Helping Children Eat a Diverse Diet

I’m a mom of two gifted kids. I spend most of my time volunteering at my children’s school, for their extracurricular activities, and advocating for educational opportunities that will lead to their academic growth. Food, however, is my passion. I love to cook for my family and friends, discover new restaurants, collect and study cookbooks, grocery shop for the best available ingredients, and learn about food history, culture and policy.  It is my hope that writing articles about food will get the Gifted and Talented community thinking more about the link between our diets and our brains.   
History and science have demonstrated that diversity in a human’s diet has led to brain growth and development. Incorporating as many types of whole foods as possible into a family’s meals is key to healthy, strong, and clear brains in which new synapses are able to form, allowing for deeper and more complex thought.  This was the subject of an article written for the WATG October Newsletter, Is a Diverse Diet Key to Brain Development? I often get asked how my kids are such good eaters.  Below are some food rules and practices that we have implemented into our house to make sure everyone eats a diverse diet. 

• Kids are NOT going to starve themselves. This seems like a harsh place to start with food rules, but it really is the first food rule in our house.  Give kids the choice to eat a healthy meal or not eat anything.  Make it their choice to not eat, but do not let them substitute a healthy meal for unhealthy processed food.  Animals and humans, including children, have a natural instinct to not starve.  Some parents have a hard time believing this, but trust me, this is not cruelty. Children will not starve themselves. When they are hungry enough, they will eat the healthy option you have to offer them.  This rule has been carried over into my household from my childhood. I ate what my mom put on the table. However, my parents now have cats for their surrogate children. It has surprised my brother and me that this food rule has not been implemented for their cats. These cats are the pickiest eaters and must be the most demanding of cats! Surprisingly, my parents have allowed them to be picky by fawning over them like they are going to starve if their food isn’t first moistened with water, are given a substitute brand of cat food, or not fed at the exact time every day. Oy veh!
  
• Lead by example – this is the second food rule in our house. Children are more likely to eat food that they see their parents and caregivers eat.   Avoid ever telling your child “you won’t like that” or wrinkling your nose at certain foods. My dad recently purchased dehydrated durian fruit and offered some to my mom and me to try.  He told us it tasted a bit like burnt caramel with hints of vanilla.  I had heard about durian fruit before and had heard of it’s nickname, “stinky fruit”.  I tried it and found it to be the most disgusting food I have ever put in my mouth. Did my prior knowledge of its nickname influence my palate?  My mom had a similar reaction. As my dad had two bags of durian (I have no idea what possessed him to buy one, let alone two bags of durian), he offered me the rest of the bag to take home so I could let my husband and kids try.  I took the bag home and offered it up to my family, telling my kids the texture was like astronaut ice cream since it was freeze dried. I did not give any indication of my extreme dislike of this stinky fruit.  My husband and son liked it!  My daughter had the same reaction as my mom and I did.   Maybe it is a male and female difference rather than prior influence, but either way, I am glad I did not intentionally influence my family by telling them how horrid it tasted to me.
  
• Laugh at your meal mistakes - as you are trying out new recipes for your family meals, there may be a time or two that you fail.  It’s important to be able to laugh at yourself and show your children the importance of trying and being ok with failure.  Early on in my relationship with my husband, I made my first batch of chili.  He is a big fan of chili.  I could take it or leave it, but knowing how much he liked it, I wanted to give it a try.  I had read somewhere that a secret ingredient in chili was frozen concentrated apple juice.  When I read this, I didn’t pay attention to the amount of frozen apple juice you were supposed to add.  If it was a secret ingredient, I thought the more the better.  Needless to say, this chili was BAD. My kind husband still ate some, but neither of us could stomach much of it. My children weren’t even born at the time, but the tale still lives on, and they love to make fun of my apple juice chili. I laugh along with them. I’ve made several pots of chili since then and I am happy to report that I can now make a great pot of chili, without apple juice concentrate.
  
• Discover the local foods when you travel – as a family we search out educational opportunities when we travel.  Learning about the food culture during our travels is part of the educational experience for our entire family.  Making children aware that people around the world have culturally different diets raises their awareness of cultural differences overall. The culinary aspect of travel has become a huge part of our wanderlust. When we travel, we relax some of our food rules. In Germany, my kids found a love for the soft and chewy German pretzels. My kids ate pretzels most days for lunch, and sometimes for breakfast too as we explored the small bakeries in every little town.   In Mexico, fond memories were created by discovering a tiny tortilla maker, a tortilleria, and buying a foot-high stack of delicious fresh tortillas.  Those tortillas still float through our food dreams.
  
