by clutter eat 44% more snacks.  And no matter how organized or nice it looks to leave certain food items sitting on the counter, put them away – studies show that people who leave containers of cereal (even super healthy cereal) sitting on the counters weigh on average 21 pounds (10 kg) more than people who hide their cereal in the pantry.

What kinds of dishes and utensils are you using?  Next time you’re looking to upgrade, don’t go with the fancy plates that match the food you’re serving, unless perhaps you’re serving kale on a dark green plate.  People consume 18% more food when they are eating off a plate that matches, so try to choose contrasting colors. And of course there is the age-old trick of using a smaller plate.  Most people have heard about this one already – it’s logically satisfying, since you can’t eat as much if you can’t fit as much on your plate.  Use a smaller plate, eat 22% less.

As for your cutlery?  Go with a bigger fork.  It may be tempting to serve kids with small salad forks rather than the big adult forks, but it’s time to give your kids a promotion to adult status, at least in this regard.  One study found that people who used larger forks ate on average 3.5 ounces less per meal than people who used smaller forks.  That’s because our brains take visual cues to determine how much we have eaten – our stomachs are just too slow to respond.  Seeing bigger bites tricks our brains into thinking we’ve consumed more, while seeing smaller bites makes us think we’ve consumed less.

Don’t stop there – think about what kind of glasses you are using to serve drinks.  Experiments have mainly focused on alcoholic beverages like wine, but it stands to reason that a kid’s equivalent of wine would probably be some sort of juice, soda, or other soft drink.   Soft drinks are a huge portion of calorie consumption by today’s children, so why not trick your kids into drinking less?  People drink 92% of what they pour for themselves, so the amount put in the glass really matters.  Pouring into tall, thin glasses, rather than short, fat ones, encourages people to pour in less, and thus consume less.  Of course, if all your glasses are short fat ones, you can just avoid the whole issue by serving only water at meals, which is what I do.

Keep healthy food around and visible, especially during mealtimes.  Placing a bowl of apples in front of the shelf of potato chips may seem like a hopeless and obvious attempt to get your kids to snack on the right foods, but it actually works.  Kids who are presented with healthy food staring at them when they make food choices are more likely to eat healthier overall during that meal.  Whether it’s guilt, shame, or subconscious influence, I don’t know, but it does work.  Of course, you could just remove the potato chips and replace them with apples completely… but how many of us have that much willpower?

How do you serve meals to your family? I’ve never been a fan of “plating” each dish – in my experience, this leads to a lot of food waste and grumbling because not everybody wants precisely one serving of every thing. Growing up, dishes were all placed on the table and each member of the family took as much of each as they wanted.  Lately, I’ve been lazy and I often serve meals directly from the stovetop in a “get it yourself” kind of manner.  Which of these three methods is best?  Well, studies show that serving yourself from the stovetop rather than family-style at the table results in eating 19% less, so if you are aiming to reduce the amount your kids are eating, go ahead – tell them to get it themselves!

Name the food you serve.  Yes, I know, most foods already have names, but are they names that mean something to kids?  “Green Bean Almondine” may sound elegant to adults (and it has a nice rhyme factor) but it is meaningless to a five-year-old.   To encourage kids to choose to eat the healthier foods you are offering, rename them with names that are cool for kids.  “X-Ray Vision Carrots,” “Popeye’s Super Strong Spinach” and “Silly String String Beans” will sound fun to kids and studies show they’ll eat more of them.

Finally, if you’re not above misleading (or blatantly lying) to your kids, try telling them their meal is less healthy than it actually is.  People who think they are eating fattening, filling, and high calorie foods fill up faster and feel more satisfied, leading them to eat less than if they think they’re eating the diet version.  By all means, serve your kids the healthy stuff… just don’t let them know.

Conclusion

If you employ these tips and tricks you will find your kids are eating far less.  Maybe not the more than 60% less that each of the “at home” tricks listed above add up to, but then again… maybe!  I think it all depends on your starting point.  But if your child has a weight problem or you think he/she is eating too much, these tricks are a completely painless way to persuade them to eat less, without ever needing to tell them you want them to eat less.  So go ahead, serve that rice on a red plate and that pasta with tomato sauce on a white plate – a small one – from the stovetop.  And make sure there’s a big bowl of salad on the table while your kids are eating.  Then, just have patience and wait for the results.

Go ahead, shamelessly trick your kids into eating healthier.

Slim by Design

Go ahead, shamelessly trick your kids into eating healthier.

*Many of these statistics have come from the research of Brian Wansink, who is a food psychologist and the director of the Cornell University Food and Brand Lab.  You can read more about tips and tricks for psychological food mind games in his new book, Slim by Design: Mindless Eating Solutions for Everyday Life.

 

 

Trick Your Kids Into Eating Healthy Away From Home

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Trick Your Kids Into Eating Healthy Away From Home

If getting your kids to eat healthy food or choose healthy food options is a regular struggle, maybe you’re going about it the wrong way.  Most kids will be happy to learn to eat healthy foods using the techniques I have previously suggested (here, here, here, and here), but some kids really make it a struggle.  What if there was a way to get them used to eating healthier foods without fighting? If only there was some way to trick them into eating healthier.

