Its Not About Nutrition

Use Ice Cream to Teach Your Kids to Eat Right

2012-05-25T16:20:40Z

It's Memorial Day weekend and that means summer. And summer means Ice Cream!!!

Hurray. I love ice cream. Most kids I know love it too.

And most parents I know go back and forth between trying to regulate their kids' consumption of ice cream over the summer and, well, just letting it go.

I'm going to suggest something radical: This summer use ice cream to teach your kids to eat right.

Half the battle of eating right is knowing how to fit sweets and treats into your diet in a way that works.

That's why I was disappointed when I picked up the current issue of Nutrition Action Healthletter, published by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and read their tips for choosing the best ice cream.

I love this newsletter. I really do. But, come on!

This article advocates eating a rational amount of ice cream—as opposed to digging into a bowl that's bigger than your body— a proposition I support.

But it also advocates...

1) Substituting the dessert of your dreams with a lower fat (and sometimes totally fake) version of the real deal. Artic Zero? Really?

I say, let your kids eat the ice cream they love.

2) Trying to reduce (or eliminate) the sugar rush you receive by choosing ice creams with the least amount of added sugar.

I say, let your kids eat the ice cream they love.

3) Maximizing the protein and calcium content of your cone. Most premium ice creams contain 4-5 grams of protein per half cup, but Ciao Bella Adonia Greek Frozen Yogurt packs a 9 gram protein punch.

I say, let your kids eat the ice cream they love. Ice cream shouldn't be your good nutrition "go-to."

Lesson 1: It's better to fit REAL ice cream into your diet in a way that works than to look for the "healthiest" ice cream out there.

Yes, I know that the folks at the Center for Science in the Public Interest would advocate both—moderating your intake of the most nutritious ice cream out there—but that's not the way most people work. Especially people who are kids.

Lesson 2: Let treats be treats.

The idea that we can expect things to be what they are not—ice cream that's packed with protein, cookies with as much fiber as a bowl of oatmeal—is a byproduct of the nutrition mentality (mixed with a healthy dose of manufacturing magic).

But here's the irony: It's harder to teach kids to treat ice cream as a treat if you "health-ify" it.

When you blur the boundaries between healthy food and treats, it's hard to:

Convince your kids to limit their intake of treats.
Teach your kids the importance of eating healthy foods.

Lesson 3: Eat foods in proportion to their healthful benefits.

That means eating green beans more frequently than gelato and spinach more often than sorbet.

And then, teach your kids to indulge in ice cream as an occasional indulgence.

These are the lessons they will need for a lifetime of healthy (ice cream) eating.

~Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~

Source: Hurley, J. & B. Liebman. 2012. "Ice Cream: What's Hot in the Deep Freeze?" Nutrition Action Healthletter. Center for Science in the Public Interest. June. pp. 13-15.

Top 10 Healthy Food Lists: Ditch 'Em

2012-05-22T18:52:07Z

I hate food lists. They're misleading and misused.

Here's one that showed up in my inbox recently:

Read the rest of the list.

Food lists that are geared towards parents of toddlers are especially misleading.

They make parents feel like there are special foods for toddlers. Items little kids are supposed to eat. That's a myth. Toddlers can (and should) eat what you eat—as long as what you eat is healthy— with three small concessions. Read more.

But I hate food lists for other reasons too:

People get overly focused on a small set of foods.
People are encouraged to feed list foods to their kids over other, equally beneficial foods. Oranges didn't make this particular list, for instance, but I suspect it's still good for your kids to eat one ocassionally.
People feel free to overfeed their kids list foods.
Parents often end up contorting themselves to get list foods into their kids, i.e., bribing, begging, and ironically, compromising the quality of food they feed (sweetened yogurt anyone?).

This is how nutritious food lists end up teaching kids bad eating habits.

Most parents use foods lists incorrectly.

