Good Food - Bad Food
When the children sit down to eat meals at school, we discuss with them that there is no inherently “bad” or “good” food. Recent studies suggest that the ingrained belief that there is assigned morality in various food types results in an unhealthy long term relationship with food such as eating disorders (Source: Everyday Health). Instead, we discuss that some food is “fun food” and some food is “fuel food” to give our bodies energy. We talk about how all food gives us fuel, but some gives us more fuel than others.
Ensuring our childrens’ lunches are packed with a sufficient balance of carbohydrates, protein, and fruit/vegetables is essential for sustained ‘fuel’ during their busy day of learning and playing! While lean meats are an obvious source of protein, what are other sources - especially if your child’s class is nut free?
Here are some ideas that all have significant protein content: chickpeas, spinach, lentils, beans, eggs, soy beans/soy milk, peas, quinoa, edamame, oatmeal, yogurt, pumpkin seeds, and yes; fruits and vegetables!
When it comes to fruit and veggies, try to incorporate dark/leafy greens as they are more nutritionally dense, or, as we would tell the children, contain more ‘fuel.’ Examples include broccoli and spinach. Now, you might be reading this thinking, “Yeah right, how am I going to get my toddler to eat broccoli?” Let’s be realistic, it is so much easier to pack packaged snacks and avoid the fight. However, palettes are established at this age. In order to create a lifelong love for vegetables/fruit, it is important to start with them at a young age.
Here are some tips to encourage eating veggies/fruit (or fueling food in general they dislike):
Be consistent. Offer vegetables and fruit with every meal and snack.
Do not force them to eat the entire portion you offer. This will result in a long term resentment with the food and is counteractive to your long term goal. Our responsibility as caregivers is to provide fueling options, the child should be responsible for choosing how much they eat of the options provided to them.
Sometimes (just like all of us) there is just one type of food you do not like, no matter what. When grocery shopping or creating meals, give your child autonomy over their food choices by letting them select vegetables and fruit.
And finally, while these tips will hopefully help our long term nutritional goals, what do we as parents do in the meantime to ensure our children are getting sufficient nutrition needed in the short term? We get sneaky. Spinach in fruit smoothies, cauliflower in mashed potatoes, zucchini and carrots in meatballs/burgers, etc. Bonus points if your child already eats sufficient fruit/veggies and you still incorporate additional into your meals. Click here for more ideas to incorporate vegetables into dishes.
Do you have recipes your child loves? Any tips for other parents? Click HERE to help your parent community by sharing!
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