The idea of tricking kids into eating healthy food may seem disingenuous, but it doesn’t have to be. The idea of tricking kids into eating veggies often means hiding veggies in cake, lying about the contents of a dish, or giving kids green juice in an opaque bottle.  I’m not opposed to disguising the color of an item or hiding vegetables in a food kids already enjoy, but outright lying is only going to damage your child’s trust.  If we want kids to value what we have to say and to really take on board the lessons we are trying to teach them, we have to maintain a high level of trust.

But we can still trick them into eating healthier.

There is a lot of research out there about how different psychological factors impact how much and what we choose to eat.  If we have concerns about obesity, we can start by reducing the amount of food our kids eat, and we can do it all without their even knowing.  We can do it by using psychological tricks.

In a Restaurant

Americans eat 43% of their food away from home, so it is good to have a few tricks up your sleeve when it comes to eating out.

Where are you eating out?  Most restaurants offer a range of healthy and unhealthy foods, so just picking a “healthier” restaurant may not be enough.  Consider the atmosphere and mood of the restaurant.  Sound and lighting can actually influence what we eat.  A restaurant with dim lighting and loud music will encourage you to eat more calories.  Also consider that certain types of music will enhance your dining experience.  Higher pitched music makes sweet food taste better while deeper notes improve the taste of bitter flavors, so if you’re trying to stick to an enjoyable savory meal and avoid the dessert, find a restaurant that tends to play deep orchestral music, rather than one with a piano in the corner.

Choose the right seat.  In a conventional restaurant, select a spot near a window, which increases the likelihood of ordering salad by 80%.  Avoid dark corner booths where nobody can see you – instead choose a spot near the front door – they increase your chances of ordering dessert by 73%.  And if you can, choose a high-top bar-style table.  These tables make you sit up straighter and reduce the risk of you ordering fried food.

When it comes time to order, resist the urge to order healthy food for your kids, or to pressure them to order that healthy salad.  People who are pushed to eat healthy food make up for it later by “treating” themselves, and you don’t want your kid dipping into the cookie jar as soon as he/she gets home.  (I think a lot of people do this with the gym, too, which is why exercise alone is not enough to lose weight.)  Instead, trick your kids into ordering a healthier option by asking them what someone else they admire – say, Batman or Dora the Explorer – would choose to eat.  Having to order for someone else encourages kids to think more deeply – and often they will change their order.

Going to a buffet?  Sit as far away from the buffet as you can – it encourages you to eat less.  Make sure your kids are facing away from the buffet, as well – they won’t be as likely to keep returning for more if they aren’t staring at it.  As above, encourage them to use small plates, rather than large ones.  Walk them through the buffet and look at each option before taking any food.  (Letting them take before looking encourages them to just grab the first things they see and end up eating those things in addition to what they really want.  Buffet-goers who look first only take those foods they really want to eat.)  Finally, if it’s an Asian buffet, teach your kids to eat with chopsticks.  Many Asian restaurants even have some special chopsticks for kids, to help them learn.  People who eat with chopsticks rather than forks tend to eat less, probably because chopsticks force you to eat more slowly, and allow the signal of fullness from your stomach to reach your brain before you’ve eaten too much.

At School

School lunches have improved in recent years… and also haven’t.  Consider packing a healthy lunch for your kids.  People at work who bring bag lunches eat less food than people who eat out, so why not apply this principle to your kids?  You also have more control over how healthy the food is that you are sending your kids.  Healthy lunch ideas like falafel plates, shish kabobs (and more shish kabobs), and roasted vegetables are filling and nutritious.  Homemade snacks like pizza crackers, fruity muffins, and even healthy cookies or mini cakes will be more nutritious than the snacks your kids are likely to eat from the school vending machines – even if they meet new health standards for “smart snacks”.

If you are going to send your child to school with snacks, consider some ways to get your child to snack less.  Try transferring snacks to clear bags.  If you are sending a snack that would normally fit in a sandwich size bag, send it instead in two or three small snack sized bags.  Studies show that snackers who have one big bag are likely to eat the whole thing, whereas snackers with the same amount of food in multiple small bags often only finish one of them.  And if you are concerned that your child might waste the healthy fruit you are sending, try cutting it up – one study found that 48% fewer apples were wasted when they were cut up, as opposed to served whole – and that there was a 73% increase in kids eating more than half of their apples.

Conclusion

These tips will help you trick your kids into eating healthier even if they are eating a lot of their meals away from home.  When kids are not eating at home, where are they most likely to be eating?  Primarily at school and a restaurants (whether with or without parents).  If you use these tricks, you can help get your kids to eat less and to eat healthier.

But that’s not all, folks!  Stay tuned for a new post soon, on how to trick your kids… at home!

