Healthy Eating as an Ordeal
I remember my mother emptying a slimy mass of spinach out of a can and heating it up in a saucepan. I knew I was in for an ordeal at dinner. Since I couldn’t leave the table until the plate was empty, I anticipated sitting for an hour eating microscopic bites that I could toss down my throat without actually tasting them. I haven’t eaten canned spinach since 1964.Once I left home, it was fifteen years before I tasted fresh spinach. Now I love it.
I wonder if I could have enjoyed fresh spinach as a child. I suspect that if I, as a willful four-year-old, had experienced a fresh spinach salad—made the way my wife makes it with sweet Vidalia onion dressing—I would have eaten it without dread, or gagging, and perhaps even some pleasure.
From a Mother’s Point of View
The problem for mothers who want to provide good nutrition has many facets:- Mothers don’t have time to spare. It takes much of this precious resource to plan meals, shop for fresh food, and prepare healthful meals.
- Almost all the information that mothers receive through advertising, through their own education, or from the government, is distorted for the benefit of the food industry and not for the benefit of their children’s health.
- Good fresh food is relatively expensive and hard to acquire in many areas.
- Children are bombarded with advertising for very unhealthy foods and snacks that are tempting for mothers to buy because junk food is cheaper and less time-consuming than healthful foods.
What’s the Solution?
The very best solution would be for mothers to have more money and time but that’s not going to happen. The solution that remains is for mothers to educate themselves about nutrition and find a few quick healthful recipes that kids will actually eat.The sooner we train our children to eat healthful food, the better. Converting a ten-year-old from eating Happy Meals to fish and veggies may be a battle that Mom can’t win. One way of changing the tastes of older kids is to get them involved in the cooking. Remind your sons that the great chefs are men.
It won’t be a surprise that busy mothers have already created websites with quick and healthy recipes; see Healthy Recipes for Kids, Quick Recipes for Busy Moms, and Quick Meals for Busy Families. If your child has special needs, you may find some useful recipes here.
There are several LesTout articles that can help.
LesTout guide Chef Michael recommends a cookbook that is ideal for busy people, even those without children.A very subtle way of improving children’s nutrition is to improve the spirituality of the mealtime. Guide Elizabeth Farrell wrote an article, Sacred Mealtimes, to encourage us to add a new dimension to meals. If your children can tune in to the spiritual aspect of eating, they may slow down and digest their food better.
Some readers may be considering whether your child should be a vegetarian, the article Should Your Child Be a Vegetarian addresses this question.
There are many more resources on the web that promote quick meals but we wary of websites that are actually a front for processed food manufacturers. Good nutrition doesn’t come in a box or a can.
