Let them eat real food!
A client said something to me the other day that made me feel quite sad. She is one of my fabulous weight loss clients, and being a mother of a sizeable young family, she felt she didn’t have enough time to prepare herself a healthy meal. I questioned her suggesting that she just eat the same food as the rest of the family, and just change the proportion of food on her plate as I had previously shown her.
She said to me “I don’t want to eat their food. They eat kid food, you know, vegetarian sausages, schnitzels and burgers”.
Her answer shocked me, but when I thought about it after I realised that this is probably something that goes on in many people’s homes.
Kid food? Why do kids need to eat different foods to adults? They have the same digestive system as adults and are very capable of eating regular food. No wonder there is a whole generation of kids who are fussy eaters, and no wonder I see adult clients who turn their noses up at the very normal foods I suggest, if they were brought up on “kid food”.
It certainly takes a little extra time and thought to prepare a home-cooked meal and I don’t want to add to add to the burden of already-stressed parents who might be trying to work from home right now as well as home-school, however if the above scenario sounds familiar to you, how about once a week presenting your family some real food.
If you’re stuck for ideas, consider some of mine:
Baked fish served with a jacket potato and side salad
Meatballs on rice served with steamed carrots and cauliflower
Tuna and vegetable lasagne
Grilled chicken served with sweet potato wedges and red cabbage coleslaw
Cottage pie (minced meat with chopped-up celery and mushrooms) topped with a root vegetable mash (potatoes, carrots and parsnips)
If we do not expose our children to real food, then they might grow up becoming fussy eaters with a limited palate. It might seem like extra work right now, but just as we invest time in other aspects of our children’s upbringing, it is worthwhile to spend just a little extra time preparing them real food.