Slim by Design

Go ahead, shamelessly trick your kids into eating healthier.

*Many of these statistics have come from the research of Brian Wansink, who is a food psychologist and the director of the Cornell University Food and Brand Lab.  You can read more about tips and tricks for psychological food mind games in his new book, Slim by Design: Mindless Eating Solutions for Everyday Life.

5 More Ways to Get Kids to Eat Healthy

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5 More Ways to Get Kids to Eat Healthy

Fresh vegetable platter with kebabs

There are lots of creative ways to get kids to eat healthy.  Some of those ways to get kids to eat a healthy diet apply to all ages of kids, while some techniques work best with older kids and teenagers or with young children and toddlers.  The techniques explored have included talking to kids about how diet affects health, exposing kids to new foods, getting them involved in gardening, cooking, and shopping, and offering healthy foods repeatedly.  Now here are four more techniques you can try to get your kids to eat a healthy diet.

Set a Routine

Kids inherently prefer routine.  While they may seem to want lots of freedom and spontaneity, kids actually need some structure in their lives.  This can take lots of forms, but the most common one is to set some sort of schedule.  Kids sleep better if they go to bed and wake up at around the same time, and eating is no different.  Kids are more likely to eat healthy if they eat meals at designated times of the day.  Otherwise, they have a tendency to snack or to eat what is most conveniently at hand.  Eating on a schedule trains them, both physically and mentally, to expect nourishing food at predictable times.

Let Them Get Hungry

Kids are more likely to eat healthy food if they are hungry when it is put in front of them.  As the saying goes, “Hunger is the best seasoning!”  Kids do not need a snack every time they get hungry.  Set firm mealtimes (e.g., breakfast at 7 AM, snack 10 AM, lunch 12 PM, snack 3 PM, dinner 6 PM) and stick to them.  If your child comes to you complaining they are hungry and dinner is going to be soon, there is no harm in telling them they have to wait.  They will not starve in the space of a few minutes or even an hour.  Giving them a snack to quiet them will only serve to spoil their appetite for a healthy meal later.

Let it Be Their Decision

Prepare healthy meals at home, but let your kids serve themselves.  At first, you may feel dismayed when they take the least healthy of the options.  Perhaps they will load up on mashed potatoes but leave the peas and corn behind.  Or maybe they will eat only the soup and not take any salad.  Don’t force them to take these foods.  Yes, they may be the healthiest options and of course you really want your kids to eat them, but you also have to ask yourself what is the most effective way to get them to eat these foods in the long term?  It is more important to establish a lifelong healthy habit than to win the Phyrric victory of forcing them to eat healthy in the short term but making them resentful for life.  Keep serving healthy foods every day and let your kids see you eating these foods yourself.  Eventually they will decide to try them and will make them a part of their own meals, on their own.  When kids decide of their own volition to eat healthy, this sets them up for a lifetime of healthy eating.

Another option is to place a variety of healthy foods separately on the table and letting your kids choose which ones they want.  For instance, a platter of cut vegetables from which they can choose which ones they want to eat.  Or perhaps a salad bar, where they can add as much of each salad component as they want.  Then you do not need to force them to take healthy food, as all the options are nutritious, but kids still get the sense that they are in charge and able to make their own decisions.  Encourage them by telling them how proud and impressed you are with their choices.  This will increase feelings of positive association and self empowerment when it comes to good food choices, making it more likely they will choose healthy foods again in the future.

Don’t Just Tell Them: Show Them!

Make kids’ understanding of healthy food more visual.  It’s good to talk to kids about the difference between healthy and unhealthy foods, but find ways to make your message more visual.  Kids often understand and remember a visual message better than a spoken one.  Explain to kids how many teaspoons of sugar are in one bottle of soda, then have them put that number of teaspoons into an empty soda bottle so they can see just how much sugar is in each sweet beverage.  You can do this with healthy nutrients, too.  For instance, see if you can get a bunch of empty boxes for cheeseburgers from a local fast food restaurant like McDonald’s, then compare how many cheeseburgers you’d need to eat to get the same amount of vitamin C as in one cup of strawberries (150g) (the answer is approximately 75), or the same amount of vitamin A as in one cup of carrots (the answer is approximately 68).  It may seem extreme, but a visual comparison of this nature can be massively compelling.  They will not soon forget which type of food gives them the best nutrition.

Educate kids about other aspects of food as well by showing them.  Demonstrate portion sizes, for instance, in comparison to what is normally served at restaurants.  Next time you go out and order a meal, ask the server for some extra plates and divide the meal into healthy serving sizes.  For instance, a 9-ounce steak is actually three servings!  You can also show kids how small a serving of healthy veggies is.  For instance, cut a carrot into 1 cup’s worth of sticks (100-120 grams) and place it in the center of a big plate.  Kids will be surprised to see that one serving of veggies is not that much – it is more like a snack!  Then the idea of eating several servings of vegetables per day will not seem so daunting or unappetizing.

