Hilda Hide It (Sneaking nutrition into food)

I have often made attempts to sneak in a little extra flax seed, carrots, cheese or whatever I see could easily be hidden in a recipe without any notice. Hilda spends countless hours inventing new ways to add more nutrition to her food by sneaking it in.  The children may be getting the benefits of the extra nutrients added but they are not learning about healthy foods nor are they relating the taste to a healthy food. So what is Hilda really teaching her kids? It's OK to sneak stuff? This is a habit that I would highly recommend avoiding.

So what could Hilda do?

Hilda could start looking at what her kids are eating and showing them how good it is...the real food. Instead of referring to cookbooks that sneak in a little nutrients she should refer to cookbooks like Weelicious by Catherine McCord and The Mom 100 Cookbook by Katie Workman. She could also follow Weelicious and Prevention RD on FaceBook. These books and Facebook posts are full of healthy meal ideas and beautiful food photos that will give Hilda plenty of ideas and teaching tools to instill healthy habits to last a lifetime.

What do you think? Are you like Hilda?

www.OnANutritionMission.com 

Lackadaisical Lucy- Laid back and lucky feeding style

Through the years I have seen many parenting types when it comes to feeding children. There is Lackadaisical Lucy, Chelsea Choice, Erin the Enforcer, Wanda the Whining Worrier , Betty Briber and Hilda Hide It. It is not to say that any one of these types of parents are wrong in their techniques in my belief everyone has an ultimate goal, that which is to feed the children the healthiest way they feel best. Today we will look at Lucy, maybe you will find some similarities with your feeding techniques and hers.

Lackadaisical Lucy 

Lucy likes it laid back and quiet without any turmoil or disruption. She has educated herself on healthy foods and enjoys trying new things. Her approach is to cook what she will eat and let her kids try it as they will. She refuses to be a short order cook.

Here are the positive attributes of Lucy:
1. She instills nutrition education. Each time they eat she casually mentions the benefits of the food that she is eating.
2.She involves the children with cooking and shopping and she lets them help pick out key ingredients for meals.
3. She is less stressed when it comes to meal times.

Some days I wish I could be like Lucy. Not really thinking too much about what a child eats and has the attitude that eventually he or she will be a good enough eater to get by. Lucy offers the child what she eats but does not dwell on the fact that the child has not eaten anything for 2 meals or only ate donuts for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The negative attributes of Lucy are that, in a way she is waging her bets on whether or not the child will turn out to be a good eater or not. I personally, am not a gambler and can't stand thriller movies so watching and waiting doesn't work for me, but for Lucy it does.

What do you think? Are you like Lucy?

If you want to read more about a culture that does not stress about feeding their children I recommend reading: French Kids Eat Everything by Karen LeBillon. This book tells the story about how a family moved to France and "cured picky eating, banned snacking and discovered 10 simple rules for raising happy healthy eaters". 

Food Revolution Recap

Food Revolution Day was a blast and all of our events that lead up to Food Revolution Day helped to form a tremendous momentum. On May 16 Brandi spoke to 150+ kindergartener’s on the importance of REAL food and then on May 17 she spoke to 150+ Fifth graders at Hammock Pointe Elementary. The kids were great and we received positive and inspiring feedback from parents and teachers.

On May 17 we held a pre-Food Revolution Day rally at Ellenville’s Moonlit Farmers Market in East Boca Raton. Every Thursday night this beautiful garden centers transforms into a new kind of family friendly laid back place to hang out, shop local vendors, eat a healthy dinner, listen to live music, shop local and organic produce and let the kids play on the lawn. On May 17 we brought a few more additions to this already inspiring place. Three cooking demonstrations were made possible by the generous donations of Boca Raton’s Whole Foods. The cooking demonstrations featured Chef Ursula of Divine Dining Florida, Corynn Poirrier Registered Dietitian and Jade Fink member of the Boca Raton Junior League and Boca Raton’s Community garden. Whole Foods was also on hand to provide a healthy “guess the food” activity and offer more healthy snacks. Victoria Green with Sunflower Creative Arts provided material for the kids to make their own packet of sunflower seeds. Brandi Thompson with ABCD Eat Right set up a station to make chef hats and decorate wooden spoons. A surprise story-teller, Mij, provided loads of entertainment for the kids.

Kristin from Whole Foods Boca Raton provided a fun interactive activity.

Chef Ursula of Divine Dining Florida made Fruity lil'pillars.

Victoria green with Sunflower Creative Arts.

Corynn Poirrier RD,LD- local nutrition expert made a fruity sorbet.

The Junior League of Boca Raton set up a healthy granola bar.

Mij the amazing and captivating story teller.

On May 19, the official Food Revolution Day, we had an exciting event at Bedners Farmers Market in Boynton Beach. Bedner’s Farm offers local farm fresh produce along with U-picks, tram rides and local vendors. For Food Revolution Day two large tents were set up to host two cooking demonstrations lead by Chef Ursula of Divine Dining of Florida and Connie Rieser of Diet by Design of Boynton Beach. Local vendors such as ABCD Eat Right, Rachel’s Wellness, Fit Foodz Cafe, Crossfit Kids, Kangen Water, Naturally Green Home, Pilates of Boca Raton and Arbonne were also on hand.

Chef Ursula of Divine Dining of Florida made Fruity lil' pillars.

Connie Reiser RD,LD- local nutrition expert with Diet by Design made a healthy trail mix.

The final tally has not been collected as of today but Food Revolution Day was scheduled in 660 cities in 63 different countries! Thanks to all of the Palm Beach County members that made the week of events a success and helped spread the word about nutrition education.