Kid food vs real food

With the current health problems in children, obesity, asthma, autism among others, new research has surfaced that products made with high fructose corn syrup are now linked to autism. Food coloring causes hyperactivity and the sugar in processed foods is crazy.
So why do we need to feed our kids different foods? Why would we serve up a lovely meal with salad or veges and then serve our children a glump of mac and cheese and chicken nuggets smothered in high fructose corn ketchup?

As adults we all know how to eat healthily, we understand the pyramid, although I believe the pyramid is a little off and often funded by the dairy industry and grain industry to sell more products. So why serve up rubbish just to get something in the kids stomach?
Convenience foods are convenient and the trap is many families having super busy schedules say there is no time to prepare nutritious home cooked meals.I say there’s a way to do it. I have seen many working mums have awesome meals for their families. A little planning can produce amazing results. Saturday could be cooking day getting the kids involved if they’re old enough, kids love helping in the kitchen. Many meals can be pre cooked and reheated later in the week, lasagnes and pasta sauces can be frozen in meal sizes and produced when required, soups, stews, hotpots, all those types of meals are easily made in advance. Roasts are a favorite in my house and people think this is a special meal but in fact it’s a lazy meal….. Besides peeling some veges there’s nothing to do for an hour! And it doesn’t have to be a whole chicken or whatever meat you choose it can be a couple of chicken breasts seasoned or some drumsticks and lots of roasted veges. Just watch the kids scoff down the sweet potato and roasted carrots! Pork tenderloins for those who eat it are very quick and easy to do too.
Since going paleo in my eating I have become very conscious of what I’m putting in my body and that of my family. I have eliminated almost all processed package foods and make meals packed full of vegetables and protein.
Of course getting the kids to eat it every time is a different story but I have always chosen my battles and on this one I’m gonna fight. Miss Gremlin was starting to get a bit tubby, she has the kings genes and this will be something she’ll probably have to watch all her life, so as a mum I must teach her how to eat properly with healthy foods and portion control, without giving her an eating disorder in the process.
I am gaining ground now as I’m not giving her options, before I serve the meal she says I’m starving but when it’s presented she says I’m not hungry, I know this is code for I don’t like what you are serving, even though she hasn’t even tasted it. I go with the knowledge that no kid will starve themselves intentionally. So I say ok but I’m saving this and when you are hungry this is what you’ll get to eat. After some protest she eats and often she finds she quite likes what I cook even if she eats around the dreaded veges! My theory is keep serving them, be consistent, they will eventually eat them.
When they were toddlers I always cooked fresh for them, using ice cube trays to freeze a weeks worth of food so it was available quickly when I needed it. Both children ate very well as babies and toddlers, mostly smaller portions of what i cooked for us just mashed a bit but then we moved to American and were living in hotels for weeks. Unfortunately during that time my kids developed bad habits which have taken a long time to break 🙁 It was disgusting that everywhere we went all the kids meal choices in restaurants were nuggets, spaghetti, Mac and cheese or burgers! Things are slowly changing but those items are still the go to kid food. What’s wrong with offering kid size portions of healthy meals like roast meats or schnitzels and veges or fish with salads or oven baked wedges or fries because they’re a little healthier.
I wish more people would demand better food choices for children. What we teach them about food will continue through to their adult life. If we don’t teach them to eat well now then we’re just adding to the future health problems of our country.
It’s not always easy and I don’t always feel like cooking but I manage to make healthy meals that don’t come out of a package for my family most nights……. The other nights there’s always Thai food 🙂

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