In my experience, parents:

Scan the list.
Find a couple of foods that their kids will willingly eat.
Feed their kids these same foods every single day, confident that they're doing the right thing.

But I never met a nutritionist who would recommend parents use food lists this way.

From a nutrition perspective, kids need variety.
From a habits perspective, kids need variety.

Don't be surprised if your kids reject new foods if you feed them a monotonous diet. You've got to mix things up—a lot. Read End Picky Eating with The Rotation Rule.

All food lists are basically the same.

The difference is in the details: Which healthy foods they feature. True, some lists emphasize blueberries while others are all about apples, but all lists recommend some assortment of real food.

(It’s hard to find Goldfish crackers, chicken nuggets, chocolate milk, apple juice or any "child-friendly" food on a healthy eating list.)

You only need to know three things to teach your kids to eat right.

Feed your children more fresh, natural foods than any kind of processed food. (Proportion)
Don't get stuck feeding your kids the same foods over and over. (Variety)
Only feed your kids when they're hungry, stop feeding them when they're full—and resist the urge to feed kids when they're bored, sad or lonely. (Moderation)

So ditch the lists.

It'll save you time, and free up valuable brain power. Focus on teaching your kids a style of eating that will maximize the chances that you'll teach your kids the habits they need for a lifetime of healthy eating.

~Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~

Water vs. Punch and Soda

2012-05-18T14:22:51Z

Two studies, same results: Serving water at meals and snacks makes kids more likely to eat vegetables!

Study 1:

Take a bunch of 3-5 year olds.
Offer the kids a snack of carrot sticks and slices of red pepper.
One day offer the children Hawaiian punch to drink with their snack.
Another day offer the kids some water with their snack.

What happened?

The children ate a larger portion of vegetables on the water day than on the Hawaiian Punch day.

And get this: the researchers noted that even after consuming only a small amount of the sweetened drink, the children were relatively disinterested in eating vegetables.

Study 2: Take a bunch of college students and ask them how well soda goes with pizza, fries and vegetables. Then, ask the students to say how well water goes with these same foods.

On a scale of 1-5 where food/drink pairings DO NOT GO WELL=1 and food/drink pairings GO WELL=5.

Raw vegetables such as carrot or celery sticks go well with:
- Tap water or plain bottled water: Average score=4.15
- A cola beverage: Average score=1.83

Steamed vegetables, such as asparagus and broccoli, go well with:
- Tap water or plain bottled water: Average score=3.20
- A cola beverage: Average score= 1.93

In other words, if you’re drinking a cola beverage, you’re not going to think of eating vegetables.

Not surprisingly, the students thought that both French fries and pizza go well with soda: French fries average score=4.20, Pizza average score=4.17.

With water? French fries average score=2.86, Pizza average score=3.51.

Some explanations:

Sweet flavors may not "sit well" with the less sweet taste of the vegetables. Or...

People come to expect certain food combinations like pizza with soda or punch.

There are so many reasons not to teach your kids the habit of drinking sweetened beverages.

(And, in my opinion, juice should also be on the list. Read Coke Beats Juice.)

Sugary soft drinks are the No. 1 source of calories in the American diet. We get more calories from sodas and sugary drinks than any other individual food, including cake, cookies, and pizza. Read this New York Times article.

When taste preferences for sugar, salt and fat are developed early in life, the stage is set for diets high in calories and low in nutrients. Some research even shows these foods can be addictive. Read Are “Child-Friendly” Foods Really Gateway Drugs?

And now there's one more reason: Your kids will eat more vegetables.

~Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~

Source: Cornwell, T. B. and A. R. McAlister. 2012. “Contingent Choice: Exploring the Relationship Between Sweetened Beverages and Vegetable Consumption.” Appetite doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2012.05.001.

Kid Eats Q&A: What's a Soccer Mom to Do About Snacks?