Let Them Be the Food Critic

I love watching cooking shows.  It’s really the only kind of television you’ll catch me occasionally watching.  I love food, nutrition, tastes, and flavors.  Let kids emulate the judges on these shows by being little food critics.  Give them a selection of foods and let them try them.  This is a good option for some snack time fun.  Prepare a few different kinds of healthy foods and have your child answer questions about the foods and describe them just like on cooking shows.  For instance, do a raw vegetable taste test and give kids red capsicum/bell pepper, green capsicum/bell pepper, cucumber, carrot sticks, cherry tomatoes, and broccoli.  Have them describe which are hard and which are soft, which are most juicy, which are the most crunchy, and which ones are sweet or savory.  This makes trying healthy foods fun and frees them up to safely form and express their opinions.  It also gives you more ideas what kind of healthy snacks they might enjoy in the future.

Conclusion

It is a challenge to get kids to eat healthy food, but there are new ideas and techniques being thought up every day.  Try a variety of techniques until you find some that work for you.  Get them involved and make it fun.  Make healthy food synonymous with good feelings and good experiences, instead of letting mealtime become a daily battleground.  Let’s inspire healthy kids!

How to Reduce the Amount of Salt in Kids’ Diets (Part 2)

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How to Reduce the Amount of Salt in Kids’ Diets (Part 2)

Maldon sea salt flakes

Too much salt is dangerous for kids’ health.  Kids today eat far more salt than is healthy for them.  Yesterday we looked at some ways to avoid eating too much salt and to reduce the amount of salt in your kids’ diets.  Today we will look at a few more really important strategies to keep your kids from eating too much salt.

Read Nutritional Labels

Learn how to read nutritional labels and teach your kids, too.  Look for the line that says “sodium” and choose the lowest sodium option.  Look for foods with no added salt or low sodium labels.  Try to select foods with less than 120mg of sodium per 100g of food.  You will be surprised at how quickly the amount of sodium in what you eat adds up over the course of a day!  The Heart Foundation recommends that 4-8 year olds consume only 300-600mg of sodium per day.  Once you start reading nutrition labels, you will be surprised how quickly your child hits that upper limit!

Sea Salt Kettle Chips

Make Avoiding Salt a Game

Make avoiding high sodium foods a fun game for kids.  It is a great tool for teaching math skills, too.  Have kids help you plan meals with less salt, and get them to help you when you are grocery shopping.  Have them add up the amount of salt in each ingredient for each meal of the day.  Then talk about the amount of salt they will be eating each day and how to lower it.  Make a competition to see which child can come up with the lowest sodium meal plan for a week’s worth of breakfasts, lunches, or dinners, with the prize being that those will be the meals served that week.

The amount of salt in potato chips is unsurprisingly very high

Avoid High Sodium Processed & Restaurant Foods

Did you know that 43% of the salt kids eat comes from just 10 types of food?  That’s right!  Pizza, bread/rolls, cold cuts/cured meats, savory snacks, sandwiches, cheese, chicken patties/nuggets, mixed pasta dishes, mixed Mexican dishes, and soups account for 43% of the sodium kids consume.  Some of these foods most of us recognize as salty food items: salty ham cold cuts, pizza, cheese, and potato chips are all foods we recognize as super salty.  Some foods, we might not think of as high in salt until we really give it some thought, like pasta dishes, Mexican food, and soup.

But at least one of these items comes as a surprise to most people: bread.  Bread is often very high in both sugar and salt.  Bread is very easy to make at home.  If you are wary of making your own bread, investing in a bread machine will really pay off in the long run.  A loaf of bread that costs several dollars in the store costs just cents at home, and you can control what goes into it – no preservatives, low salt, low sugar, and whole wheat flour, plus the option to add seeds or dried fruit!

Cooking Salt

Some processed foods contain salt when they do not even need to.  One of the most common culprits is peanut butter.  Peanut butter marketed to kids in brightly colored containers is often full of salt, sugar, and oil.  None of these things is necessary to make peanut butter taste good!  Get a high quality organic pure peanut or almond butter.  Some stores now even offer to let you make the peanut butter yourself on the spot using a special machine.  If so, let your child participate, perhaps choosing which nut butter they want (if multiple options are available) and letting them pull the lever or press the start/stop button.

Another processed food high in sodium is the sandwich meat we often give our kids for lunch.  Cold cuts and preserved meats are generally very high in salt content.  If you do want your child eating a meat sandwich, make some extra meat with dinner and use that instead.  For instance, make a sandwich with sliced turkey or chicken breast that has been cooked in a healthy way, rather than using salty sliced deli meats.

Be aware of other processed foods that often contain a lot of salt as a preservative.  Canned food is often high in salt and/or sugar.  Consider replacing canned vegetables with frozen vegetables, which should not have any additives.  Avoid other canned convenience foods like soups or beans, which use salt to preserve them, and if you do buy canned vegetables or bean, rinse them off with fresh water before cooking or serving.  Food in jars often faces the same problem, as salt and sugar are used to preserve foods at room temperature.

