Food tips

[merrymarge]

Yes indeed! And today, it's frown upon because it can lead to obesity.

[Lemongrass]

Perhaps people should have smaller servings then, no waste, no obesity

My mother always said, only take as much as you know you can eat. Obesity seems to have more to do with eating too much of the wrong types of food and limited physical activity.

[Kilee]

My son is a picky eater but he will eat his vegetables and fruits. He also has started to eat all meats. The only thing I watch out for is the amount of carbs he eats. I try to limit the amount of chips and snack crackers I have at the house. We don't have soft drinks at the house, so he only drinks milk, water or lemonade. Overall he is pretty healthy. He does have a little excess weight which he is aware of and wants to lose it. I try to pry him from the video games and computer and encourage him to ride his bike and play basketball and touch football with his friends at the park.

[Quickquill]

Originally Posted by merrymarge

Does anyone know how the clean plate club started? For some odd reason, it is frowned upon today. When my parents were growing up, they lived during the Depression, so they cleaned their plates, because they could't waste food. Then when my sisters, brother and I were growing up, we were glad that we had plenty of food. there were children in other countries who weren't lucky like us. So, we cleaned our plates. Now, if children don't clean their plates, it's no big deal, but to me, they are still wasting food.

Like you said, it started among people who remembered scarcity. My parents also pressured me to finish everything on my plate by telling me that "children are starving in Europe". Now that's fine as long as you don't overload the child's plate. But forcing a child to eat everything on his plate whether he's hungry or not, is just setting him up for weight problems further down the road.

If the child is old enough to serve himself from a serving platter, it's reasonable to insist that he eat everything he takes. That will teach him not to take excessive amounts from the common dish. But insisting that he finish a standard (adult) portion somebody else gave him, or even a portion suitable for his older sibling, is simply unfair.

[aaliya]

Yup.. I agree with you all.. I think this one is become everybody's problem to eat only healthy diet... isn't it???

[LillyColak]

ok i'm really bad on this topic cause when i was a kid i was and still am VERY finicky about what i eat, when you cook somthing new have them taste it if they don't like it then don't make them eat it you can even get them involved in the meal plan ask them what they think they want for dinner if they can't think of any give out options casually if they give a ridiculous answer like cereal for dinner then tell them thats not probly appropriate but we can have it for breakfeast etc.
oh ya and when you cook you can also have them in the kitchen just doing whatever and explaining what your doing each step at a time. it will get them interested. and give them a nack for cooking while your at it.

[Quickquill]

Most people have food preferences. If you examine what you actually do eat, and what you were rejecting, maybe there was a good reason for your finickiness. My son wouldn't eat overcooked vegetables when he was little. That is a nutritionally sound habit. So why should I correct it? Just because my husband prefers his vegetables overcooked?

I have friends who suffered their whole lives from stomach aches, until they were finally diagnosed with Celiac in their senior years. I wouldn't be surprised if they were called "finicky" when they were younger.

My brother wouldn't eat fish until his 20's, and I wouldn't touch tomatoes or tomato sauce of any kind for years, nor would I eat grape jelly for years after I saw the movie "The Blob". but I don't think I was nutritionally deprived by my choices. There are enough other good foods to eat in the world. And in America, we have a broad range of food choices and the relative affluence to choose to eat what we want.

As long as all the foods offered to a child are healthful, he's unlikely to be nutritionally deprived just because he's finicky. The problem is when we choose unhealthful convenience snacks over real food. As parents, it is our responsibility to make sure that we don't offer unhealthful food choices to our children. And it's never too early to start educationg your child to make nutritionally sound choices.

[Temery]

What my sister does is serves the veggies first and doesn't serve the meat & starch until the veggies are all gone. This helps the whole family eat better portions.