FOOD VIGILANTE

OK, OK, I said it too, but I’m not Robert H. Lustig, MD, UCSF Professor of Pediatrics, Division of
Endocrinology. Someday I’ll be telling you “I told you so”, but for now, listen to Dr. Lustig. The video is almost an hour and a half long. You may listen to the entire lecture, but I beg of you to at least listen from 1:12:30 to about 1:22:00. I guarantee you will have difficulty not listening to the rest of the video and you may even go back to the beginning to hear the whole thing. It is astonishing what the affects of sugar are having on our society. Let me put this in no uncertain terms to you…. Sugar Is Poison…..   S.I.P.   Every “S.I.P.” of soda that you drink is leading you down a faster route to R.I.P.Please take ten minutes and watch this video from 1:12:30 to 1:22:00. I implore you. Watch it for you, your friends, your family. Thanks, FV

SUGAR: THE BITTER TRUTH

Before I get down to serious business let me tell you about another very successful at-home birthday party. My middle child is turning 9 on May 29th. He is the picky eater I have talked about. Picky doesn’t even begin to describe the eating challenges I have with this beautiful, amazingly creative child, but we’ll talk about that later, first the party. 

The Duchess and I have been very hard at work reclaiming the yard from the explosion of spring and some neglect and transforming it into a productive piece of land. This was our first chance to show off our progress. 

The yard is no longer a barren land!

Everyone was impressed with the garden and the changes taking place. The day met all of the criteria for what I have considered a perfect gathering. Everyone at a family home, wholesome homemade food, cake from scratch (thanks to the Duchess!) kids playing, dog barking and even badminton! 

As you can see, the ol’ country home still needs a lot of work, but it’s coming along. The important thing is that we were all there, celebrating, relaxing, enjoying a beautiful day. 

As the evening wound down all of the guests headed home and The Duchess and I sat by the garden to rehash the day’s events and plan out our week of projects. The whole yard seemed to sigh along with us in a show of tired satisfaction. The day had been stress free. Even at meal time there had been no fighting over food with my three boys. That’s not to say that they ate well, I just chose not to fight the battle this day. This also doesn’t mean that I was ignorant to what was eaten. Bird ate well, as usual, he’s starting to eat like a teenager. Choc and NB on the other hand barely touched their plates. They immediately turned their noses up to my Jambalaya and cornbread and NB even spit one of his only bites into the bushes. 

The Duchess caught him doing this and he stared her down challengingly. On any other day, this would have set off a flurry of activitiy including my getting angry. But, as I said, I consciously made a choice to not fight this day. Was this a wrong decision? I dunno. 

The day went on without much incident. Games were played, gifts were opened, birthday song was sung, cake was delicious. 

Everyone had left and even with my choice to not fight any food battles, it was certainly in the back of my head that both Choc and NB had not eaten anything but cake and ice cream all day. 

All from scratch, thanks Duchess!

Beyond being The Food Vigilante I am simply, or maybe most complicatedly, a parent. My gut had a slight uneasy feeling knowing that I had two hungry kids about to get ready for bed. I have wrestled with this before and even sent them to bed hungry rather than succumb to their whims for sugary food or non-nutritional belly fillers.

This particular evening I was floating on a cloud of party-planning-satisfaction. I was wrapped up in the days events; my dear Choc turning nine, our garden bearing it’s first fruits and family gathering meeting all of my wants and desires. My defenses were down, I was not ready, in any way, for a fight. Then NB approached me and said…

“Dad, I’m hungry, could I have a bowl of cereal?”

I can not explain away what happened next. I have been writing and philosiphizing for over a year now on this blog and for years before that as well. (Some of my Massage Therapy students may recall my boycott of bacon in years past!) But in this instance I failed. Feeding a hungry child is not failing. But… I sat him at the table poured a bowl of cheerios with some milk and then, like it was old hat, I sprinkled a teaspoon of sugar on his cereal.

Now the Duchess almost fell over. She was openly angry and dissapointed at my actions.  My kids do eat cereal. I do buy cereals with sugar, but no HFCS or hydrogenated oils. I only buy whole grain cereals, no magic puffs or sugary fruity loops. I do allow the boys to drizzle some honey on their cereal, but shook the white, processed sugar habit a while ago. All this said, the Duchess was right, I was wrong. I guess I had slipped into old habit. In choosing not to battle any food fights this day, I had reverted to old ways…if I wanted to ensure that the kids eat, sweeten it, fry it or douse it with ketchup. I fell prey to the mindset that is ruining the world. The Duchess questioned all the talks we have had about food, even asked me if I was a farce! I am not. Behind this food super-hero outfit, I am human and I fall down sometimes. I have no excuse and need to move on and rise above, just as I ask all of you to do. Even you Duchess.