2012-05-15T16:12:53Z

Thanks to Katie who sent me this question:

My son (almost 5) is playing soccer for the first time this year. I just got an email from the coach that the parents need to chip in even more money so that she can provide popsicles for the kids after all the practices and games.

WHAT? Now, I do love popsicles, but I'm not so keen on my kid feeling that an hour of exercise deserves a sweet/colourful/completely devoid of nutrition "treat". I know my kid and after about 3 weeks the soccer/popsicle connection will be cemented in his brain.

Am I being way too uptight? Should I put up a stink? Offer to bring fruit? Talk to my son about it and let him have at the popsicles?

From a habits perspective I hate the idea that kids are being taught to consume junk with athletics.

So Katie, I'm with you. I feel your pain. And no, I don't think you're being way too uptight.

You can try to convince the coach that she shouldn’t serve popsicles—Read my friend Sally’s success story for inspiration.—but it's not the only thing you should do.

In addition, I say use this opportunity to begin teaching your son about how to navigate the food world he lives in. Read When School Nutrition Stinks, but here's the general plan: You figure out how much, your son figures out when.

Talk to your son about how to fit sweets and treats into his diet so that fruits, vegetables and other real foods dominate his day.
Teach your son to plan for popsicles by moderating his intake of sweets and treats on soccer days. When possible, allow your son to do this for himself: “You can have this cookie now or you can have a popsicle after soccer.”
Bring fruit for your son to eat, and enough fruit to share, but don’t bring so much that you take over snack time—not because you might step on some toes, which you probably will—but because being the one who always brings the healthy snacks is both a financial and an emotional burden.
Allow for some wiggle room, those times when your son will have had his treat before soccer but wants another one after the game. Remember, it's the longterm lesson you're after.

Most parents I know worry that their children will feel excluded if they aren’t allowed to eat the same food (and I use the term food liberally here) as everyone else.

To this I say:

Possibly. and
It depends on how you handle it. and
Sometimes it's worth the risk because there are important lessons at stake here.

Here are some points I think are worth considering:

1) If children have adequate access to sweets and treats they won’t feel DEPRIVED in the sense of, “Kids hoard candy if they’re not allowed to indulge." Your child might feel a little deprived, but we're talking limits, not total restriction. One of the most valuable lessons you can teach your son is that he doesn't have to eat sweets and treats every time they're offered. He also doesn't have to have sweets and treats just because they're being offered.

2) Although children believe it’s not “fair” when other kids are allowed to eat sweets and they aren’t, parents don’t have to reinforce this belief. Instead, parents can teach their children that when it comes to sweets and treats, “fair” is eating what is right for your body, not more than what’s right, and not what's right for someone else. "Maybe Jimmy didn't already have a donut today. This is his time for a treat. You already chose to have yours. Remember?"

3) Even when kids resist limits, limits are good. Put another way, if limits were always eliminated because kids didn't like them, where would we be?

4) When children are allowed to choose when they have their sweets and treats they’re more comfortable accepting limits because they've been part of setting those limits.

5) It’s easier to accept being different when you don’t feel deprived. (See point #1.)

To be fair to the coach, she’s probably thinking that popsicles aren’t that bad because she thinks::

Popsicles are primarily water —and kids have to rehydrate. Actually they don’t need to rehydrate as much as you think. Read Soccer Moms, BEWARE!

Popsicles have sugar, but nothing compared to ice cream. Actually, sugar varies widely in popsicles. One Popsicle brand grape popsicle has 8 grams of sugar, one Dreyers All Natural Grape Fruit Bar has 18 grams of sugar. In comparison, ½ cup of Dreyers chocolate ice cream has 15 grams of sugar.

Some popsicles contain actual fruit. Some do, though none of them contain the range of nutrients found in real fruit: one Dreyer’s Grape bar has 25% of Vitamin C—all of it added— but none of the Vitamin A, calcium, iron or fiber found in actual grapes.

On the other hand, this coach clearly isn't thinking about long term habits.

