Deceptively Delicious - Jessica Seinfeld [8]
“YOU CAN’T control every bite your child eats, and you wouldn’t want to—it’s important for kids to develop control and confidence when it comes to what they eat. But we all know that proper nutrition increases energy, prevents injury and enhances healing, improves academic performance, and even has a positive effect on moods (if you’ve ever picked your child up from a party where he’s polished off birthday cake, ice cream, and a goody bag full of treats, you’ve probably experienced the ups and downs of what I call ‘blood sugar chaos’ in the hours that follow).
So what should we be feeding our kids? There are lots of different nutritional fads and theories making the rounds these days (and just what is a ‘serving,’ anyway?). It’s all gotten to be more than a little confusing. And the feedback I get from parents is that they don’t have the time to sort it all out.
As a nutritionist and a mother, I’m trying to juggle it all, too. It’s just not practical to be counting and measuring foods all the time to be sure that your kids are getting what they need.
And you don’t have to.
The beauty of the recipes in this book is that we’ve already thought about the nutrition. But it’s a good idea for parents to have some general sense of nutrition, so I’m going to give you the basic nutritional guidelines (set out in the chart on the following pages) that I use in my own home.
It’s simple: instead of quantities or servings, I think in terms of general categories of foods that my kids need to be eating every day—vegetables, fruits, protein, whole grains, and calcium-rich foods including milk. And then I choose the foods from each category that offer the most nutritional ‘bang for the bite.’
The most important thing you can do is offer variety. That way, your kids are sure to get a variety of nutrients, and you don’t have to spend time worrying about milligrams of vitamin this or that.
There are measures of what constitutes a ‘serving,’ and you’ll see that information in the guidelines that follow. But you don’t have to go so far as to measure every portion. It really is enough just to offer the foods regularly. You can’t control how much they eat anyway, right?
And while it’s great that the recipes in this book, with their ‘sneak it in’ technique, remove the stress of getting kids to eat vegetables through a little harmless deception, I agree with Jessica that you should by no means stop putting at least one visible veggie on the table at lunch and dinner. For example, serve steamed green beans or sautéed broccoli, or go raw with crunchy baby carrots, sugar snap peas, or red, yellow, or orange bell pepper strips—serve them plain, or with some of the delicious dips. You want your kids to get used to seeing vegetables and, of course, eating them. Which ones you choose and how you cook them—steamed, roasted, microwaved, or stir-fried in olive oil—that’s up to you. Trust me, even if your kids don’t go for the veggies immediately, they will eventually.”
EASY NUTRITIONAL GUIDELINES FOR CHILDREN
Vegetables
3+ A DAY!
Some of the vegetables with the highest nutrient content are broccoli, bell peppers (all colors), spinach, tomatoes, carrots, squash, and Brussels sprouts. Try to get at least three of these into your child every day—1½ to 2½ cups total, either in purees or as vegetable side dishes. In my experience, the five top vegetables for nutrition and kid friendliness are, in this order:
• red bell peppers
• baby carrots
• broccoli
• tomatoes
• sugar snap peas
As popular with kids but a bit less nutritious are: green beans, peas, corn, cucumbers, and lettuce. Frozen peas and corn, especially, can be prepared in a matter of minutes.
One serving = 1 cup raw, or ½ cup cooked
Fresh Fruits
2 A DAY!
Some of the best fruits are strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries,