Transcription:
Tips to Get Your Kids to Eat Healthier Foods

Melanie Cole (Host):  Getting kids to eat healthy is not always easy. However, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. There are some tried and true tips to getting your kids to try new foods and even to help change how they view healthy eating. My guest today is Maria McIntosh. She’s a registered dietician and clinical nutrition manager at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital. Welcome to the show Maria. So, let’s start with getting kids to eat healthy. Is it true that the amount of time that kids need to try a new food, to change their taste buds is increased? It’s like you have to give a kid a food a number of times before they will adapt and maybe change their taste buds.

Maria McIntosh, RD (Guest):  Yes, that is true Melanie. We really do need to give it more than one shot. I have a daughter who is 19 now and I know that the first time that she tried foods, many of them, she would either gag or spit them out or not like them and you just need to keep encouraging because over time they do get used to different textures, especially if you are dealing with the younger ones. The textures and the different flavors, the sour and some of the stronger flavors, they will start to get accustomed to that and be able to incorporate them into their diet much more easily. But you just don’t want to give up.

Melanie:  Well you certainly don’t and as a parent today, we have to be so careful about how we approach healthy eating. So, give us some of your best tips because we don’t want to say oh, that’s too fattening or oh that will make you fat, right, because that could change their mindset.

Maria:  Yes, that’s so true. The way that we behave, they actually will model that, and they really do take those statements to heart. It’s interesting, I was reading about normal weight children versus obese children and for obese children we say things to them like oh, don’t eat so much of that, it’s fattening, and we don’t necessarily say that to a normal weight child. So, really what we say and how we say it does make a huge difference which leads me to the whole concept of we really need to be their role models. We need to be modeling good healthy eating habits and we may find that we are having difficulty ourselves with it, but we can’t expect our kids to just take it on if we ourselves are not trying to improve our eating habits.

Melanie:  So, when we are getting our kids, let’s start with the little ones and we are feeding them finger food, and everybody does carrots and steamed carrots and things like that even avocado now is a great first food for baby but then texture becomes kind of an issue. What do we do to overcome some of the texture issues with little ones?

Maria:  I think we need to actually start very slowly just incorporate maybe one item that has a little bit of texture along with the other foods that they are more familiar with. And we just need to keep building upon that. And then they will become more used to the different textures that they are experiencing.

Melanie:  So, now as our kids are getting older and we are packing them lunches for school, preschool and they are toddlers, and everything looks icky and other kids kind of yuck their yums, they change the way that they feel about different foods, what do you suggest about how we offer the healthy foods when there is maybe junk around or do we just not keep the junk around?

Maria:  Well, I have always found that to be one of the easiest ways of dealing with it is really not giving in to that temptation because if it is in the house; then if it is around, obviously, we are going to go to it. We are actually programmed to eat very concentrated calories; that was survival of the fittest back in the caveman days. So, at home at least, the less of these kinds of items we can have in the home and instead fill your house, your cupboards, your refrigerators with more healthy foods, more plant based foods like fruits and vegetables, if those are the choices, then they are the ones that are going to be made more of the time obviously at home. I know it’s hard when they do start going to school and other people’s homes; that is when we try to say these are sometime foods but what we do at home are the things that we do on a more regular basis.

Melanie:  And what about – we get so busy Maria and so convenience sounds easy and better, but when we are planning we can plan healthier and then what about the parents that make their kids macaroni and cheese when their dinner is chicken and vegetables and a salad?

Maria:  Yes. So, mac and cheese can be a healthy part of a meal, but we do have to look at whatever else we might be having with it. Are we just eating mac and cheese or are we having a combination of foods like perhaps a smaller amount of mac and cheese but coupling that with some vegies and maybe some fruit for dessert, maybe a glass of milk to go with it. We really need to start looking at just not having one food item but looking at the whole plate and trying to get a variety of foods in there. The other thing that we can do as far as you mentioned convenience and we get so busy is to remember that frozen foods like frozen vegetables, people will say oh well aren’t they less nutritious than fresh? The reality is that frozen and canned vegetables particularly if they don’t have a lot of excess salt in them in terms of the canned items; can be very nutritious and sometimes even more so because they are picked at their peak of nutritional value and then they are processed right at that time. So, having frozen and some canned items on hand really can make it easier and perhaps quicker when you are trying to throw a meal together after a long day.

Melanie:  Is it okay to give our kids dips if they are not going to eat vegetables? Can we try hummus and salsa, or yogurt based dressings or ranch dressing to get them to eat vegetables?

Maria:  Oh, absolutely. Those are all very good choices. I mean some of them may be higher in fat than others, but kids do need fat. Hummus would tend to have things like olive oil or sesame oil in them which is a good healthy fat, avocados are as well and some yogurt dips. That is an excellent way of helping them get in some more nutritious foods.

Melanie:  What about hiding? Some parents subscribe to that hiding – you know they will make a smoothie and throw in the spinach or throw in avocado, do something like that. What do you say about hiding it? Do we need to do that or are there certain times that that’s okay?

