December 20, 2010 Calories Count...Even For Kids
Want to give your kids the greatest gift this holiday season?
Stop teaching your kids to overeat. Forestall their future as dieters. Then, teach your kids that even though calories count, that they don’t have to actually count calories (more on this later).
It’s tempting to think that calories don’t count for kids.
But they do.
According to the USDA, 2-3 year olds need 1000-1400 calories per day, but it's incredibly easy to reach the upper limit midway through the day. Especially if you rely on "kid-friendly" foods. Read The Truth About “Kid-Friendly” Foods.
Most processed foods have a ridiculous number of calories, especially when compared to fresh, natural foods. For instance:
- An apple has 50-75 calories.
- One ounce (about 12 chips) of Good Health Natural Foods Apple Chips has 140 calories.
Read Potato Chips Win Again! to learn about veggie chips; they're not nutritional winners either.
Even though calories count, you don’t have to count calories.
All you have to do is shift your children away from processed foods and towards fresh, natural foods, especially around snacks. Weight Watchers may never forgive you for teaching your kids not to fill up on high calorie foods, but your adults kids will be happy you did. Read Feeding Future Adults.
In fact, Weight Watchers has recently highlighted the economy of eating lots of fruits and vegetables. According to a recent New York Times article, Weight Watchers has revamped their famous points system and now fruits and vegetables are free. You should follow their lead and dole these goodies out as often as you can.
I know, you would teach your kids to eat fruits and vegetables if you could.
But here’s the cruel truth about these foods: you can’t teach your kids to eat them by plopping some peas on a plate once a day. You have to make fruits and vegetables your "go-to" food. Read Salad Days
Your kids learn to favor the flavors—and textures— of foods they eat most often. Food preferences are really just a matter of math. Read The Variety Masquerade and Pizza and Peas: The Untold Story.
Not convinced how easy it is for toddlers to gobble up 1000-1400 calories?
Breakfast: (Total Calories=380)
- Cup of Reduced Fat Milk=120 calories
- ½ Cinnamon Raisin Bagel=160 calories
- 1 ounce Cream Cheese=100 calories
Daily Calories So Far=380
Snack: (Total Calories=480)
- 8 ounces Apple Juice=120
- 2 ounces (1 small box) Goldfish Crackers=280
- 1 Polly-O String Cheese=80
Daily Calories So Far=860
Lunch: (Total Calories=310)
- Grilled Cheese Sandwich=300
- 2 Carrot Sticks=10
- glass of water
Daily Calories So Far=1170
Snack: (Calories=205)
- ½ Apple=25
- YoBaby Banana Organic Drinkable Yogurt=180
Daily Calories So Far=1375
Dinner: (Calories:=425)
- Cup of Reduced Fat Milk=120
- 5 Chicken Nuggets=270
- 1/4 cup of Peas=35
Total Daily Calories=1800 ... And this doesn't even include cookies.
Sure, you can dicker with the numbers—subtract 100 calories if you serve Quaker Oats Maple & Brown Sugar Instant Oatmeal for breakfast, add 100 calories if you serve PB&J for lunch—but unless you switch to a diet made up mostly from fruits and vegetables, your numbers will stay about the same. You have to change the overall game.
~ Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits. ~
Reader Comments (9)
This is a great post. Very helpful.
We do pretty well as we are also very sugar aware. Our toddler is not as low glycemic as we are simply because she is not a fan of protein and veggies yet, but we are strict as possible with processed foods and sugar.
I actually bake pretty regularly with almond flour and ground flax to make muffins for her. Just to share her routine (I'm sure no one cares, but I feel like talking about it, forgive me :) )
Typical Breakfast:
Organic greek yogurt (higher protein, lower sugar) or scrambled eggs
Fruit
Almond flax muffin (or some animal crackers, toast, or organic breakfast bar if I haven't baked)
Lunch
Chicken nuggets or hot dog-no bun (shameful I know but these are proteins she'll eat)
Cottage cheese for dairy
Veggie
Fruit
Dinner
Cheeseburger (no bun) or pasta meat sauce with cheese (she doesn't like pasta)
Veggie (which she will not touch, guaranteed)
Fruit
1 glass of 4oz juice with water a day, water thereafter. She refuses milk so we do a lot of extra dairy.
