Jane Brody again has another immensely readable and helpful column in the New York Times that summarizes Michael Pollan’s newest book, Food Rules.

The article is worth a read once a week, or maybe even once a day, because our entire culture really is constantly reminding us to break those “rules” of good nutrition. “Have a syrupy drink. Munch a crunchy oily snack. Eat a sugary cookie. Maybe just one. You deserve it.” The best parent is fighting a continuous battle to teach good eating habits at least while the kids are at home, not too raise scrawny lactose-free vegans who can’t eat anything and look like it, but to raise kids who develop a taste for things that are good for them, rather than those that just fill them up fast.

I particularly liked Ms. Brody’s (and Pollan’s) suggestions on snacking, one of the worst of our daily habits.

Although the most wholesome eating pattern consists of three leisurely meals a day, and preferably a light meal at night, if you must have snacks, stick to fresh and dried fruits, vegetables and nuts, which are naturally loaded with healthful nutrients. I keep a dish of raisins and walnuts handy to satisfy the urge to nibble between meals. I also take them along for long car trips. Feel free to use the gas-station restroom, but never “get your fuel from the same place your car does,” Mr. Pollan writes.

Personal Health – Food Rules From Michael Pollan Worth Following

I have to say that I fall victim to a cliché we’ve seen over and over on TV. Kids come home from school. They are hungry. Of course, they should have cookies and milk. Because that’s what I’ve seen on TV hundreds of times and I think it’s what a good mom or dad does for their kids. That’s actually where my mind goes when they come home and complain that they are hungry. I literally have to stop and think twice and then suggest something else on some days.

Some suggestions for healthy snacking:

1. Freeze plain yogurt and frozen or fresh fruit in popsicles. It’s amazing how form factor affects young appetites. Avoid the yogurts that are filled with gelatin and extra sweeteners.

2. Buy different dip-friendly vegetables and leave out where kids can grab them. You might have to leave out 3-4 options like celery, carrots, pea pods and broccoli to see what gets eaten, but, if that’s what’s out, they might surprise you. Cream cheese, while still 50 calories for a tablespoon is still a kid-friendly lower-fat though it has a bit more fat than regular old cheddar cheese at about 35 calories for a tablespoon. We’ve had to develop a change of habit when it comes to vegetables. A little more gets thrown away, but a lot more gets eaten if I prepare a little bit in advance so I can often set out a bowl of cut up yellow or red peppers, some snow peas, some carrots and some celery. Give them lots of choices and find stuff they can use as dip, like peanut butter or….#3 next:

3. Try hummus, which often comes in different flavors. Some kids will eat a boatload of this healthy mixture of crushed chick peas, olive or canola oil, a little salt (100 mg. for 2 tablespoons), lemon juice, some spices, and garlic. We usually get our hummus from Trader Joe’s which makes a natural blend with olive oil. It has about 70 calories for a 2 TBS serving. We recently tried Tribe Hummus which is all-natural as well, and comes in flavors like extra garlic and red pepper. It’s made with canola oil which is an oil low in saturated fat and has only 50 calories per 2 TBS serving. Look for natural options in your neck of the woods. The only drawback of this healthy food is that your kids might start farting very odiferous farts. It’s a small price to pay for healthier eating, especially if you have a distant rec room with good ventilation.

4. Leave out dried fruit as a substitute for candy. We like plain old raisins, but now, almost all fruits are dried up to make healthier snacks. The one caveat here is that many, especially those with health claims all over the box, use added sugar to make them even that much better tasting. We also tried more novelty items like Frutabu, which is a kid-oriented brand that makes eating “smooshed” fruit rolls look fun. My kids gobbled them down and asked for more. All the ingredients are natural and there is no added sugar that doesn’t come from the fruit. Sadly, the kids prefer the bright packaging and form factor, but I have to admit to hoarding a few of them myself.

5. While nuts are a calorie-high snacking food for adults, they are great for nutrition and some nutritionists suggest eating 10-20 almonds every day (around 100 calories). If your kids like nuts, this is a far better option than a bag of chips (and they don’t crush in a lunch bag. As with other nuts, be aware of choking hazard for kids under three, as well as the possibility of life-threatening food allergies.

6. Another option in small quantities is olives. Olives are concentrated in monounsaturated fats and a good source of vitamin E. Each olive is five to six calories so should only be part of a mix of other healthy snacks, especially since the sodium content is high at about 60 mg. per medium size olive. The USDA suggests a sodium intake of less than 2300mg. for adults and some doctors think that number should be lower than 1000mg. Most medium size olives are around 10 calories and about 75 mg. of salt.