But, Katie, I'm glad you are. It will help you navigate successfully past this soccer snack situation so you can teach your son the skills he will need for a lifetime of happy sports and healthy snacking.

~Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~

Translating Nutrition into Behavior

2012-05-12T00:22:00Z

How many times have you strongarmed your kids into a car seat?

I'm guessing...zillions.

I call this the strongarm stage of learning new habits: The period before your kids willing (even happily) comply with the rules. It's the time before the habit has taken hold when your kids often need a little, shall we say, a little extra encouragement.

Of course, teaching kids good eating habits is more challenging than getting kids in the habit of riding in a car seat.

You can't really throw manpower--mompower?--at the problem during the strongarm stage. (Though I've known a few parents to try!)

Since you can't force your kids to eat, the only thing you can do is create an environment that is conducive to the outcome you're after: Veggie eating, trying new foods, pleasant dinners...

So I've put together my Top 10 Tips for Translating Nutrition into Behavior so your kids will eat the way you want them to.

1. Taste preferences are more nurture than nature. Read Food Culture and What It Means to be “Child-Friendly.”

2. Don’t serve marginal foods or use questionable strategies to get nutrients into your kids. It’ll ruin both their short- and long-term eating habits. Read The Ten Most “Dangerous” Foods and The Two-More Bites Tango and How YOU Can Take the Lead

3. Never ask children to eat new foods. Ask them to taste a pea-sized sample and describe what they’ve tasted instead. Read Why Some Kids Should Spit and Nix the Negativity.)

4. Commit to The Rotation Rule: Don’t serve the same item two days in a row and deliberately rotate through different tastes and textures. Read End Picky Eating with The Rotation Rule)

5. Serve a fruit and/or a vegetable at every meal and every snack—every darned day. And be satisfied with one Happy Bite. Read Fruits and Vegetables at Every Meal and Every Snack—Every Darned Day and The Happy Bite

6. Stop pressuring your kids to eat and start serving smaller portions. Read When Less is More.

7. Improve the quality of your kids’ snacks. It will improve how your kids eat and it will change YOUR life. Read 10 Ways Improving Your Kids’ Snacking Will Improve YOUR Life.

8. Talk to your kids about eating behavior more than you talk to them about nutrition. See the world of food and eating through your kids’ eyes. Read Eating, Seen Through Your Child’s Eyes.

9. Clearly delineate eating and non-eating times. Don’t let your toddler eat on demand. Don't be afraid to let your child feel some hunger. Read What To Do About Snacks and Do Kids Need to Snack?

10. It’s just as important to teach your kids why, when and how much to eat as it is teach them what to eat. Don’t feed your kids when they’re bored, sad or lonely (or because you need to buy some quiet time). 10 Habits MORE Important than Vegetable Eating and Soul Food for Kids.

~Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~

Helping Kids Who Overeat

2012-05-08T18:37:00Z

Next month I am teaching the class—Helping Kids Who Overeat— at the Natural Gourmet Institute in New York City.

June 5^th, 6:30-9:30. Here’s the registration information.

Most of the parents I come into contact with are concerned about getting their children to eat more food. And they are not alone. Read Are Pediatricians Hurting Your Toddler’s Eating Habits?

But there’s a whole contingent of parents out there who have the opposite problem: They’re concerned about getting their children to eat less.

The research literature is pretty clear: Reducing kids' access to food isn't the way to go.

Most people don’t resort to drastic measures like the mom who recounted in Vogue's April issue the story of putting her 7 year old on a diet.

America went crazy in response to this story—read this review or Google the story and you'll see what I mean— but I bet if you parent an overeater you can sympathize, even if you wouldn’t follow suit.

Childhood obesity is a genuine problem in America. The health implications for overweight kids are severe (read The New York Times article Obesity Linked Diabetes in Children Resists Treatment) and the pressure to get kids to lose weight is tremendous.