• Discuss ingredients and nutrition at meals – several times a week we discuss the ingredients of the meal.  We explore what various ingredients taste, smell and look like, how they are traditionally combined with other ingredients in various cultures, the nutrition they provide, and the synergies of combining multiple ingredients together.  All of this deepens their knowledge and appreciation for food. “Guess the Ingredients” is a game we occasionally play at the dinner table. We often ponder, “Has anyone else ever made this dish with these exact ingredients?”
  
• Order off the adult menu at restaurants – the children’s menu is often the least nutritious.   Offering a meal from the adult menu makes younger kids feel mature.  We occasionally visit Asian buffets. On one occasion my son had several crawfish on his plate when he asked if he could eat the eyeballs. I looked at my husband then said, “Sure, why not?”  He popped one in his mouth and declared it was just like the fish eggs on sushi. It is now a source of pride for him to announce that he eats crawfish eyeballs.
  
• Cook and bake together – kids love spending time with their parents and caregivers.  Cooking and baking with children gives you the opportunity to teach some important life skills. My daughter is my weekend from-scratch pancake sous chef.  She has learned how easy some things are to make from scratch, rather than buying pre-made mixes.  We experiment with adding healthy ingredients to our recipe. Flax and chia seeds are typical add-ins, and dark chocolate chips are a must.
  
• Try three bites – children don’t have to like everything, but they should at least eat three bites of each dish during a meal, at every meal. The more they are exposed to various foods, the more likely they are to accept and like those foods in future meals.This should go for adults too.This is how “acquired tastes” are developed. Kimchi, a Korean fermented, spicy, somewhat smelly cabbage condiment or side dish, is loved by my children. My mother-in-law makes a batch for us several times a year; it is her specialty.  My kids had to try kimchi many times before they developed their love for it.  There are still things that my kids claim to not like. We generally don’t make a big deal about these dislikes, and my daughter and son are still required to try eggplant and tofu, respectively, whenever they have the opportunity.
  
• Forage or garden together – as previously mentioned, kids love spending time with their parents and caregivers. Foraging and gardening together offer the same benefits as cooking and baking together, with the added benefit of getting fresh air. In the spring, we forage for morel mushrooms with my brother-in-law’s family. We’ve done this since my children were able to walk. My daughter, being the youngest in our family and also the closest to the ground, has always been the best morel forager. We don’t mind when she is boastful about this skill, and it’s no surprise to us that she includes mushrooms as one of her favorite foods.
  
• Shop for groceries together and let them pick out their own healthy foods. Letting kids make their own decisions, by giving them choices, is important for them to feel in control.  Let them have some control with healthy food. Let them pick out any vegetable to have in their lunch. Give them a choice between citrus fruits or berries. Discuss the differences in the types of eggs offered at the grocery store (organic, free-range, pasture raised, etc.), and let them decide which eggs to buy.
  
• Use generational nutritional knowledge – ask any elder in your family for recipes. Talk to grandparents, aunts, uncles, great aunts and uncles, and great-grandparents about what they ate as children and how their diets have changed over the years. Cook with those family members if possible. If you can get several generations in the kitchen to cook or bake a family recipe, it will be appreciated and sentimental for the older generations.  Document this experience by taking pictures and writing down the recipe. This will help create lifelong memories for your children.  I hope my children will remember making kimchi with my mother-in-law and making spiedini with my parents. I have a friend who has created a beautiful family cookbook with her mother and grandmother. I’m sure this will be treasured by her children in the future.This is such an inspiration to me and I’ve made it a goal of mine.
  
• Include food in your New Year’s Resolutions – my food resolutions have included following new recipes exactly, keeping track of our meals so we have a better sense of how often we are actually eating out, and making more special occasion meals for no reason. Your food resolutions will depend on where you are in your food journey as a family. You may want to try a new restaurant once a month, cook a new recipe once a week (or month), incorporate one new ingredient into your meals each week, have the kids grocery shop with you once a month, or have the kids assist with one meal a week.   
  

A diverse and healthy diet has been shown to aid with brain growth and development.  Implementing family practices like the ones discussed above has helped my children become accustomed to being undiscriminating flexible eaters, which makes it easier for us to have a diverse and healthy diet. If this diet also helps my children’s cognitive functioning, I’m all in.
Finally, I’ll ask you to consider this. If you were able to afford a full-time chef, what would you instruct the chef to make for you most of the time? Would you instruct your chef to make mostly healthy meals? Would you do this because as an adult you are aware of the overall health benefits of balanced and nutritious meals? Now consider the fact that you are that chef for your children. If they had the knowledge of adults, what would they instruct their chef to make for them?
By Jessica Albrecht-Schultz, WATG Board Member