Nutrition Lesson for Eye-Rolling Teen

[goldberry]

I am so tired of fighting with DD14 about her eating habits. We eat "ok" as a family. We don't get enough fruits and veggies, could eat more whole food and less processed. DD has never been a big eater. She picks. I give her a handful of carrots for a snack and she asks "How many of these do I have to eat?" I was that way as a kid, so I get that. (Not that way anymore, needless to say! :-)

 

I really worry about her because she eats so little anyway, but has gotten really bad about picking whatever the one thing is that has no substance and leaving the rest. She can go more than one day without any fruit or vegetable. I get the eye-roll when I try to discuss with her what can happen to her body from malnutrition.

 

I've decided to have her do a nutrition unit for school. But it can't be anything too boring. I need something that can hold her attention, even rather shocking. Something to really make the point about how what we choose to eat affects us.

 

Books? Websites? Other ideas?

[carriewillard]

Have her read nutrition and physical degeneration by Dr Weston a price, available free online. It's life-changing.

 

My lack of capitalization is disturbing

[Lily_Grace]

We're watching The Weight Of The Nation as a family. It has provided some great discussions about eating habits vs. culture/economics that have been eye-openers.

 

I think we got the series free on Itunes, too.

[Lori D.]

A great supplement to whatever else you decide to use: the documentary "Super Size Me" free on Hulu. See what it's about here.

[goldberry]

A great supplement to whatever else you decide to use: the documentary "Super Size Me" free on Hulu. See what it's about here.

 

This is great, we've watched it before. DD doesn't see a connection though, because we don't eat alot of "junk" or fast food, she just doesn't eat anything good either.

 

Say we have whole-grain spaghetti, salad or green beans, garlic toast. She will eat the garlic toast and one or two bites of spaghetti and then be "done". I know I can just not serve the garlic toast, then she just eats three or four bites of spaghetti and done.

[nmoira]

Omnivore's Dilemma: Young Reader's Edition

Chew on This

[nmoira]

And this article is a good summary of where we are now in the great sugar debate:

 

http://www.ucsf.edu/news/2013/01/13393/sugar-fights-still-simmer-new-brain-study-finds-fructose-might-stimulate-appetite

[Chanley]

We eat dinner as a family, every night. Even when we are busy, we eat together. And I always start the conversation about WHY we are eating what we are eating. My kids have food allergies and I have always been a health nut, so our plates are already pretty nutritious. But this conversation extends to the nights where we miss the mark. Talking about what is in your food makes you aware of it.

 

"Hey kid, why do you think I put that broccoli on your plate?"

"Because it is full of vitamin C which keeps you from catching colds, it also has lots of vitamin K which helps your blood clot when you get cut."

"What about the chicken on your plate? What's in that?"

"Protein, which helps you build more cells and repair cells so you can grow healthier and stronger."

"Where did that broccoli come from?"

 

This is also really good in the conversation, because it gets the kids to think about farming and how the food was raised. We try to find as much food from local sources as possible. But sometimes, our food comes from not so great places. I try to raise awareness about that. I have some pretty grocery savvy kids as a result of these on-going conversations. My nine year old will eat more veggies when I highlight what they do for his body.

 

or

"Ok, so what about those Ore-Ida French fries, why are we eating those?"

"Because they taste good"

"But are they healthy?"

"I dunno"

"Lets look at the label."

 

 

Also, I do not buy junk. IF I do, it is in small portions and we divide it up and eat it together. Mostly because I try to watch my weight and *I* cannot be trusted. If you want your kid to eat better, you are going to have to model that for her and make it the only choice in the house.

 

Another idea is to grow a garden together. Kids will eat what they grow even if they will not touch it in the kitchen. OR let her help you plan meals and cook.

[Lori D.]

This is great, we've watched it before. DD doesn't see a connection though, because we don't eat alot of "junk" or fast food, she just doesn't eat anything good either.

 

Say we have whole-grain spaghetti, salad or green beans, garlic toast. She will eat the garlic toast and one or two bites of spaghetti and then be "done". I know I can just not serve the garlic toast, then she just eats three or four bites of spaghetti and done.

 

 

 

Maybe tell the family "we're going to have some fun and eat restaurant style for awhile." (Really, it is your rouse for ensuring the eating of good foods.) Put candles and flowers on the table each night. Serve the salad, fruit and veggies first, and the next course is not brought out until the salad / fruit / veggies have been eaten and the plate is clean. ;)

 

Also, consider shifting more towards making more meals "paleo" (meat/fruit/veggies, no carbs/legumes), or cut way back on serving pasta, breads and carbs to just once a week. If they just aren't there to eat, but there is plenty of other foods to choose from, what happens then?