Top 10 Sources of Salt in Kids' Diets

Also avoid eating high sodium foods in restaurants and fast food joints.  If you request it, these establishments should be able to give you the nutritional information for their products before you order.  Then choose one of the lower sodium options.  You can also ask that no salt be added to your food during cooking.  And definitely do not add extra salt to your dish even if there is a salt shaker on the table!  If you think this may be a temptation for your child, ask the waiter to remove it.

Conclusion

Simply by switching to lower sodium options and not adding salt to home cooking, you can dramatically reduce your child’s salt intake.  Making this switch does not have to be that difficult.  Just cook as you always have, but take the salt shaker off the table and stop adding salt to your food.  At first the foods may seem a bit bland, but as your taste buds adapt you will really enjoy the flavors of the foods themselves.  It only takes a few weeks for your taste buds to adapt!  For processed foods, check labels to choose lower sodium options, or scan them with a smartphone app like FoodSwitch that list healthier alternatives.

Reminders for how to reduce salt intake from the CDC

 

How to Reduce the Amount of Salt in Kids’ Diets (Part 1)

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How to Reduce the Amount of Salt in Kids’ Diets (Part 1)

Australian Lake Salt

Over the last couple of days I have been looking at the dangers to kids’ health when they eat too much salt.  Recommendations for how much salt to consume are actually listing the maximum amount of salt one can safely eat daily, not how much one should eat.  And although they can’t seem to agree on the ideal amount of salt kids should consume, scientists and experts all agree that the maximum amount is way too high.  So, how can we reduce the amount of salt in our kids’ diet?

Great SALT ernatives USDA infographic

Take Salt Off the Table

The first step to reducing salt intake is to reduce the amount of salt kids are eating at home.  Many families place salt and pepper on the dinner table and each family member can season their food accordingly.  Studies show that kids who add salt at the table have higher systolic blood pressure than those who don’t.*  Remove salt from the table and kids won’t add it at the table.  This reduces their risk of having high blood pressure.  One in every six children has high blood pressure!  This increases their risk of suffering heart attack or stroke later in life threefold.  Taking salt off the table is a crucial first step to reducing this risk.

Taking salt off the table also teaches children not to add salt to prepared foods even when they are in a situation where it is available.  Kids who make it a habit to add salt to food might even develop the habit of adding it without tasting the food previously.  Restaurant foods and prepared foods, with their high amounts of sodium, then get extra salt on top of them, making them even less healthy.  Kids who add salt to their food at the table also begin to slide down the slippery slope of adding more and more as they become accustomed to the flavor and their taste buds are corrupted.  However, kids who do not see a saltshaker on the table at home do not become accustomed to adding salt to their food, nor do they get used to the flavor of salt and need it on everything.

Maldon sea salt flakes

Eat Fresh Foods

Replace processed snack foods with healthy, fresh alternatives.  Raw fruits and vegetables are great snacks for kids: portable, and delicious.  Instead of sending potato chips as a midmorning snack, send an apple or banana.  Make up a fresh fruit salad or blend fruits together to make a smoothie.  Using raw fresh fruits is a great way to get your child eating healthier and will also avoid excess salt.  Replace salty snacks with unsalted raw or toasted nuts (although this may not work for school, it will work at home!)  You may also consider dehydrated or freeze dried fruits and vegetables, as well.  Dehydrated fruit like raisins or apricots are commonly available.  Freeze dried vegetables like peas or green beans are becoming more widely available, as are freeze dried fruits like strawberry, banana, and mango.  Kids will enjoy freeze dried vegetables and fruits as a snack alternative because they are so crunchy and fun to eat.  They give the same feeling of eating a crunchy potato chip, but without the oil and salt!

Fresh fruit platter

Cook More at Home

Prepared foods are much higher in sodium than foods prepared at home.  Processed, packaged foods use salt both for flavor and as a preservative.  Restaurants apply salt liberally to enhance the flavor of their foods.  Foods cooked at home tend to be much lower in sodium because home chefs add less salt than the commercial versions.  For instance, last night I made a vegan bolognese sauce to put over pasta.  I did not add any salt to it at all and it tasted great!  In processed jars of pasta sauce one serving of sauce might have 300 mg of sodium all the way up to 1,000 mg!  1,000 mg of sodium in one cup of pasta with sauce is a crazy amount – it would mean a home chef adding nearly 1 tablespoon of salt per 1 cup of pasta with sauce.  I hope no home cooks do that!

Food cooked at home not only has more salt, but it tends to be healthier overall.  Kids who eat home-cooked meals eat more fruits and vegetables, as well as less salt, sugar, and fat.  Home-cooked family meals also promote togetherness and good relationships.  So cooking at home can really pay off!

Even super sweet rice krispie treats contain a large amount of salt. Percent daily values are based on the maximum amount an adult should consume. Children should consume half of that amount as an absolute maximum, and even then the ideal is to consume about one fifth of that. 50mg sodium may be closer to 10% of what a child should be consuming daily in a healthy diet!

