So you get your children involved and excited about cooking, but what are you cooking? These early kitchen experiences are what will shape your son or daughters understanding of nutrition and their life-long eating habits. We need to be practicing what we preach and showing our children what healthy eating is by doing it ourselves (that old modeled behaviour concept).
A huge constraint when trying to change our diets is time and I am the first to admit that eating healthy definitely does take more time and more planning. But think of it this way, the time you put into healthy eating is doubled (at least) and added to your own life span as well as your children’s. That home-made hummus, pizza base, BBQ sauce or Mac N Cheese is still going to be a yummy ‘treat’ but by making it from scratch it will significantly reduce the amount of sugar, salt, saturated fats and artificial ingredients which are the four ‘bad boys’ we want to focus on avoiding when feeding our kiddies.
‘The Bad Boys’
Salt
Salt adds flavor and makes foods yummy and finger lickin’ good (salt is my heart throb from the bad boy group). But the simple answer is that salt is associated with higher blood pressure. It is a compound of two elements – sodium and chloride and a healthy diet should have sodium present but Western diets tend to really overdo the salt content in foods.
Sugar
Children love sugar and they will undoubtedly get their hands on some form of sweet so rather than ban this boy all together, let’s understand him. With so many different forms of sugar available and consumed in almost all foods, keeping a close eye on your child’s sugar intake is vital! White sugar (actually it’s bleached – sweet, white and deadly), brown sugar, ‘raw’ sugar, honey, maple syrup, Agave nectars, brown rice syrup, Stevia, artificial sweeteners (Splenda, Nutrasweet, Equal, etc) are all available to us so choose wisely and use the healthier forms when required (honey, Agave, Stevia).
Saturated & Trans Fats
Fats are friends and children need to be taking in certain fats to help them develop and grow but the saturated & trans fats variety are what you want to avoid. Saturated fatty acids are found mainly in animal fats including dairy products and are a risk factor for cardiovascular health and obesity (heart attacks, strokes, etc). Trans fats are used to extend the shelf or product life of processed foods and whenever you see ‘hydrogenated oil’ on the ingredients list you know you’re working with a high trans fat product.
Note: The good fat is unsaturated fat and it derives from vegetables and plants. Don’t forget about our Omega-3 fatty acids, these are ‘essential’ and critical for our health.
Artificial Ingredients
In short this is a man-made ingredient such as artificial flavor, food colouring, preservatives, or sugar substitute. I struggle to believe that anyone could need an explanation as to why these aren’t necessary in our diets but my thought process is like this – would you feed your child a pureed piece of their rubber ball? Rubber is a man-made item not presently found in our food pyramid so why not add it? Because it’s not natural and not needed, just like artificial ingredients.
So you avoid the four bad boys for breakfast, lunch, & dinner – awesome job done! Not the case for Mum’s and Dad’s because our little ones rely on us to provide them with snacks and treats both at home and on the go. Working with children and families across the United States and New Zealand I’ve found that there are some pantry staples in family kitchens. The four food ‘bad boys’ use their comrades below to invade our homes and make their way into our bellies!
‘The Accomplices’
Nutella/Hazelnut or Chocolate Spread
Nutella provides: (per 2 tablespoons), 200 Calories (100 Calories from fat), 11g fat (3.5g of which are saturated), 21 (!) grams of sugar, 3g protein. Try out Renee Naturally’s Chocolate & Hazelnut Spread instead!
Peanut Butter/Nut Butters
Le Snacks/Cheese Spreads
Fruit Snacks/Fruit Roll Ups
I recommend Georgia Pellegrini's Strawberry Fruit Leather
Muesli Bars
Mac N Cheese
I recently played around with making a Quinoa N Cheese dish because macaroni and cheese is my #1 comfort food… and when I do give in to the wicked white flour, butter & fat meal, I make a ‘large batch’ with the intention of freezing portions for other low moments but 9 times out of 10… I eat the entire baking dish! Using Quinoa as an alternative to pasta made me feel a little less guilty about the quantity consumed.
Frozen Pizza (and I’d say prepackaged frozen meals in general, of any kind)
Fruit & Fizzy (soda) Drinks
White Bread
These accomplices are so popular because they are sweet and/or salty making them addictive and scrumptious but more importantly they are quick and easy. But our children will only consume them regularly or in excess if we make them available. It doesn’t take huge effort to swap from a Le Snack or ready-made cheese & cracker pack to some cheese slices and rice crackers (choosing a natural variety not containing artificial flavourings). Why not turn pizza night into a family event and a way to get your child into the kitchen, a pizza base is simple to make and adding your own toppings is a foolproof job that the child can do on his/her own.
Other easy changes for family meal ingredients include -
Stock (veggie or meat) – Throw any meat or veggie in a pot with some water & seasonings after a roast or with the scrap vegetables at the end of the week. Can be frozen for future use. Prepackaged stock contains high levels of salt, flavourings and preservatives.
Tomato Sauce – Make one large batch of tomato sauce and freeze individual portions in snap-lock bags. You can add seasonings to each serve to make Italian tomatoes, spicy Mexican tomatoes, chilli tomatoes, etc. Not only are you reducing the preservative intake but avoiding tinned goods.
Flavored water – To reduce sugar intake, keep a container of water in the fridge for those thirst quenching moments and infuse it with yummy flavors – lemon, mint, cinnamon sticks, apples, oranges, pomegranates, etc.
Cereal/Muesli – Change the morning bowl of cereal to a Quinoa flake/crisp for added protein or make your own muesli with rolled outs, dried coconut, seeds, nuts, honey and some dried fruit. Again, you can do one large batch and keep in airtight containers to improve shelf life – no need for preservatives here!
Are you feeling inspired and want to try and avoid our ‘Bad Boys & Co.’? Try the Ten Steps to An Unprocessed Pantry and aim to significantly change your families diet for 1 week or 1 month and hopefully the results will justify making the change for a lifetime!
Live, love, eat… and do it with your kids! Xx
Geva @ KiwiOz Nannies NZ
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