7. Let them have ice cream or other sweets on occasion. At our house, it’s ice cream Fridays. Sure the kids would love ice cream every day, but they know (mostly) not to expect that will happen.

Don’t demonize eating the “bad stuff” or you risk kids fetishizing the foods that mom and dad think are so baaaddddd. It’s better to provide more healthy options and educate kids why the stuff you are giving them is good for their growing bodies.

I’d love to hear more ideas. Write me at Paul AT GreatDad . com or leave a comment below.

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Second Chance – Kip Moore tells a true story that is one part a compelling story of a family’s never-wavering support of a sick child and one part warning on the dangers of food-borne E. coli bacteria. Large parts of the book are about spirituality and may provide comfort for those in similar situations.

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The Mayo Clinic Diet and Journal- A number of weight-loss experts at the Mayo Clinic have gotten together to write a colorful book on their recommended diet, along with a daily 8-week long journal to use as you try to change your or your family’s eating habits.

This is serious stuff, but the tools in the Journal look good only for the type of person who would use them. Warning though: it will take a lot of bookkeeping and attention to detail to use this system and I wouldn’t buy the journal on the hope that it will magically make you into the kind of person who obsesses over eating minutia every day so you can analyze your diet better. For the right person, however, it’s goal is to make you focus so you can change habits.

The Diet Book itself tells in very straight-forward and big print headlines what we all know already: eat more vegetables and whole grains and cut down on fat and sugar. The book though does a good job of explaining what those good ideas really mean since blanket statements often seem too daunting to really implement. Both of these books are worth a look if you’re getting serious about your diet in the new year.

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We don’t watch the Food Network or know who Mory Thomas and Susie Fogelson, but the game seems to be true to the traditional snarkiness of the judges of performance shows of this type. Here, players are “cooking” easy to difficult meals for the judges who either gag on the creations or award medals.

My nine year old daughter enjoyed this game, which is less about cooking than it is about manipulating the nunchuck and remote. The judges, Mory and Fogelson, provide some basic food tips (“bacon will get crispier while it cools,” and “a ripe avocado should be squishy but not too squishy”). She learned a lot about how to use a nunchuck and remote to simulate cooking utensils, but I couldn’t help feeling that none of these skills would translate in any way to the kitchen. Scoring seems to be more on their notions of split-second timing. There is little room for adjusting temperatures or keeping food warm as you complete other tasks.

Unfortunately, there is little explanation along the way about what players are doing wrong and could improve upon for higher scores.

My major complaint with this game is that most of the recipes feature less healthy food choices loaded with cheese and more fatty meats (a lot of bacon). While we love cheese and bacon and serve a lot of it in our house, I couldn’t help wishing they were able to make vegetables a little more fun, or at least integrated into the recipes. Vegetables in most of these recipes are just a side garnish (think guacamole) rather than part of a well-balanced meal.

There are 13 full meal recipes included. Based on the timing of the first five meals, this would be about 6 hours of game play to play them all. My daughter says she would “make” the meals again, especially since she’s getting better at “cooking.”

Net, net, this is a fun game for an aspiring chef with little experience in the kitchen. It’s also a safe way for a small player to cut vegetables without the risk of adding pieces of fingers to the recipe. However, don’t expect kids to learn as much as they would from making a few meals with you in a real kitchen.

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Okay, completely off-topic, but the curmudgeon in me, used to too many dinners out with the kids in restaurants where waiters throw the cutlery at you so they can dash to the next table (if there are waiters at all), loved this list. I’m sure wait staff will hate it, but dining would be a better experience if a lot of these rules were followed. My personal favorite not yet included in this list: “Never say, ‘Can I take your plate or are you still working on that?’ as if eating this food is a particular chore.”

100 Things Restaurant Staffers Should Never Do (Part 1)
By BRUCE BUSCHEL

Herewith is a modest list of dos and don’ts for servers at the seafood restaurant I am building. Veteran waiters, moonlighting actresses, libertarians and baristas will no doubt protest some or most of what follows. They will claim it homogenizes them or stifles their true nature. And yet, if 100 different actors play Hamlet, hitting all the same marks, reciting all the same lines, cannot each one bring something unique to that role?

1. Do not let anyone enter the restaurant without a warm greeting.

2. Do not make a singleton feel bad. Do not say, “Are you waiting for someone?” Ask for a reservation. Ask if he or she would like to sit at the bar.