Even super sweet rice krispie treats contain a large amount of salt. Percent daily values are based on the maximum amount an adult should consume. Children should consume half of that amount as an absolute maximum, and even then the ideal is to consume about one fifth of that. 50mg sodium may be closer to 10% of what a child should be consuming daily in a healthy diet!

Don’t Add Salt to Cooking

Most people add salt to food as they are cooking almost without thinking about it.  But salt is not necessary for food to taste good.  When you cook at home, you have the power to control flavors.  Most foods can use substitutes for salt.  Scrambled eggs, for instance, often include salt.  But perhaps instead of adding salt, you can add different flavors.  Season eggs with lemon and parsley, cumin, coriander, or ground pepper.  Seasoning common foods with fresh herbs and ground spices gives those foods a new, exotic, exciting flavor, and makes them seem more fancy.  Kids and adults alike will not miss the salt in a well-seasoned dish.

Absolutely do not add salt to food for your baby or infant!  Babies’ immature kidneys cannot handle the additional sodium.  Always be careful to feed babies homemade food or food specially formulated for infants.  Even if the ingredients list looks the same as it does for adult foods, adult food salt contents are higher.  Excess salt intake in babies can even be fatal.

If your dish needs some salt, add the tiniest amount possible.  A small pinch will usually suffice.  Use the healthiest kind of salt out there, so it will include other trace minerals rather than just the sodium and chloride that is in table salt.  I use pink Himalayan salt or natural sea salt if I need to season my cooking, and if I do decide to sprinkle my own dish with a bit of salt, I use Maldon sea salt flakes.  Choose the highest quality salt you can, preferably a kind with additional nutrients and minerals.  It might cost more, but you’ll be using it sparingly enough it should last for a long, long time.

pink himalayan salt

More great tips to come tomorrow! – Read on for How to Reduce the Amount of Salt in Kids’ Diets (Part 2)

*Gregory J, L.S., Bates CJ, Prentice A, Jackson L, Smithers G, Wenlock R, Farron M., National Diet and Nutrition Survey: young people aged 4 to 18 years. Vol. 1: Report of the diet and nutrition survey. 2000, London: The Stationery Office. 271-336.

Inspire Healthy Kids: Teaching Healthy Diet to Kids in Schools

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Inspire Healthy Kids: Teaching Healthy Diet to Kids in Schools

When it comes to healthier school lunches and eating better, kids have been notoriously critical.  And this comes as no surprise, as habits and tastes once formed are exceedingly difficult to change.  Classes teaching health and diet in schools have been disappointingly unsuccessful.  Today I would like to look at some ways to change our school health and diet education programs to make them more fun, compelling, engaging, and effective so we can get kids on board and make them partners in healthy change!

There are two main elements at work in school programs that teach kids about healthy diets: what they teach and how they teach it.  All too often classes on health and diet are underfunded, so teachers turn to industry publications for assistance.  Coloring pages and activity sheets from source like the dairy industry or the cereals industry become important teaching tools.  This has to be the first thing to change.  Another major problem is that too much classroom learning involves sitting at a desk for long periods of time, and health and diet education has been no exception.  Teaching kids about health and diet needs to become a fun activity.  More than any other subject, what kids learn about health and diet will affect them every day, several times a day, for the rest of their lives.  Schools need to teach the right things and they need to make it fun.

Teach Substitutions

Firstly, we need to teach our kids about how to substitute unhealthy food with healthier options.  Kids need to learn that just because something is unhealthy does not mean they need to give it up altogether. They can learn how to substitute in healthier options that taste similar or in some cases exactly the same.  Kids can learn about how to substitute foods like zucchini and squash for spaghetti so as to decrease their caloric intakes.  They can learn to substitute cheesy vegan red pepper dip for processed cheese sauce.  It is even possible to make healthy cake and healthy cookies that are delicious!

Teach Portion Sizes

With childhood obesity on the rise, many kids are simply eating too much.  Even kids who eat a relatively healthy diet can become overweight if they are eating too much high-calorie food.  In addition to teaching what kids should eat, schools need to teach kids how much to eat.  Make it fun and entertaining by actually having the foods in the classroom and having kids select how much is in a healthy portion – if they get it right, they get to eat it!

Teach About Nutrition Labels

Kids can only make good food choices if they have the right tools.  Nutrition labels are meant to be a tool for helping kids make good decisions, but they only work if kids know how to read them.  Teaching kids what each of the lines on a nutrition label means, and showing them how to tell what ingredients are in a food are essential skills.  Kids won’t know that the snack foods they are eating are unhealthy if they have no idea what is in them.  But if we teach kids that ingredients like sugar, fat, and salt are going to hurt them, and they know how to find those elements on a nutrition label, they are more likely to avoid them.

