A perpetual battle rages in our kitchen.
The parties involved: me and my 3 year old daughter.
The challenge: getting him to eat something decent for breakfast.
I lure him with protein-rich scrambled eggs. She ignores the request.
I slide a fiber-filled box of oatmeal across the table. She pushes him away.
There is a downcast look, which she masters perfectly. She won’t move. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly theme song begins to play.
She sets out her demands. They are always the same. It’s everything breakfast conqueror Baylie wants in the morning, and it keeps me and my wife motivated by Honey Nut Cheerios.
“Milk and chocolate cereal,” she said. She doesn’t play games.
And it’s never just about grains. It’s the kind with a lot of sugar. And she never finishes it. I do it, after she swallows the chocolate milk.
My dilemma is clear and she knows it. Should I force my child to eat something healthier or watch him eat nothing?
I take the milk and chocolate powder and start stirring.
Game over.
Feeding our five children has been a recurring reality check for me and my wife over the years. As with many aspects of parenting, we don’t always know if we’re doing it right.
Often we know this is not the case.
Since the dawn of Frosted Flakes, integrating nutrition into children’s diets has been a challenge for parents like us. Our kids would gobble down cold cereal, chicken nuggets, and macaroni and cheese forever if we let them. Our 9 year old only wants ice cream.
And the plane spoon thing no longer works on our 12 year old.
Eating well can be a difficult topic because it’s important, especially for brain development, but most American families don’t do it.‘I do not do it.
There is a resounding demand for unhealthy foods, and food giants are happy to supply them.
And it’s not just dads like me who have noticed it. Look at what the Boise school district is doing. Last week, the district of about 22,000 students announced free breakfast for the upcoming school year. Boise is banking on “improved academic performance” and “general health of students” as part of this decision.
Yet much of a child’s health begins at home. The good, the bad and the ugly still apply here.
The American diet is worse than bad: it’s deadlyexplained a 2022 NPR article.
“The data is compelling: the typical American diet is shortening the lives of many Americans,” the article reads. “Food-related deaths exceed deaths from smokingAnd about In the United States, half of all deaths are due to heart disease – nearly 900 deaths per day – are linked to poor diet.
The article offers seven ideas to encourage Americans to eat better. But these ideas, from creating a federal food “czar” to expanding access to diet and lifestyle advice, are driven by politics, not politics. family. (One of the seven tips is to make school meals free for all students. Hat tip, Boise district.)
Volatility in food prices since the pandemic has also made it harder for families to bring healthier foods into their homes, according to this 2023 study.
No pressure, moms and dads.
Yet my question remains: how can families like mine improve our diets? The American Heart Association offers 30 tips. Here is the Top 10:
- Make it fun by letting children try new fruits and vegetables by asking them to pick out new ones at the store and helping them prepare them.
- Buy whole grain bread, rice, pasta, cereal and crackers.
- Use non-tropical vegetable oils, such as canola, corn olive, safflower, sesame or sunflower, in place of butter and other solid fats.
- Be an example of healthier eating for your kids (my stuff with popcorn and chips says I’m guilty of the accusations made here).
- Read nutrition labels and look for more vitamins, minerals and dietary fiber, and less sodium, sugar, saturated fat and trans fat.
- Cook more at home and eat out less.
- Replace snacks with more fruits and vegetables.
- Eat more fish – try it twice a week.
- Go ahead: snack on a handful of almonds, hazelnuts, peanuts, pistachios and walnuts.
- Buy more fresh, canned, or frozen fruits and vegetables (we buy billions of bananas a month, although I know we can better switch to other fruits).
I’m not sure our 3 year old will take the bait, but we’ll accommodate this request for one chocolate milk and cereal at a time.
How to help your children eat healthy foods? Send your tips to (protected email).
