Healthy Eating Starts with Expecations

When I had my first child I laid down a few laws. One was that I would not ever make more than one meal at dinner time. Not ever. And, 7 years later, I haven’t.

I spend a lot of time cooking. I’ve learned it, and I’ve learned to enjoy it. And I take pride in my meals, even when they’re terrible (like tonight when the salmon was overcooked because the Huz came home 40 minutes late and it sat in our oven all that time.) I take pride because when I cook I consider the health of our family first. I consider variety. I consider favorite foods, too. But I’ve learned that in cooking for your family, you need to take risks. And, at the same time, the kids need to take risks trying foods.

But if you don’t expect the children to take those risks, they never will.

Did you read in the second paragraph that we had salmon tonight? We have it about once a week, and the kids celebrate salmon and fish nights. No. I’m not making this up. They like fish. They also like vegetables, fruits and many meats. Sure, they’re picky, but they’ve learned to appreciate that foods may taste surprisingly good. And they may taste bad. But they taste.

We have a rule in our house. You must try. You must take a “thank you taste” of everything on your plate because Mom (or, once in a while, Dad) made that item for you. So you show respect and try the food on your plate. That’s what’s expected.

I watched Jamie Oliver‘s Food Revolution last week. The cafeteria staff didn’t expect the children to like the new foods. By not having those expectations, the children weren’t encouraged to try anything new. The parents weren’t creating anything new, either. The children were stuck in a place where they only knew a few tastes, and they were incredibly unhealthy tastes.

Secretary Vilsack and the USDA are asking us (parents, teachers, community members) to go to our school systems and demand they alter the cafeteria budgets to allow for healthier food choices in our schools. I’ll stand behind that. We also need parents, teachers and schools to influence our children’s choices. If we expect them to try new things, they’ll do it. But if we only expect them to eat the unhealthy foods, because they’re the known foods, than that’s exactly what the kids will do.

Parents, its up to us. It starts at home. Start being creative in the home with your meals. Introduce the “thank you taste” in your home when you introduce new foods.

This is the fourth post in the Just Precious series: Healthy Education in America, inspiried by a call with USDA Secretary Thomas Vilsack. Other posts in this series include:

• My Pyramid
• What Do Vitamins & Healthy Supplements Really Teach Kids?
• Parents and Schools are Responsible for Teaching Children to Make Healthy Choices

Related articles by Zemanta

• Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution (ABC): review (telegraph.co.uk)
• A push for healthier school meals (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Dinner Diary: Salmon with Dill Yogurt Sauce (dailywd.womansday.com)

© 2010, Julie Meyers Pron. All rights reserved.

About Julie Meyers Pron

Julie Meyers Pron has written 896 post in this blog.

mom of 3 and wife, Julie is a former elementary school teacher and a Public Relations manager. She is the owner/editor of Just Precious, founding partner of Just Centsible, and a team member of Splash Creative Media. Julie is a PTOer, volunteer, elementary educator and that's just the beginning of the list!

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