(By the way, and I've said this before, I don't think it's a coincidence that we spend the first few years of our kids' lives trying to get them to eat more and the rest of their lives trying to get them to eat less, but that's a point for another post.)

You can influence how much your kids eat without resorting to drastic measures. Simply change how your child eats.

This is a habits-based approach and research shows it's pretty effective.

Brian Wanink makes the following recommendations in his book, Mindless Eating:

See if before you eat it. When people pre-plate their food they eat 14% less than when they take smaller amounts and go back for seconds (or thirds). Leave the serving dishes in the kitchen.

Instead of eating directly out of a package or box, put snacks in a separate dish and leave the box in the kitchen.

See it while you eat it. Leave the evidence of your eating in plain view. For instance, leave empty soda cans where you can see them and don’t clear the table mid-way through the meal.

Use small serving bowls and containers and repackage jumbo boxes into smaller bags. The smaller the serving container, the less you’ll serve yourself.

Eat from smaller plates. It will make serving sizes look bigger.

Drink from tall, slender glasses instead of short, wide ones. You’ll pour yourself less.

Put fruits and vegetables front and center. Leave leftovers and sweets and treats out of sight.

Decrease variety at meals to increase “sensory specific satiety.”

Snack only at the table and on a clean plate. This makes it less convenient, and therefore less tempting to eat between meals.

When eating with others, try to be the last person to start eating. You'll spend less time at the trough since most people keep eating until the last person finishes.

People who make these changes reduce how much they eat without even noticing it.

That's because, Wansink says, we can reduce our food consumption by 20% without feeling it. But try to eliminate 30% and people start to feel deprived.

There are other environmental changes you can make to change what your children eat. Read Feng Shui for Food

~Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~

Source: Wansink, B., 2006. Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think. New York: Bantam Books.

Do Kids Need to Snack?

2012-05-04T18:52:26Z

Do kids need to snack?

That’s the question I raised in my last post. I just finished reading Karen Le Billon’s book French Kids Eat Everything and I was responding to her point that French kids don’t snack as much as American kids do. According to Le Billon, French children (even very young ones) snack only once a day, sometime in the afternoon.

In contrast, American average nearly 3 snacks per day. Some kids snack more frequently.

As a very recently reformed snacker, I’m conflicted on the pros and cons of eating between meals.

I gave up snacking only a week or so ago (and today has already been a bust). Le Billon's got me thinking.

No matter you think about snacking, though, the reality is this: Half (or more) of our kids’ daily eating opportunities, and more than ¼ of their daily calories, come from snacks. It matters what we teach them.

As Le Billon points out, and I agree, the jury is still out on the number of times people need to eat during the day.

There’s plenty of research that shows that eating frequently throughout the day reduces your chances of becoming overweight. Unfortunately, there’s also plenty of research that counters this too.

And, there are perplexing problems associated with this research. For instance, it's not so clear that eating more frequently throughout the day provides a measure of protection against becoming overweight.

Many overweight people skip meals in order to reduce their calorie consumption. Thus, some researchers speculate that it might not be that meal frequency predicts obesity, rather weight status might predict how often people eat.

Despite the persistent belief that snacking is a healthy habit, the evidence points in the opposite direction.

The more our kids snack, the worse they eat.

Today’s children typically take in 168 more calories from snacks than they did in 1977. (Does that mean kids are hungrier—168 calories hungrier—at snack time than they used to be?)
Contrary to popular wisdom, kids don’t compensate for snacking by eating smaller meals. Kids 2-6 years old have added 182 calories per day to their diet since 1977, with no corresponding increase in physical activity.
Most snack calories come from desserts and sweetened beverages, but salty snacks – i.e. potato chips, tortilla chips, pretzels -- and candy are the fastest growing category of snack consumption.

Read The Snack Attack, Snacks: The Gifts That Keep on Giving and Snacking and The Nutrition Mentality.