Snacks
Sugar free popcicles (she likes these best, I buy red. sugar for her and she won't eat them)
Cheese
Cottage cheese
Raisins
Yogurt
Fruit
Cheezits or animal crackers (can't get away from refined carbs completely, they travel well, great for the car)
The thing that makes me insecure is that my girl is chunk-a-love and I worry worry worry. I know she's going to be close to 6' if not taller, my husband was apparently chunky as a toddler (I was not) and I had insulin resistance during pregnancy (and after) and also took prednisone in the 2nd trimester, which my RN aunt tells me is associated with obesity for the fetus. So I very much worry that we have set her up to fail even though we are trying our very best to provide excellent food choices. Not mention signed her up for dance, gym class and swimming to keep her active.
And I have to say I SO look forward to the end of the picky picky food phase. I eat such beautiful salads and she is so not interested. I make great roasted veggies, so not happening. Sigh.
Thanks for letting me natter on. I really love your blog, it is so helpful.
M
M -
Thanks for providing your child's typical daily menu. I wonder if you calculated the calories what you would discover!
Dina
She's averaging around 300 per meal give or take, right in the ballpark of the recommended caloric intake much to my relief (I sat and calculated it out). Snacks are dispersed dependent on what she did or didn't eat, so if she ate lightly she gets a bigger snack (usually the portion of her meal that she didn't eat). If she ate, the snack is smaller.
There are things I would change/improve, but this represents the compromise between what she will eat vs. the healthiest choices I can find. We are definitely pushing a lower carb paradigm in our house, which more and more science is supporting as a good way to prevent diabetes and control weight.
We are also talking a lot about what food does in our bodies and what vitamins are in which foods.
M
M -
It sounds like you're right on track and doing a great job.
Dina
Part of me shudders in horror at this post, but the other part of me thinks, "well, crap, my kid is happy to have a slice of bread and a tumbler of milk for lunch." She's not starving, but she's certainly not getting appropriate nutrition. I have no idea how many calories she gets per day, but I am stymied about 90% of the time as to how to get her to eat something other than carbohydrates and dairy.
I feel your pain Melanie. I've had some luck with just leaving her meals on the table and letting her graze.
When she comes to me complaining she's huuuuuuuungryyyyyy, I redirect her to her plate. This works about 60% of the time to get her eating outside her comfort zone.
But it's still a daily battle.
M
Melanie,
It sounds like you're frustrated - understandably. I would be too.
The key to expanding your child's repertoire of acceptable foods is to make a rule not to serve the same food two days in a row, or twice in one day. Use foods your daughter already knows and likes. If you have to alternate between types of crackers to get the variety going, do this (at first). Do this at every meal (including breakfast), and every snack.
Setting this rule will lay the framework for your daughter to eat better. In a month or two you'll be able to introduce new foods. Some people say their children become interested in new foods right away after the change is made. Read House Building 101 for more on this.
Good luck and let me know how it goes.
Dina
P.S. Tell your daughter about the change the day/meal BEFORE you implement it. Tell her you're making the change because she's a big girl now.
Why are you blocking/removing constructive criticism of the information you are presenting from this wall?
well, my last post has survived for a few days after earlier ones that I spent substantial time on were removed. perhaps they were thought to be inflammatory; my real intention (as a board-certified MD in internal medicine) is not to anger but to incite some thoughtful questioning of the type of "common sense" knowledge being applied to important questions on health and its relation to life behaviors, including diet. I do not have time to renumerate the thoughts the page moderator decided to strip down earlier, so I will only suggest that if you want to believe "facts" like the idea that saturated fat consumption is linked to poor health outcomes or that high caloric intake and inactivity are primary causes of obesity you should see if there is any real experimental evidence to back these claims. hundreds of millions of dollars worth of goverment sponsored trials have FAILED to demonstrate the truth of these hypotheses. Go to the cochrane database and look it up. There remains legitimate debate about the causes of obesity and heart disease, but these tired ones have been discredited.