Household eating habits: The importance of serving the same meals
The foods a parent and child eat, should converge, rather than diverge, to create harmony during family meals and promote healthy eating habits.
As a new parent, when my oldest started eating solids, or more importantly when she started recognizing what we as the parents were eating was different than what she was, she would lose interest in her food and wanted to try what we were eating. At first, we didn’t think twice, we thought it was good for her to want to try different foods, and that her wanting to do so would be good for her. What we didn’t realize was that she wasn’t learning to eat what she was given. But how could she? What she was given was different from us on most occasions. Whether it was because what we were eating we didn’t believe was healthy for her, such as eating pizza, or us feeding her something healthy we prepared for her to eat throughout the week, while we ate what we wanted. Or if it was snack time and we were feeling too lazy to give her something healthy, so we would give her crackers, which she would devour. Or maybe we just didn’t quite understand, back then as new parents, the significance of the food we would inevitably give our children, because, at the end of the day, although they are our children, it wasn’t our body, and we weren’t feeling what they might be feeling eating it.
I’ve realized over the past two and half years feeding our children, that the less processed food they are exposed to, and the longer they go without being exposed to it, the more likely they are open to eating natural, whole foods. Like an apple, mango, cheese, ribeye steak, or squash. And I wasn’t just inferring this based on what I saw, I was experiencing the same thing. As we started shifting from our ‘occasional ordering out, processed foods here and there diet’ to eating mostly meat, fruit, cheese, milk, honey, and maple syrup, with some veggies and starchy carbs mixed in on occasion, my taste buds became more alive. The sweetness of an apple increased, from a point in time when it produce no satisfaction eating it, to true pleasure, true sweetness, actual enjoyment. It was then that I knew, that it wasn’t the fact that my kids didn’t like eating fruits or more natural foods, it was because the processed sugars, oils, and carbs were desensitizing their ability to enjoy more natural foods.
Unfortunately, our world is pervaded by processed food. It is everywhere and we don’t even realize it. It’s in our pantries, our refrigerators, our schools, our hospitals, our convenience stores, our restaurants, our grocery stores, our relatives’ and friends’ houses, our pharmacies, or any place of business. Industrialized agriculture and food complexes have saturated our world and our body with processed food. And like an insidious disease, moving through our body, slowly, to be undetected at first, but ubiquitous enough to kill you when the time is right, and almost always much sooner than you thought, processed food is here to stay. No matter how many times it shapeshifts into new forms, with more promising marketing, better health promises, non-this, and reduced-that, it will always be the same product at its core, processed food. Something that has been created through the amalgamation of other foods and additives, processed through equipment that may have processed other foods, packaged up in sort of packaging, and transported to a storefront in your location.
But what’s so hard about cutting up an apple versus opening up a wrapper and giving your child some crackers? Maybe you’re in a rush and because it takes another minute to accomplish it, plus maybe a quick cleanup, you just can’t spare the additional time. But more likely than not, you know, for sure, that your child will stop crying or complaining for some time and devour those crackers, and that the apple will not achieve the same results. And of course, there are times and places to take advantage of these mind-altering drugs, I mean processed foods, such as when your child is screaming bloody murder 30,000 feet above sea level. Also, it would be cruel to completely deprive yourself and your children of the sweet pleasures that our kind has created for us to enjoy. But the overindulgence comes at a price.
Now to the parent struggling to get their children to eat their fruit for breakfast or their veggies for dinner. A struggle as old as the days, for I encountered it when I was a child as well. Why would I choose to eat steamed veggies over the delicious main course in front of me? Why the hell would I eat that apple when I have this bowl of cinnamon toast crunch in milk, [hold the milk, please] in front of me? What frustration it must have caused my parents and many parents over the years. For I’ve now felt them as well. But why make our lives harder instead of living according to the gospel of Big Food? Maybe it’s time we realize that if we want our children to eat healthier, if not for our sake, then for the sake of the health of future generations, then we, as parents, not only all need to eat healthier, but we all need to rip the claws of processed from our minds and bodies.
Over the past several months of this grand experiment of mine on myself and my family, I’ve witnessed and enjoyed some wonderful things (especially since pulling my children out of daycare). When it’s nearing 9 AM and snack time is in order, hearing my oldest ask for apples and raw cheese, instead of crackers, cookies, and bagels, is like someone whispering sweet nothings into my ear. But even more wonderful, while watching them enjoying the food as I’m cutting it up fresh in front of them, nothing hidden, minimally processed, as unadulterated food as you can get in this modern era we live, is knowing that their appetite won’t be spoiled when lunch time comes and I feed them a healthy whole-food meal. And what am I eating during this? The same food. For as Madison says, as she’s taking a bite of her apple during snack, “daddy apple too?” And of course, I pick up and start eating an apple too, watching the huge grin come across her face in satisfaction knowing that we’re both eating the same thing.
So save yourself some time and grief. Reduce as much as possible the processed foods in your household and life. Curate a meal that both child and parent can eat and enjoy together. And understand that although it may be a tough transition at first, and your kids may still not eat what you serve them at many points in their life, you are giving them one of the greatest gifts a parent can give them: health.
