Ooof this one is hard and complicated… sorta. Likely more hard than complicated to be honest. In my opinion its really a matter of switching the mindset. You want more health and energy so you eat more veggies and whole foods. If I say it that way I find it easier to opt for more healthy foods and fewer unhealthy choices. If we model it for our kids and move through this together it can be really powerful. It’s not a diet so much as trying to feel our best so we can do our best. Is it reasonable to expect a 5 yr old to choose to eat broccoli if there is candy to be had… yeah no but that leads me to strategy number one.
When you are eating healthy from the early stages of life and are suddenly introduced to processed food you can see the difference in how you feel. If you’re eating processed food for your entire life it can be way harder to see any immediate difference in how you feel. There are all kinds of strategies to help kids eat healthier but my all-time favorite is to remove the junk. If it’s not there.. they (and I- cause potato chips and reeces peanut butter cups are my downfall) won’t eat it. They may complain – I complain in my head—but I can’t eat potato chips if I don’t have them. And instead of being the ‘mean mom/dad’ you just say I’m sorry honey we don’t have that but we do have a delicious apple or cheese stick or whatever alternative you want to offer.
Second favorite strategy… teach them to cook. I remember reading some study saying that kids are more likely to eat food they help prepare. In my ultra small sample size study this is super accurate. Also we make a big deal of saying thanks for cooking this meal when we sit down to eat so the kiddo gets to hear “thanks for making dinner” from everyone! It feels good emotionally and they generally eat more.
Third favorite strategy… find the foods they like and curate meals around their favorites gradually expanding the options. This is likely to happen organically because we often choose meals that we think the kids will like. This is no guarantee that they’ll like the food but it does increase the chances. Last month my five year old loooooved hot wings night. She has one drop of hot sauce in her dip and then eats tons of grilled chicken winglets… Last night? Yeah it was a fail. She announced, “Mommy, I don’t want to eat with my hands” and then was full verry quickly. It’s a quandary, we knew she wasn’t full but I’m not going to offer food from the fridge if she didn’t eat what was offered. I probably should have though! I’m the person who refuses to cook more than one meal but I do try to have parts of each meal that I know the kids will eat. Does this always work? Of course it doesn’t! they’re teeny versions of our stubborn selves but as I’ve said before I go for good over perfection. If I waited for perfection I’d be stressed all the time and it’d still never happen.
Final strategy, do your best and then declare victory. In listening to the podcast from my naturopath https://sarahmarshallnd.com/podcast I was reminded that in order to heal we need to love ourselves. Loving ourselves means that we have to do the right thing for our bodies and that means healthy food. If we treat the sugar things like a special treat we can shift from normal to treat in one’s mind and that can make all the difference.
I have heard that when you start making these choices you may not see a difference immediately. It’s when we eat clean food for a month or two and then binge on the things that we notice the difference. I didn’t realize how much my arthritic pain disappeared until I splurged on sugar one day. Holy moly the next few days were ROUGH. Everything ached. Was it worth it? Yeah it totally was! But it highlighted the cost for me when I make the choice to splurge on sugar. If you’re used to eating a piece of candy each day you’ll likely not notice a difference. So if your kids often eat processed food you likely won’t notice a difference by cutting out one bag of cheetoes…. But if you do it gradually it can make a big difference. I learned from my dr. that food sensitivities can cause depression.. I wonder how many of us depressed people are trigged, unknowingly, by food sensitivities. We know processed food causes issues so cutting it out as much as possible is really good for our overall well-being. I know it helps my kiddo’s food sensitivity issues and ADD. Maybe it could help yours too!