Teach Practical Skills

Forget the workbooks, activity sheets, and drawings of a “healthy” plate of food.  Teach kids skills they can actually use!  Get them in those home economics kitchens and teach them how to cook healthy food.  Even very young children can learn the basics of cooking and putting together a few healthy dishes.  Teach kids how to make healthy snacks they can have when they get home.  Kids who learn how to cook are much more likely to actually implement their new healthy food skills.  When I took home economics, I learned how to make super sweet and buttery cinnamon buns.  I want my kids to learn how to make healthier foods!

Another practical skill kids should learn is gardening.  Let kids get their hands dirty and plant something in school.  Some schools have space for a garden plot, but if your school doesn’t, give each child a pot and teach them to grow something.  If your schools doesn’t have money for such a project, try asking around at some local garden centers and inquiring if they would be willing to donate some of the materials you need, like pots and soil.  Many local companies will be happy to give to such a cause, especially if they can then claim they donate to schoolchildren to help them learn about gardening!  When children learn about gardening, they feel a sense of ownership over the vegetables they grow and are more likely to eat those healthy foods.

Getting kids involved in activities like cooking and gardening makes it fun for kids.  Not only are they both creative processes that result in kids feeling a sense of accomplishment and pride, but they are also fun activities that get kids up and moving.   In a world where kids spend too many hours of every day sitting immobile at desks, any chance to get them moving around is a chance to capture their attention and excitement.  Associating cooking, gardening, and overall healthy eating with a feeling of “recess” gives it fun associations for kids that will last a lifetime.

Start Young

Get a health and nutrition education program going in your local preschool and kindergarten.  Even daycares can begin teaching these things!  The younger kids begin learning about healthy food choices, the more likely they are to stick. This is especially true in care centers where food is provided.  Mealtimes can be important teaching times even for very young children.

Make it Fun

Teaching kids about food doesn’t have to be boring!  One business startup promoting healthy kids that has been meeting with success is called FoodPlay Productions.  They have won awards for their entertaining teaching of nutrition, which involves theater productions, juggling, and bright colors designed to catch kids’ attention. By acting out funny interactions on stage, they get kids curious and leave them amused. Older kids in the classroom can make up skits in groups and perform them for the whole class – teaching information makes it more likely to stick in students’ minds.  They combine nutrition education with other basic skills, like math, as they count the number of teaspoons of soda in a can, calculate how much money the average child spends on soda in a year, and figure out what other fun (and healthy) toys, like skateboards and bicycles, they could be buying with that money.  Activities like puzzles and games are also good tools  for making teaching nutrition fun.

Get Families on Board

Schools running nutrition programs need to do more to get parents active in the program.  Running a parents’ information night and explaining to them the basic concepts of healthy eating and portion control can help get them involved, too.  If parents understand the importance of doing something for their kids’ benefit, they usually will do it.  After all, most parents want their kids to be happy and healthy, and giving up something like white bread at dinner every night will likely seem a small price to pay for kids with healthier future outcomes.

Getting schools to change their nutrition education programs may take some work and some time, but it is being successfully done in schools all over the world.   It is possible to get such a program integrated into your school, too!  Let’s teach the whole world to inspire healthy kids!

How to Get Your Kids to Eat a Heart Healthy Diet

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How to Get Your Kids to Eat a Heart Healthy Diet

Recently, we’ve been looking at heart disease in children, which is becoming more and more prevalent as obesity rises.  A new study showed how eating a low fat vegan diet reduces many more heart disease risk factors in children than the predominant American Heart Association (AHA) recommendations did.  But the chief complaint from those on the vegan diet in the study was that finding no added fat vegan options was difficult and expensive.  So, if you have that added hurdle, it makes it even harder to get your kids to eat a heart healthy diet.  Here are some ideas for ways to get your kids to eat a heart healthy diet.

Getting kids to eat healthy can be challenging under the best of circumstances.  Even famous celebrity chefs can find it difficult to get their kids to eat their gourmet healthy meals.  With teenagers, I have always stressed communication as the key to inspiring healthy kids, while with younger children I focus mostly on getting them involved.  These strategies hold true for a heart-healthy diet just as much as for an overall healthy diet.

Start Young

The younger you start your kids eating a healthy diet, the better.  Taste buds can get corrupted very easily and once they switch off to trying new foods or to eating healthy things, you will have a very hard time getting them back.  Even as a health-conscious adult, I have a hard time giving up the unhealthy flavors of my youth.  We never drank a lot of sugary drinks, so I don’t have a problem giving those up, but when it comes to dairy or the occasional cookie, I have a hard time saying no. Once these tastes integrate themselves into your kids’ minds, you will find it difficult to eradicate them. When kids are young is the best time to make healthy eating part of their lives and habits, forever.

Lead by Example

Kids often model their own behavior on what their parents do.  For better or worse, conscious or unconscious, this is pretty standard among children.  Parents are their primary role model.  So change your diet, too.  Show your kids you enjoy eating spinach and cauliflower and they’ll be more interested in trying it.  Friends are amazed that my toddlers will sit and eat spinach (even raw!) but to me, it is no surprise – they see my husband and I eating it all the time.  Kale, beets, brown rice, and whole grain bread are all part of the diet they regularly see us eating, so they eat these foods, too.

