Editor’s note: I am so excited to welcome Amy Nathan to GNMParents! Amy’s column: From Froot Loops to Flax Seeds will be a running feature every week. Welcome, Amy!
My kids call me Turkey-Mom. You can call me Amy.
Actually they say… Turkey??? MOM!!! But instead of a perilous parent forcing healthy food onto their plates, I like to imagine myself some sort of healthy food superhero coming to their rescue.
It happened a couple of years ago, when I realized that along with transfat and sugar and calorie-laden snack choices, my kids also had their genes stacked against them. I started replacing turkey for beef — and organic with regular — whole grain for white bread — and low fat for full.
Growing up on Froot Loops made me feel bad at first that my kids would give up the joys of Toucan Sam and popped tarts for breakfast. But I learned there are many ways to introduce good food to kids, without denying them some undeniable pleasures. And with kids ages 15 and 12, with clearly developed tastes and opinions of their own, I knew it wouldn’t be as easy as if I’d been doing it all along.
For example, one of the first ingenious ideas I swiped right from my best friend’s breakfast table. She sprinkled Froot Loops on top of a bowl of Rice Krispies or some other innocuous cereal. A light went off in my head. If it worked for a four-year-old, why not a teenager? When we returned home from our visit I added some whole grainy, flaky, fibery cereals to our repetoire and told the kids to add a handful of their favorite “not healthy” cereal to the top. And it worked. They were really swayed and readily agreed that it wasn’t so bad. I tried it myself and can say with authority that if there is one Froot Loop on your spoon, you’re golden.
I did not run to the health food market and buy all organic or wipe every ounce of sugar from the shelves. We still bake cookies, but we throw in a cup of oatmeal, substitute apple sauce for oil, and cut back on the chocolate chips. It’s about balancing healthy eating with life as you live it, and making it work in our family.
But entrenched in my enthusiasm, I did get caught in a lie early on.
“C’mon,” I called, “Spaghetti and meatballs for dinner!”
“Are they real meatballs?” my son asked knowing me too well.
“Yes, they are real meatballs,” I replied convincing myself that they were real turkey meatballs and the detail was unimportant.
“So these are meat?” my daughter inquired?
“You bet,” I said. Turkey meat is what I didn’t say.
My son went to the trash can and pulled out the package.
Busted.
We laughed the entire way through dinner. Now I hide the packages at the bottom of the trash can. Honestly, now I tell them when it’s turkey burgers or turkey meatballs. They admit it’s not their preference, but if it’s good, they eat it anyway. And when I do make beef — and I do (like tonight, they’re having steak) — I want full credit for bucking my self-imposed system.
The bottom line is that they’re learning with me about making better choices, about low-fat, good fat, organic, and what constitutes a metabolic rip off — like white rice or white bread.
We balance our food with a good frame of mind, which includes ice-cream and french fries — just not very often.
Do you have any tips for introducing healthy eating into the lives of older kids who already love Oreos and Velveeta? Let me know!
[tags]parents, moms, dads, kids, children, food, eating, nutrition, turkey, spaghetti, meatballs, Oreos, Velveeta[/tags]
Photo graciously provided by KRISnFRED, through a Creative Commons license, some rights reserved
10 responses so far ↓
Pat // Sep 26, 2007 at 5:20 am
Great article! and I love your approach kids resist the all or nothing approach.
A. Tucker // Sep 26, 2007 at 5:59 am
And if by “older kid” you mean my husband…
When I’m making a chocolate cake or something sweet and completely unhealthy like that, I replace at least half of the oil with ground flax seeds.
It changes the texture just a tiny bit, but it still tastes great and makes me feel just a little better about Tucker eating an entire cake by himself.
Amy Nathan // Sep 26, 2007 at 6:07 am
What a great tip! I once put (threw) flax seeds into turkey burgers. You can imagine the uproar that caused! “No more seeds in our burgers, Mom — PULEEZE!” But it does make for a good story…”Remember when Mom put those seeds in our burgers?” So, it wasn’t a total loss!
Now I know the secret!
Do you grind flax seeds with a coffee grinder or purchase them that way?
Stu Mark // Sep 26, 2007 at 7:35 am
Here’s an article on using ground flax seed
And this is one of many places to buy ground flax seed
And, while I’m no expert, I am under the impression that you can grind flax seed in a coffee grinder.
A. Tucker // Sep 26, 2007 at 8:48 am
I know that I should grind my own, but I bought them pre-ground and store them in the fridge.
