6 Myths That Keep Parents From Raising Healthy Eaters
from Maryann Jacobsen, MS RD
There are many feeding myths that plague families. I often say that if I didn't know what I know, I would make many feeding mistakes. And it wouldn't be because I'm a bad person, it would simply be based on myths about food and feeding that are pervasive in our culture.
So here are 6 feeding myths that hold parents back from feeding well and nourishing their children.
1. You have to be a good cook to feed your children well. I understand all too well what it's like to enter parenthood with few cooking skills, scared to death that my preference for simple cooking would negatively reflect on my children. I asked, Jill Castle, pediatric nutrition expert, for feedback and she mentioned this one, along with a couple of others listed.
"Moms think if they don't know how to cook or have a limited repertoire of menu items that they are the reason their child doesn't eat well or healthfully," she says. "The truth is most kids like uncomplicated straightforward meals with minimal fuss--and they like to put them together themselves (and eat better when they do). "
Hooray for simple cooks!
2. Parents are to blame for picky eating: There is a tendency to blame parents for kids' being selective with food. But according to research, it's a 50/50 proposition. That means about 50 percent of kids' eating is genetic and the other 50 percent is their environment (the foods that become familiar to them), over which parents have the most control.
So instead of trying to change your eater, which is a battle no one should engage in, take control of the home environment and let your child learn to like a variety at their own pace with positive encouragement and support.
3. Children naturally dislike healthy food: There is a common belief that children are born not liking healthy food. While children do prefer sweeter tastes and reject bitter ones, this is only part of the story.
The truth is most kids learn that eating healthy is not fun based on how they are fed. According to a 2007 study published in International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, after age 6 kids had a negative taste impression of healthy foods. Many of the children discussed the creative ways they were able to eat disliked vegetables that parents insisted they eat, such as squeezing their nose, eating the non-tasty food first or adding ketchup to the vegetables.
4. Kids have to eat their veggies to meet their nutritional needs: I’ll never forget the sigh of relief the parents felt when my nutrition professor announced that kids could meet their vitamin and minerals needs on fruit alone. Yet parents believe their kid will miss critical nutrients if they don’t eat their greens, which is why pressuring and hiding them in food is so popular.
While vegetables are great because they are nutrient-dense for so few calories–something particularly important for adults — they aren’t a must-have for kids nutrition. Fruit, also nutrient-dense but more preferred by young children often does the job.
5. Lean kids are healthy kids: In her private practice Castle often hears parents say, “well my child doesn’t have a weight problem” as justification for eating whatever they want, and that usually translates to too much empty-calorie food.
Despite the obesity statistics , most kids will not battle their weight. But eating well is not just about weight as smaller kids can have bad health and bigger kids can have good health. What's really at stake is a child's current and future relationship with food. Don't we want all kids, regardless of weight, to enjoy food and feed themselves well?
6. If you get food and nutrition right, you automatically raise a healthy child: It takes much more than getting kids to eat healthy to raise healthy eaters. While what they eat matters, so does understanding their developmental process and how best to instill eating confidence and a love of nutritious food.
Pushing, restricting and making healthy eating dismal, keeps kids from reaching their potential. After all, it's not just what you feed that matters but how