The American Academy of Pediatrics doesn’t seem to have a policy on the number of snacks kids should consume during the day.

The AAP might have a policy, but I can't find one. (If anyone out there knows of one, please pass it on.)

However, I did find this recommendation:

"Limit snacking during sedentary behavior or in response to boredom and particularly restrict use of sweet/sweetened particularly restrict use of sweet/sweetened beverages as snacks (eg, juice, soda, sports drinks)”

Read the whole report Dietary Recommendations for Children and Adolescents: A Guide for Practitioners

Regardless of what you decide to do about snacks I think there are some things you should consider.

1) Kids should not snack on demand. Instead, set a time for snacks and (basically) stick with it.

Your kids will appreciate their meals more (they’ll eat a better and more varied diet).
You’ll be teaching your kids self-control. Read Marshmallows Make You Smart.
You’ll be able to plan what you serve for snacks because you won’t be caught off-guard, forced to buy whatever snacking delight happens to be available.

2) Make sure snacks “borrow” calories from meals, rather than increase the bottom line. This is easier said than done. Read The Snacking Minefield.

3) Double check that you really do dole out snacks in response to hunger and not because you want to distract, entertain, placate or keep your kids quiet.

4) Consider eliminating snacking on the go. I'm not sure this is practical for Americans, but according to Le Billon, French kids only snack at home. This seems sane to me.

~Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~

Sources:

Le Billon, K., 2012. French Kids Eat Everything: How Our Family Moved to France, Cured Picky Eating, Banned Snacking, and Discovered 10 Simple Rules for Raising Happy, Healthy Eaters. New York: William Morrow.

Koletzko, B. and A. M. Toschke. 2010. “Meal Patterns and Frequencies: Do They Affect Body Weight in Children and Adolescents?” Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition 50: 100-05.

Newby, P. K. 2007. “Are Dietary Intakes and Eating Behaviors Related to Childhood Obesity? A Comprehensive Review of the Evidence.” Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 35 (1): 35-60.

What To Do About Snacks

2012-05-01T18:27:40Z

It’s 15 minutes before dinner and your kids say they are hungry. Do you give them a snack or make them wait?

What if it’s:

30 minutes before dinner?
60 minutes before dinner?
90 minutes before dinner?

Snack or wait?

I suspect most parents would feel comfortable making their kids wait—i.e. stay hungry—for 15 minutes.

But 30?

I have been thinking a lot about snacking lately because I’ve been reading Karen Le Billon’s new book French Kids Eat Everything.

The book is fabulous. I’m jealous. I wish I had written French Kids Eat Everything, and not just because I wish I had been able to spend a year living in France. This book gets it right: When it comes to raising healthy eaters, if parents set up a structure that facilitates good eating habits kids will eat nutritious food.

But let’s get back to snacking. Apparently the French don't do it (or at least they don't do much of it). And so reading Le Billon’s book makes me wonder: Do we really need to snack as much as we do?

Of course I have questioned snacking before, and I've talked about the role of hunger in fostering good eating habits—read The Upside of Hunger—but Le Billon makes me question snacking more as a philosophy.

So I pose the question: How much hunger are you willing to tolerate?

French Food Rule #7: Limit snacks, ideally one per day (two maximum), and not within one hour of meals.

According to Le Billon, French kids get an afternoon snack around 4:30 and that’s it. No mid-morning nosh. No after dinner delight. Zilch. Nothing. Nada.

“If asked, many American parents would prefer to give something unhealthy to their kids rather than make them wait. If French children are hungry, on the other hand, they are simply promised that they’ll be able to eat well at the next meal. ” (p. 147)

I think this is true. Read Snacking and the Nutrition Zone Mentality and "Do No Harm" Snacking.

Snack or wait?

I know what you’re probably thinking: Kids need to snack.

Maybe this “truth,” that tiny tummies need frequent fill-ups, simply isn’t so.

If Le Billon is to be believed (and I can’t see why she shouldn’t be) French children—babies, toddlers, and school kids— survive just fine without a mid-morning snack.

Le Billon’s own children who, I think it’s reasonable to say, were snack-aholics when they first moved from Vancouver to France, actually made the transition to a non-snacking lifestyle without losing their ability to concentrate in school, play energetically and without their blood sugar levels tanking to dangerous levels.

When I was a child no one snacked mid-morning and we all survived just fine. I don’t even remember being especially hungry.

In other words, snacking is a philosophy. It's an approach to eating. It's a lifestyle. It's not a necessity.

The American approach to snacking teaches kids to avoid hunger. In contrast, the French cultivate hunger.

Why? Hunger makes eating more pleasurable. Try giving up snacks, like I recently did, and you'll see how much you start enjoying, I mean really enjoying, your meals.

But letting kids get hungry between meals pays off in another way: It makes kids less likely to be picky.

I don't really expect parents to abandon snacking. But you should seriously curtail it.

Don't let your children snack on demand.
Create snack zones—times when snacks are available—that won't ruin meals.
If your kids seem especially hungry, move up the meal.

~Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~

Source: Le Billon, K., 2012. French Kids Eat Everything: How Our Family Moved to France, Cured Picky Eating, Banned Snacking, and Discovered 10 Simple Rules for Raising Happy, Healthy Eaters. New York: William Morrow.

Healthy Desserts for Kids

2012-04-27T16:40:33Z

Dessert is magical.

Used the wrong way, dessert can make kids eat more dinner. Want to know why this is wrong? Read Wheelin' & Dealin': 10 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Trade Peas For Pie.

Used the right way, dessert can transform how your kid eats. Read Dishing Up Dessert.

In order to get dessert working for you, you've got to take it down a peg or two. In most homes, dessert has way too much power.

Kids want dessert. And, knowing this:

If you are parenting a picky eater, you probably use dessert to pressure your kids to eat more than than they want.

If you are parenting an overeater, you probably try to restrict your child's access to dessert.

Research shows that pressure and restriction are parenting strategies that don't work.

You don't have to ditch dessert. Just neutralize it.

Serve dessert every night. Read Dessert: How I LOVE Thee.
Establish the rule that everyone who wants dessert gets it—no matter how well they've eaten.
If dessert has a lot of power in your home, consider serving it at the same time as the main meal.

And then...change what you serve for dessert.

Serve fruit, yogurt, cheese or other healthy foods for dessert most nights, and sweet desserts only occasionally.

Need some ideas? You don't have to serve fruit straight-up.

You can add a sprinkle of cinnamon, a dash of vanilla, or a dusting of powdered sugar to fresh fruit such as bananas, kiwi, oranges, cantaloupe, grapes, apples, mango, pear, cherries, blueberries...

Got a little more energy?

Grilled Pineapple
Mixed Berry Salad with Mint
Vanilla-Roasted Peaches with Raspberries
Broiled Plums with Marscapone Cream
Mango-Lime Rocotta Parfaits
Fresh Papaya with Coconut-Lime Yogurt
Baked Apples
Roasted Fruit
Blueberries with Maple Whipped Cream
Apricot Fig Compote
Carmelized Pears
Carmelized Apples with Fresh Rosemary
Orange Sections with Mint Leaves & Honey
Carmelized Pineapple with Honey and Yogurt
Mixed Berries, Apples and Bananas
Puree of Apples and Blackcurrents

Many of these ideas came from Martha Stewart.com, others came from one of my favorite family cookbooks, Chef Bobo's Good Food Cookbook. (Every recipe in this book is a winner with kids—even the cauliflower soup. I kid you not.)

Want some ideas for serving yogurt? Read The Magic of Yogurt.

Change what you serve for dessert and you'll change how you and your kids interact around dinner.

You might even change how you interact during the course of the entire day. Less stress. More success.