3. Never refuse to seat three guests because a fourth has not yet arrived.

4. If a table is not ready within a reasonable length of time, offer a free drink and/or amuse-bouche. The guests may be tired and hungry and thirsty, and they did everything right.

5. Tables should be level without anyone asking. Fix it before guests are seated.

[45 more at 100 Things Restaurant Staffers Should Never Do (Part 1) - You’re the Boss Blog - NYTimes.com]

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I’m a skeptic, but in the interest of equal time, here is the other side of the story. And, it’s one we’ve heard over and over from apologists: sample sizes used in research studies are so much more than human consumption that the results aren’t trustworthy. This is an argument that sounds logical, but would mostly discount most food and drug research over the past 50 years. Our recommendation here at GreatDad is still to keep plastic of all types away from food as much as you can. Yes, it is possible that there is no risk from plastics, but why risk it when there are now many other options that are also better for the environment. There is just no reason to continue using plastic with food.

[From Is plastic dangerous for children and in baby bottles? - 1/14/09 - San Francisco News - abc7news.com]

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We recently tested the Dandelion Reusables. We’ve been tossing out all the plastic dishes in the house, for fear of any plastic leeching into the kids’ food. These non-breakable plates are made out of corn, so they are both petroleum free and made out of renewable resources.

There are times when plastic just makes sense, so it’s nice to know there are more options out there for glass, stainless steel, and now corn-based products.

About $25 get you 2 plates, 2 bowls and 4 spoons and forks.

Now if they could just make a set with lids, I could throw out the last of the Tupperware.

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The eating habits of American children appear to be shifting. And for a change, the news is good.

Chicken nuggets, burgers, fries and colas remain popular with the under-13 set, of course. But new market research shows that consumption of these foods at restaurants is declining, while soup, yogurt, fruit, grilled chicken and chocolate milk are on the rise.

The findings, based on survey data by the Chicago market research firm NPD Group, follow a report last year that childhood obesity appears to have hit a plateau after rising for more than two decades. That finding, reported by The Journal of the American Medical Association, has been greeted with guarded optimism, and it remains unclear whether efforts to limit junk food and increase physical activity in schools have had a meaningful effect on the way children eat.

[From Well - Kid Goes Into McDonald’s and Orders ... Yogurt? - NYTimes.com]

Well, not in our house, where it’s still a battle to get some fruit in the cereal, or to force consumption of any vegetable that isn’t deep-fried and served with their other favorite vegetable, ketchup. Our pediatrician just reminded us as well that kids should get from 16-24 ounces of milk each day. We weren’t really worrying about milk, since they eat a lot of cheese and often have cereal, but I think I was also laboring under the weight of my own delusions that kids still get milk in school like they used. Sure, they kept those little 4 oz cartons of milk on the radiator and they were often disgustingly lukewarm by the time we got to them, but at least we were being forced to drink milk two to three times a day. Now, our school has no beverages or hot lunch and asks us to send a reusable water bottle to school. I suppose there is some new device I could find that would keep milk cold until lunch time, but I haven’t found it yet.

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A new study published online in Social Science and Medicine says that parents’ eating habits actually have little to do with what kids eat. The national study, which looked at a representative sample of 2291 parents and 2692 children found little similarity between kids’ and parents’ diets, with just a slight edge moms versus dads. However, the study did show that, especially as kids get older, peers have a far larger effect, with more similarities within peer groups. Kids do tend to eat what other kids are eating.

The study did not try to analyze why parents’ and kids’ diets don’t resemble each other more, but suggests that parents aren’t doing as good a job as they should to not only show good eating examples, but get kids to actually follow them.

Parenting advice: Watch what you eat, model good eating habits and make sure kids are eating a diet similar to the (good) one you are following. Failing that, make sure your children eat often with other kids who are healthy eaters.

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1. Water

2. Fanta Lemon

3. Strawberry Lemonade

4. Root beer

5. Orangina

6. Shirley Temple

7. Milk

8. Root beer float

9. Tea

10. Regular lemonade

What is the list? My eight year old daughter’s top ten list of drinks. I’m disappointed that Root beer and Orangina are way up there, but they have slightly more natural ingredients than corn syrup-rich Coke or caffeine-rich Mountain Dew. On the other hand, I’m over-joyed that scotch, vodka, and Budweiser are no where to be found. Not that they should be. Every once in a while, she asks to smell a glass of wine, but that’s as far as her curiosity goes.

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