This week a mom asked me how can I get my family introduced to more high-quality whole foods? A few simple answers include:
1. Introduce whole foods a tablespoon at a time is a good beginning. Whether it is spinach roll-ups with teriaki chicken, a yummy egg fritatta or a touch of green smoothie, your kid’s taste buds will slowly shift away from a hunger for high-fat and high-sugar and more toward taste. Offer just a tablespoon or two at first with your commonly eaten foods. (In our family we eat dinner for breakfast.)
2. Cook with your kids, allow them to participate in food choices, preparation and cooking. Bringing your children/teens into the kitchen gets them closer to what real food looks, like, smells like and feels like. They revel in their own food creations. Be creative and explore together.
3. Read cookbooks and choose new recipes together. Change them to make them your own.
4. Have your kids bring their own grocery list to the store and choose fresh foods from the perimeter of the grocery store.
5. Talk about health and feeding your body/brain not about diet or calories. We wish to raise a generation of children and teens who care about their health, the more they know the more they can choose foods that are fuel for their bodies.
Whole food is super important for our children and our own health. We all need whole foods for the vitamins, minerals and nutrition that help our cells do their fine work. Click on my whole foods grocery list and you can print it out for your next grocery trip.
Here are a few sites, blogs and resources, I refer families in our practice to. Send me the sites you love on twitter @drlynnekenney or FB http://www.facebook.com/DrLynneWeighsIn, I’ll be sure to share your sage words with other families.
Greens Glorious Greens: More than 140 Ways to Prepare All Those Great-Tasting, Super-Healthy, Beautiful Leafy Greens by Johnna Albi and Catherine Walthers
The Raw 50: 10 Amazing Breakfasts, Lunches, Dinners, Snacks, and Drinks for Your Raw Food Lifestyle [Paperback] Carol Alt (Author), David Roth (Author)
The Maker’s Diet for Weight Loss: 16-week strategy for burning fat, cleansing toxins, and living a healthier life! [Paperback] Jordan S Rubin
The Eat-Clean Diet: Fast Fat-Loss that lasts Forever! by Tosca Reno (Jan 8, 2007) (I like the original one, not so much the revisions)
The New Whole Foods Encyclopedia: A Comprehensive Resource for Healthy Eating by Rebecca Wood, Peggy Markel and Paul Pitchford
Simple Food for Busy Families: The Whole Life Nutrition Approach by Jeannette Bessinger and Tracee Yablon-Brenner
A Few Great Sites:
Most of all Have Fun!
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