There are so many kinds of fruit that you could have something different every night for a month. If you're willing to cook the fruit, you'll be able to offer variety every night for 2 months (or more).

But, if your kids do get bored with fruit dessert, consider your strategy a success—it's a sign that you've neutralized the biggest bully on the block.

And, it's a sign that you've taught your kids the habits they'll need for a lifetime of healthy eating.

~Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~

Kid Eats Q&A: What do you think of Fruit Pearls?

2012-04-24T13:25:13Z

Have you heard of Fruit Pearls?

I hadn't. But Linnea, a reader in Austin, Texas, wrote to me about them. This is what she had to say.

Why I like Fruit Pearls:

My toddler asked for "pink ice cream" at 7pm, after a very long day and was satisfied with this choice. (Of course, I took him to Sprouts to go "out for ice-cream." I was stacking the deck in favor of nutrition.)
Portion controlled
Sugar content was 9g
Has frozen "beads" of fruit juice mixed with flash frozen citrus. - freaky, but the innovation was interesting to my toddler and a lot less messy!

Why I won't be buying them a lot:

Not cheap
The "beads" probably need to be kept at a constant temperature - which my home freezer probably cannot provide.

I did not try any of the yogurt or chocolate versions yet.. but I am feeling victorious tonight. There has to be a catch, right? So, what do you say?

1) It’s practically heretical to suggest this, but I don’t think the most important question to consider when assessing a new food is how nutritious or healthy it is.

I wouldn't worry about stacking the deck in the favor of nutrition when it comes to sweets and treats.

I really believe that there is a time and a place in everyone's diet for everything. Read Why I feed my daughter inferior food.

What's more, sometimes, when you "healthify" junk food, it can be more difficult to teach kids how to put junk food into their diets in an appropriate way. ("Why can't I eat this as often as I want if it's healthy?) Read Cookies and the Cycle of Guilty Eating.

2) The question I always ask is: What lessons or habits will this food teach my child?

Linnea, "didn't try to pass this off as fruit or ice cream." That's good news. I agree with the idea that Fruit Pearls aren't fruit—even though they're made with fruit.

In fact, oranges and/or tangerines are the first ingredient in every flavor....even the Chocolate Fruit Pearls. Strange, but true.

Still, eating Fruit Pearls won't teach your kids a thing about eating fruit. Fruit Pearls don't look, taste, feel, or in any way, resemble read fruit.

But Linnea: Why not call Fruit Pearls ice cream? Fruit Pearls are eaten like ice cream, popsicles, and sorbet. That is what I would call them.

You can "nutrition-up" foods, but you cannot reclassify them. Ice cream-like foods teach kids an ice cream habit. Read When is a cookie NOT a cookie? and Donuts vs. Muffins.

That's why I was glad to hear, Linnea, that you told your toddler this was a sometimes treat...just like ice cream.

3) If you think of Fruit Pearls as an ice cream alternative, it doesn’t matter which flavor you buy.

Some of the flavors have relatively few ingredients. Others? Well, not so much.

Lemon has 6 ingredients.
Banana Berry has 29 ingredients (even more if you count the ingredients that go into some of the ingredients such as go into the yogurt).

All the flavors have added sugar.

Banana Berry contains sugar, liquid sugar, corn syrup, and dextrose.
Other flavors are made with sugar and fruit juice concentrate...a euphamism for added sugar.

Read about what the FDA has to say about added sugars.

One caveat: If you have a child who won’t go near a fruit no matter what, you CAN use Fruit Pearls as an introduction to fruits.

I know it’s unconventional but sometimes you’ve got to meet your child where he’s at.

Have your child explore the different fruit flavors.
Then move on to other fruit-flavored items.
Next do taste comparisons with these different "fruit" items.
Do taste comparisons with the real deal. Small tastes.
Finally, shift to serving fruit regularly, and "fruit" items occasionally.

Read The Road Less Traveled.

~Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~