Happy Birthday my dear NB, I will try not to fail you again.

If you fall down, let me know, get up and eat better,

FV

First order of business. I changed the name of the title of the post. The Duchess gently reminded me that SHE was there to for the gardening, grilling and the food fight with my dear Choc. Credit served.

I wrote about, amoungst other things, my middle son’s finicky eating habits. I feel challenged by the universe. First I’m empowered with the Food Vigilante identity, then I am struck with a very personal and close to home food issue. I’ve been trying to clean out my Karmic closet to see if I went wrong anywhere. All in all, I accept this challenge and with your help, I’m sure good food and good sense will prevail.

I have had alot of input from all of you and I am anxious for the weekend to go at it with some new perspectives. Some of the ideas you gave were preaching to the choir and reset my resolution to solve the eating issues. Others were new angles that I haven’t thought of before. Much appreciation!

Here is some of the advice…

Julia says…

It’s too bad choc didn’t like the food, because it looks fabulous to me!

My experience cooking for kids is limited, but a few things that have worked with my favorite 4-year old…
- Sneak in the veggies — I add finely diced carrots and parsnips to mac and cheese. He doesn’t even see them.
- Asian flavors work great — Korean BBQ chicken, 5-spice brisket have been exceedingly successful.
http://www.growcookeat.com/grow-cook-eat/2009/12/a-chinese-christmas-recipe-five-spice-beef-1.html
http://www.growcookeat.com/grow-cook-eat/2010/04/korean-bbq.html
- I’ve been using substituting in 1/3 whole wheat flour into recipes that call for white.
- The more pressure you impose, the less success you’ll have

JM says…

The best way to get a kid to do something they don’t want to do is trick them. My suggestion would be to see if you can get him involved in the kitchen (and the grill).

You may have to make some concessions to get him excited initially (baking cookies or breading and frying chicken strips), but the more excitement you can generate, the more adventurous he should become. As you are preparing, encourage him to taste the herbs, the veggies, the textures. Encourage him to take risks.

I can’t paint or act or draw, but I feel like an artist when I am cooking. The concept is usually better than the execution, but sometimes even the challenge of mastering the execution is exciting.

Think of all the reasons you first got excited about cooking, but GO SLOW. Change is a process, and if you move too quickly he may become more resistant. There will be failures, so always have a plan B (like ordering evil pizza, MSG-laden Chinese, or the bowl of cereal for dinner). Empower and Encourage, and Make it Fun!

PS – Don’t sleep on the dry rub BBQ option. In my house, BBQ sauce becomes a condiment as opposed to a glaze.

E-Beth says…

All three of our products, particularly the final model who would be happiest with a strict diet of carbs and dairy, have been picky eaters. Be thankful Choc likes veggies. “The Mila” only eats carrots and bananas, and will drink apple juice but not eat apples. On occasion, I can get her to eat fruit puree, but not often enough. Here are some tips/suggestions that have helped us (sometimes):

-To avoid meal-time arguments, I always try to include at least one side that I know will be eaten.

-Discuss the importance of showing respect/ being thankful for the meal you received, even if you don’t like it. Someone (i.e. I) worked hard making it for you.
—We hammered this one home with the first two models by having them make dinner one evening and then complaining about it the entire time we ate. Cruel, but effective.

-Compromise – sometimes I win, sometimes you win, sometimes your brother/sister wins, …
—I find that they are often more willing to eat something they don’t like if they are allowed to help make/plan another meal (“I don’t like lasagna.”, “It’s your sister’s favorite and she asked me to make it today. Would you like to help plan dinner for tomorrow?”).

-Even if you don’t like it, you have to eat at least one bite.
—Over time, exposure to different tastes will develop their palate.
—See bullet 2.

-Reward them well when they eat something they didn’t want to.
—Stickers, points, money,or whatever you choose.

-(something highly intelligent that I forgot)

Good luck,
E-Beth aka co-inventor of “The Lindy”, “The Emil”, and “The Mila”

Karan says…

There are some wonderful resources about picky eaters. A few weeks ago NPR had an hour show about picky eaters and it worth a listen. If you type in Adventuresome eaters at the NPR website, I think you’ll find the archive. If you want a book abt helping kids expand their food choices, let me know.

Maybe your middle one could do something gradual like agreeing to taste one bite of whatever food is served. After a few weeks, you increase to two bites. There is also some resources about the effect of balanced diet on keeping control of feelings (decreasing anxiety)….

good luck — karan

I thank you all for your ideas and I’ll keep you posted on the progress. In the mean time, please share with me any and all stories about finicky eaters, even if it’s about yourself. I would like to do a feature on this issue, so gimmie the facts!

Eat on!

FV