Maria:  Well, I think if they are willing to drink it, and then you tell them what’s in it. I don’t know that they are going to be super surprised or upset by the idea. But I would certainly try to let them know what is going into their food. It really depends on the child. I had my daughter was so picky in terms of one time I tried to just blend a strawberry, I think it was a frozen strawberry in with some juice and it was pulverized. To me I couldn’t tell the difference. She took one sip and she was like what did you put in here. So, and then wouldn’t drink it. So, I don’t know if necessarily sneaking things in is the best way, but if they will take it as a smoothie versus eating it as – in some other form, then however you can get them to take it in is a good way.

Melanie:  And how can we get our kids involved from maybe even if we grow vegetables to gardening, helping us plant the seeds and weed, of course which no kids like to help with, but and then to get that produce and do something with it or go to the grocery store and help us pick stuff out. How important is that and how can we do that?

Maria:  Oh, well it is very important because as you know, we get them involved and they are more likely to want to participate and to want to be involved in the process. The way that we do it is we do try to make our trips to the grocery store, maybe an educational thing. Maybe let them plan a menu item that they would like to help you prepare and then you can discuss how are we going to get some vegetables and some other things in there or maybe trying something that none of you or few of you have tried before and, so you are going to maybe look up a recipe about how to incorporate that into your diet. So, really let them kind of take the lead in terms of what they would like to do to get more involved with this process. But there are also two really good websites that I can share with you that really offer a lot of very valuable tips. One is choosemyplate.gov and they have a whole family section with videos and healthy eating on a budget, family friendly recipes, a lot of very good practical information and then cdc.gov has some information on children and healthy weight and also some very practical information.

Melanie:  So, now tell us some of your best advice about snacks and breakfast. What can we give our children for breakfast and for snacks that they can take to school or eat quickly after school before they run off to an extracurricular activity? What do you recommend to parents that they do for those quicker on the go type meals?

Maria:  Yes, well it’s interesting when I get asked that question I think back to a coworker that I used to have and she would pick up her kids after school everyday and she would just load up some yogurt, some already precut vegetables with some of the dips and she would just throw it in the back seat and let them start nibbling because they were always starving right after school and so what she found was having a captive audience and not having other food choices really helped the kids to focus on those foods to fill up and not feel like they had to go through the drive through. So, that’s one of the tips that I can make. Get them when they are hungry because that’s when they are going to be more interested and if those are the choices that they have, then those are going to be the ones that they will eat. Some really handy snacks can be things like veggies, nuts are good, particularly if they are only lightly salted or sometimes what I do is I’ll buy salted nuts and then unsalted nuts and just kind of mix them together. But a handful of nuts are always a very good choice, good fat, some protein in there as well. Some other portable items might be things like the little cheese sticks that you can give with some crackers. Yogurt, some yogurts will actually freeze very well so you can stick them in the freezer overnight and then pull them out and stick them in their lunch box or have them for later in the day and it changes the texture just a little bit, but they might even like that texture. Getting them to consume enough calcium can be really challenging especially in this day and age of all these different beverages that are available and so getting them to drink milk or yogurt or some of the other substitutes like almond milk etc. can be difficult to do. But calcium is extremely important to get when our bones are growing.

Melanie:  Do you think we need to give our children supplements?

Maria:  A very interesting question. It is something that it’s the age-old question I think is why do I have to worry about how to eat when I can just take some supplements and just this past month in December, the Journal of American Medical Association they found that calcium supplements were not helpful for people with osteoporosis and that’s a thinning of the bones where your bones can break very easily. And it’s one of those things that about ten years fifteen years ago; we were being told especially as adults that we needed to consume calcium and vitamin D supplements, but the reality is the supplements are not effective at all. And so, there’s the studies that are tried and true are the ones that are with food and we know that its not just the nutrients, there must be something else in the food along with the nutrients that helps us process these items better and helps us to be more healthy. And with children, as their bones are growing, that’s when we need to be packing in the calcium to get the strongest bones possible. Because once we reach adulthood, it’s very difficult to get the calcium into the bones. So, we really want to encourage them to strengthen their bones while they are still growing.

Melanie:  And wrap it up for us Maria, it has been such great information for parents to hear with your best advice about getting our kids to eat healthy so that it becomes a long-lasting behavior and something they take with them through to adulthood.

Maria:  Yes. Well, I think first of all, we need to be a good role model and we need to not give up. We need to perhaps if you feel like you are starting from scratch, take it slow, maybe every month pick a new theme and stick with it and by the end of the year you will have had 12 new things that maybe you have tried or habits that you have changed a little bit to lead you into your new healthy lifestyle. But it doesn’t happen overnight definitely. And if you just keep with it and you keep them involved then look back over the year and see all the wonderful things that you have done.

Melanie:  Thank you so much Maria for being with us today. You’re listening to It’s Your Health Radio with Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital. For more information please visit www.henrymayo.com that’s www.henrymayo.com. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks for tuning in.