Don’t Panic- (relatively) Pain-Free Healthy Eating for Families
By Susan J. Hale, M.P.H.
One of the more common worries our new clients at Maverick Fitness have is how to make changes for the better in THEIR eating without triggering tantrums and drama on the part of their kids. Macaroni or melt-downs? It’s a tough call. Especially if they’ve fallen into the habit of eating whatever’s easiest, take-out and microwave meals, and taken their kids along for the ride.
Take a deep breath. It’s okay. With a little strategy and sticking to your guns, your happy-meal tater-tots can be following you down the road to a longer, healthier life in a month or so.
Change takes time.
Even though I am a health professional, I shudder every time some reality “health” show takes a slothful junk-food addicted child and dumps them into a world of tasteless tofu “scrambles” and bean sprouts. And then the show films their bewildered meltdowns for the television audience at home. Boy, that makes ME want to serve the kids salad tonight! You?
Here’s the trick- healthy meals should taste GOOD, and old foods shouldn’t be taken away cold turkey. Don’t provoke cold-turkey drama by announcing a sudden ban on all your family’s favorite high-fat, high-salt goodies. DO announce that your family is going to start eating healthier, and invite input from your kids.
Snack-hunt
Institute a new rule that while everyone gets to buy a single serving of their favorite junk food every week (the local gas station or 7/11 is best for this because of their wide selection of single servings sizes) AND anything you buy at the grocery store can’t have sugar or salt listed in the first five ingredients your little snackers beating a path to the pre-cut veggies and 100 calorie microwave popcorn packages sooner than you think. Oh, and start buying pre-cut veggie platters at the deli and put out bowls of baby carrots and ranch or hummus after school or before dinner each night. And make the ranch either homemade or low fat- the extra sugar in many fat-free versions makes some people eat more. Look for flavored hummus varieties too, often the all naturally flavored spicy, roasted red pepper, garlic, and other blends of hummus have less fat and calories and more flavor than straight hummus!
Soda Phase-out
Sodas are BAD news. Several studies show that the effects of soda consumption can extend to leaching the calcium in children's bones, to crowding out more healthy drinks like water or milk. The sugar in soda stuffs them full of empty calories, while the caffeine ruins many a household bedtime. Phase out soda by starting to keep a pitcher of Crystal Lite or water with slices of lemon in the fridge next to the soda, and gradually buying less of the stuff each week. Assign one kid to refill the Crystal Lite / lemon water pitcher after dinner each night. Halve the amount of soda you buy each week. Seriously addicted to full-sugar soda? Make it easier on you and the kids by starting slowly and phasing out one addictive element at a time. First, get the sugar out of your systems by buying the same amount of soda, but the diet version. After two weeks, buy only decaf diet soda to allow the caffeine to move out of the family’s system. If you feel you’re REALLY addicted to the caffeine buzz of the soda, start by buying half diet and half diet decaf in the big liter bottles one week, and pouring the decaf into the “regular” diet bottle as it empties. You KNOW the kids are going to drink the regular diet soda first. This will help lesson the blow as the week wears on and the caffeine runs low. Then move to completely diet/decaf and transition to non-carbonates sugar and caffeine free drinks as suggested above.
Are all your kids over 6 and still drinking full-fat milk? Do the “fill the carton as it empties” trick between full-fat and reduced-fat (aka 2%) milk first, then with low-fat (aka 1%) the next two weeks. Low-fat (1%) will keep most people happy and still give the kids some healthy fat in their diet while keeping the calories low.
Cooking- it’s for the whole family!
Failing to plan is planning to fail. This applies to all areas of life, but your kitchen and kids especially. If my clients have kids, I help them plan how to get them in on the act.
A study at Teachers College at Columbia University studied how cooking with a child affects the child’s eating habits. In one study, nearly 600 children from kindergarten to sixth grade took part in a nutrition curriculum intended to get them to eat more vegetables and whole grains. The researchers found that children who had cooked their own foods were more likely to eat those foods in the cafeteria, and even ask for seconds, than children who had not had the cooking class.
Play “Pick the vegetable” for each night of the week. Cruise the produce department or farmers’ market together for the weirdest or funniest looking veggie and ask the vender or the Internet how to cook it. Have a new veggie per week (or night- if you’re adventurous!) and watch the pickiest eaters try at least a bite. Select which ones are “do-overs” and keep a list on the fridge for future reference.
Bring a preschooler into the food prep arena! At the very least, ask children to help assemble lunches by spreading condiments on bread, washing fruit, and packing bags with utensils, etc. This is a safe way to for small children to help in food preparation without using sharp knives.
Don’t buy into the power play. As I like to observe, being a kid means you have very little power. You have to go/do/act as you’re told “or else.” The one power most kids have is what they put in their mouth, and if they can wield that power to drive the adults in their lives crazy, you BET they’re going to take advantage of that!
So don’t do it. It’s your job to cook food and present it. Don’t demand that they eat, just observe that THIS is what is for dinner, there is no other option, and they need to sit with the family because this is family time. Eventually, when they realize that they can’t whip you into a frenzy of bargaining dessert for a single bite of chicken or tantrum you into making a separate meal of white noodles with butter and Parmesan, they will eat.
No child is going to starve to death due to a self-imposed tantrum-based 24-hour hunger strike because they wanted buttered noodles when you’re serving roast chicken and steamed broccoli. Make water, milk, carrot sticks, and vegetables available to them, but nothing else. Help them learn that they DO get to choose what they put in their mouths…but that choice is between dinner and nothing, PERIOD.
Still concerned? Dwell on this: studies show that children react negatively when parents pressure them to eat foods, even if the pressure offers a reward. In one study at Pennsylvania State University, researchers asked children to eat vegetables and drink milk, offering them stickers and television time if they did. Later in the study, the children expressed dislike for the foods they had been rewarded for eating.
Just put the food on her plate, and know it may take as many as 15 time of seeing a new food for the child to accept it, according to Susan B. Roberts, a Tufts University nutritionist and co-author of the book “Feeding Your Child for Lifelong Health.” That’s right- that’s 15 uneaten (but drama-free!) florets of broccoli or spears of asparagus. Just let it roll and the eating will come.
Don’t forget the “Yum factor”
Toss steamed broccoli or other veggies with a tablespoon of Parmesan and butter at the last minute for extra flavor. Mix cinnamon and Splenda in equal parts and serve it to shake on baked sweet potatoes for a yummy dinner treat. Studies have shown that a little extra fat helps unlock more nutrients and increases the amount children consume.
Also do a quick inventory and see what healthy dishes YOU like. A Rutgers study of parent and child food preferences found that preschoolers tended to like or reject the same fruits and vegetables their parents liked or didn’t like. And other research has shown girls are more likely to be picky eaters if their mothers don’t like vegetables. So parents who plan menus with healthy foods THEY like are more likely to have kids who enjoy those healthy foods too!
Also – what healthy foods does YOUR child like? Get sneaky and start building towards healthier versions of that food to segue into others. Make pizzas with sauce that you lace with chopped spinach for the extra nutritional value. If your kid loves pumpkin pie, start with mashed pumpkin served like mashed potatoes with butter and brown sugar, then start sneaking mashed sweet potatoes and carrots into the mix. Sautee mushrooms, onions and peppers, then buzz them to a fine dice in your food processor with cooked ground beef to make a veggie-rich, low-fat “ground beef” base for pasta sauce with meat, tacos, Sheppard’s pie and Sloppy Joes.
No forbidden fruit.
Studies at Penn State show that restricting access to cookies instead of placing them in an accessible plate on the table in front of children had a profound effect. The children ate more than three times the cookies when they seemed “forbidden.”
Other studies show that children whose food is highly restricted at home are far more likely to binge when they have access to forbidden foods.
So what to do? Make restriction a no-brainer issue by only bringing healthy snacks that need no restricting into the house. Give the kids free run of a kitchen with only healthy foods and you have no worries.
That doesn’t mean any high-sugar treats ever again. Just make pleasant family rituals around them. Want ice cream? Go out together for a single-scoop cone. Want a cookie? Walk to the local bakery and buy one each.
Parents and kids: Healthy eating for a lifetime.
Here at Maverick Fitness, we’re about what WORKS. And when it comes to the long term, 99% of diets don't work. Developing a new way of eating does. We regularly analyze our clients’ activity levels and recommend eating plans that match activity level to amounts of carbs and protein, and then we work together on finding new habits for a healthier life-long way of eating. Diets set you up to fail and binge. Eating plans help you work towards long-term health and success. When it comes to your family, your kids are watching, and will copy what you do.
A 2005 report in the Journal Health Psychology found that mothers who were preoccupied with their weight and eating were more likely to restrict foods for their daughters or encourage them to lose weight. Daughters of dieters were also more likely to try diets as well. By exposing young children to erratic dieting habits, parents may be putting them at risk for eating disorders or a lifetime of chronic dieting.
Health by Stealth is the way Maverick Fitness parents get themselves and their kids ready for a life of health and fitness. Don’t use the word “diet”—EVER. Tell your kids that your family is now eating healthier and moving more. That’s all. If someone offers you a treat when it’s not in your eating plan, just say “no thanks” and sip your water, coffee or tea (no sugar!). Don’t say you’re on a diet! Diets are boring. Talk about your trainer, your new healthy habits, all the water you’re drinking and how much more fun you’re having because you feel so fit and full of energy! And to build self esteem and good body image in your kids, work to develop it in yourself. Say only kind things about your body, the sort of things you want to hear your kids saying about themselves. They will hear you and see how you treat yourself and follow your lead to be healthy, inside and out!