Chris // Sep 26, 2007 at 10:02 am
Great column! I’ve been “going organic” for 20 years, but since I’m not a purist about anything in life, there’s still a fair amount of conventionally grown food in our home. Despite a couple decades of learning about and buy organic, local, whole foods, I still have my own not-so-healthy preferences to battle. I like white flour bagels with cream cheese. Like, everyday. But now, I bake my own bagels (with organic, unbleached flour and topped with lots of seeds) and soon, I’ll start making my own cream cheese or chevre for schmeering. That’s become my philosophy with most food–I can have it if I make it myself using ingredients that my great-grandmother would have recognized. We don’t buy any prepared cereal, but eat oats for breakfast with yogurt and seasonal fruit or frozen berries during the winter. Sandwiches are on bread I make. Ditto ice cream, cookies, pie, cake, soup, salad dressing, pizza, mac-n-cheese (I do make pasta occasionally, but usually use store-bought whole grain pastas). I don’t think about it much because it’s just become the way we live, but there are very few processed foods in our house. If I don’t have time, skill, or ingredients to make it, then we don’t eat it.
We still manage to have an abundance of good stuff. In fact, we eat far better than we would if we were buying processed food. I can’t afford to buy bread as good as what I make at home and have never eaten a pie or cake from a bakery or restaurant that is as good as mine. I’ve gotten my tastebuds to the point where I’d rather go without than eat most processed, prepared food.
For what it’s worth, I’m a self-taught cook (learned most of what I know about cooking from Julia Child’s “The Way to Cook”) and not especially talented. By nature, I’m quite disorganized. I’m a homeschooling mom with two kids under five. The bread making I manage by making a big batch of dough once a week, refrigerating half after the first rise, than baking as needed (I do the same with the bagels I make). None of what I do is complicated or terribly time-consuming, but it does require forethought and planning. Since I’m not organized and get nothing done if I don’t plan for it, I not only meal-plan once a week, I “bake-plan” and plan ahead for other food prep projects, like canning, freezing. I make big batches of things that “leftover well,” like roasts, beans, grains, and potatoes and decide while meal-planning how I’ll incorporate those leftovers into things like soups and salads. I spend an hour or so a week at this and grocery shop early in the morning (at a local produce market and a discount grocery store) once a week, without the kids. We also joined a buying club and get our meat from a small family farm.
I do have the “advantage” of staying at home and having a husband who works from home, but for those who work outside the home, there are ways to do all these things (and perhaps some extra money for conveniences my family can’t afford on one income. I know people who take their dough to work, for example, so they can attend to its various rising/retarding needs or grocery shop during their lunch hour and put perishables in a cooler until they can get them home. What cooking from whole, local, seasonal foods requires is thinking outside the boxes–both the box of cereal and the big box store. I remind myself that people with far less conveniences managed to do these things and I can too if I put myself in the position of “I must,” rather than defeating myself before I even start with, “I can’t.”
P.S. The oil in flax seeds is very delicate and should not be exposed to direct heat, light, or air. Sprinkle ground seeds or use oil on cooked foods (good in mashed potatoes), but don’t use it for baking. Try coconut oil instead–it’s great for baking and sauteeing. Ground flaxseeds go rancid very quickly–buy them only from a store that keeps them refrigerated or frozen and keep them in your freezer (I do this with all nuts, seeds, and whole grain flours).
IntheFastLane // Sep 26, 2007 at 11:56 am
I work outside the home and have a junk food addicted husband (this happened well before we were married) - so change is difficult. But, I have found that if you put healthy food where the kids can see it, they are more likely to choose it instead of junk. So, even though there is still lots of junk in out house - there is always fresh fruit out where it is accessible. My oldest (almost 13) is actually a pretty good eater and loves to make smoothies, so I started leaving the blender out on the counter and buying organic yogart in bulk & frozen fruit.
Also - in our pantry - I put all the healthier snacks at eye level and the not so healthy stuff in harder to reach places. This doesn’t mean that they always choose the healthy stuff, but it does make it easier.
From my own experience, you can’t force kids to change - you can only do your part with the meals your prepare and what you have available to them. As a kid - my mom started eliminating all junk from our house, but then every chance we got to eat unhealthy stuff, we would gorge on it. So, everything in moderation.
nan // Sep 26, 2007 at 6:18 pm
My boys love pancakes, and I make the ones from a “just add water” mix, but I also add oats and eggs. They are just as good, and are a special treat around here.
A bread machine is a great tool, for using whole grains. Make it a habit to put a batch in every night, timed to bake first thing in the morning. Mmm, the aroma! Better than coffee!
I was vegetarian for many years, till I got pregnant and sick and skinny. I needed protein, and for some strange reason, meat helped. I know, weird. I now eat meat only occasionally, but my middle boy is a carnivore. Yesterday, he ate an ENTIRE CHICKEN from the grocery deli. He is tall for his age, maybe he needs more protein? My kids love nuts, and yogurt, and smoothies. They like beans and brown rice, and most veggies. I am lucky! But the pancakes, with syrup? They are special.
Thordora // Sep 27, 2007 at 5:53 am
Flax seed is also more digestible when ground since the seeds can just “slip” through.
dad // Sep 27, 2007 at 6:18 am
No stopping you now! Another great piece. Try making turket meatballs in slo cooker. cook for 6 ours on automatic (Ragu Organic Sauce) & then take the top off & let cook on low until sauce reduces & thickens. Kids will never know they’re not meat. The slo cooking & reduction changes the consistency from foul fowl to beef. Love……………….
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