More Family Time

Did you know that kids will eat more fruits and vegetables if you eat meals together as a family? Once again, kids have more opportunities to see parents modeling good eating habits.  There is also the “peer pressure” effect, applied in a positive way.  When kids see the rest of the family eating a meal, they are more likely to, as well. Eating meals together as a family has a lot of relationship benefits, too.  In fact, family dinner is one common recommendation family therapists make.  When I was a kid, family dinner almost every night of the week was the norm, but times have changed.  Today, each member of the family eats at a different time, making it easy for kids to grab for convenience foods or just the tastiest bits of whatever meal is on offer.  Eating together makes it socially unacceptable for a child to just grab a bag of chips from the corner store to have for dinner – that child now has to sit at the table and eat from what is on offer.

Start Slowly

Don’t try to change your kids’ diet all at once.  Switching from a meat-heavy, fatty, salty, sugary to a sugar-free, low-fat vegan diet will be a shock to your kids’ system.  If their taste buds are corrupted, you need to wean them off unhealthy foods slowly and teach them gently to love healthy food.  Change one snack and one type of food at a time.  Swap out sugary fruit roll-ups for all-natural fruit leather one week.  The next week change out buttery Ritz crackers for whole grain Mary’s Gone Crackers.  Change from serving macaroni and cheese to serving macaroni and red pepper cheese dip, then swap out the macaroni for whole wheat options or for broccoli.  By making changes slowly and gradually, you will not see an immediate change like you would if you changed your kids’ whole diet over suddenly, but the changes you do make are more likely to stick.  And it is much more important to teach kids to have a healthy lifestyle that lasts than to have them shed pounds suddenly only to pick them up again a few months later.

Get them Gardening

Food education programs with a lot of success, like the Eden Village Camp I was involved with, teach a farm-to-table approach.  Kids who grow their own vegetables are likely to love eating those vegetables.  Growing vegetables is a great teaching tool for many subjects, like science, as kids learn about life cycles and the environment.  But growing something also promotes a sense of pride and ownership in kids that makes them more likely to try – and keep eating – those foods they’ve grown.  And growing things doesn’t require a full-scale garden or even a back yard!  Kids in apartments can grow veggies in pots placed by windows and the need to water and care for plants gives kids a gentle sense of responsibility and stewardship that is great for their maturity.

Take them Shopping

Getting kids involved in the food selection experience also gives them a feeling of power and control.  Kids, like adults, want to feel they have some measure of control in their lives.  The younger the child, the more difficult it is to give them safe freedoms.  In a world where you can get arrested for letting your kid play unattended in a park across the street, how can we give our kids the freedom to make choices and grow up?  We are all required by law to be helicopter parents, like it or not.  So taking your kids to the store with you and letting them help with the shopping is a great starting point.  Begin by letting them pick out the fruits and veggies for the week.  With very young kids, including toddlers, just bring them along to the store and let them pull a few things they want to eat off the shelves.  Use it as a teaching opportunity for older kids, too.  Before you go to the store, take the time to do a little bit of “homeschooling.”  Sit down with them for an hour and plan out meals for the week, how much of what they need to buy, and then have them use math to figure out how much it will cost as you go through the store.  The amount of time you invest in involving your kids in food shopping will be repaid in the amount of time you will not have to spend fighting to get them to eat nutritious foods later in the week.

Teach them to Cook

Cooking is one of my favorite creative endeavors.  It is an opportunity to challenge oneself and is a rare opportunity to see nearly instant gratification from the fruits of your labors.  Kids are more likely to eat food they themselves have prepared, and teaching kids to prepare healthy meals will benefit you as a parent down the line, even if it requires a bit of time investment now.  Imagine never needing to make your kids’ lunches again, or being able to ask your kids to make dinner a few nights a week!  Kids of all ages enjoy cooking.  Even very young kids can learn to stir a bowl.  Help them decorate healthy pizzas or casseroles with a variety of ingredients, or make dinners they can assemble themselves, such as a salad bar or taco bar.  Giving them the responsibility of helping and the freedom of choosing is a great way to encourage kids to eat healthy food.

Try, Try Again

Finally, don’t give up!  Getting kids to eat a healthier diet is a challenging task.  Don’t expect them to jump on the bandwagon with enthusiasm right away (if they do, consider yourself fortunate!).  It might take a lot of effort, and it might take some time.  Just be patient and keep trying.  There are a lot of different strategies you can implement and an infinite amount of yummy and healthy foods to try.  If one doesn’t work for you, discard it and try a new one the next day.  If you come across one that really works for you, add it to a list of special foods to make again.  (Like my favorite Island Kale and Sweet Potato Soup, which everyone in my family loves and I make once or twice a month.)

I hope these tips and tricks work for you and if you have any other ideas please share them in the comments so we can all benefit.  Here’s to helping inspire healthy kids and to motivating our kids to eat a heart healthy diet!