 

Another thought: could DD have a food sensitivity or be gluten intolerant -- often we crave the very foods that are messing up our systems. Just brainstorming, here! BEST of luck, Lori D.

[Hunter]

Is she underweight? I would never show any shocking videos that focus on our overweight nation to an underweight 14 year old!

 

I would study the different nutritional diseases one by one. The history of scurvy is quite interesting. So is beriberi. I see the effects of rickets on South American immigrants every day. I have Osteoporosis and every time I see a neighbor of mine I get so scared.

[Melissa in Australia]

Is she underweight? I would never show any shocking videos that focus on our overweight nation to an underweight 14 year old!

 

I would study the different nutritional diseases one by one. The history of scurvy is quite interesting. So is beriberi. I see the effects of rickets on South American immigrants every day. I have Osteoporosis and every time I see a neighbor of mine I get so scared.

 

 

:iagree:

 

When I was a early teen (around 14) I didn't eat so much food either. I wasn't anorexic, but I was pretty skinny.

[ktgrok]

Watch Food Inc on netflix?

[tampamommy]

Nutrition Made Clear is an interesting, solid course offered by The Great Courses. It's not flashy, but the info is good and each of the 24 lectures is 30 minutes long.

 

We watched it when ds and dd were 15 & 13.

 

Is she an athlete or does she exercise? I think the fact that my children are athletes in rigorous sports helps them listen more to nutrition advice. They do see the difference in their sports performance if they don't eat nutritiously. Their diets are not perfect, but they are about as healthy as I can make them. I let them decide about things like dessert and encourage them to balance their meals and pay attention to how certain foods make them feel, physically.

 

Bottom line, you can't force feed her. If she really won't eat much, just make sure what you offer is nutritious. Avoid having junky stuff in the house. Set good family habits for nutrition and maybe they'll rub off. This is easiest done from when they are tiny, but just work from where you are.

[Lori D.]

Here's another thought: What about making it all about being a positive? Have DD helping and then making meals, shopping for food, etc.? Search through recipes and do the planning; do a special table setting with folded cloth napkins, etc...

[Lily_Grace]

Is she underweight? I would never show any shocking videos that focus on our overweight nation to an underweight 14 year old!

 

I would, and here's why. Weight can be hereditary/genetic or cultural, or both. BUT, eating habits can affect the body the same way no matter how a person metabolizes the food. Arteries can still harden in a skinny person. Vitamin deficiencies still happen. Muscle and bone problems still happen. Diabetes still happen.

 

My family looks like Jack Skellington + Sally with children. We're still watching Weight of The Nation because it focuses on the inner health issues that happen with food choice. My 14yo had gotten into a habit of pushing the veggies to the side of the plate and eating the carbs and meat, or trying to fill up on 3 bowls of oatmeal in the morning (about 6 packs of the nasty instant stuff). I have no desire for him to end up with health problems because his habits are skewed. Years ago when he was little we made our own version of Richard Simmon's Food Mover - a device where you shut windows on pictures of what you ate. That way he could see he ate the rec. amount for grains and needed to pick a fruit or veggie snack. Or he had a treat and needed water instead of juice. It was a great tool, but we're a little past that now and needing to see WHY it's so important to eat well.

[weederberries]

I had a discussion with my kids today about nutrition. They are fantastic eaters, they'll eat anything I offer, which is great, but they eat a lot and it really forces me to make sure I'm offering healthy choices. A pound of carrots is a lot different than a pound of chips. ;)

 

Anyway, a friend of a friend decided he was going to take in his 2000 calories a day in Snickers bars. That's all he ate. Whenever he was hungry, he ate a snickers. He figured as long as he was getting 2000 calories a day, he'd maintain weight and be a happy guy. (The monotony alone would kill me.) At first he gained some weight, but very shortly he started losing it, becoming skinny, losing his hair, which he attributed to male pattern baldness, sleeping a lot and falling down. The bozo was malnourished! (big "duh" from the rest of the world) He was hospitalized within 4 weeks of starting this "diet." The bottom line is that variety and nutrition go hand in hand. Similarly, if he'd chosen just one vegetable, a similar effect would have occurred, perhaps more slowly.

 

You may wish to share this story with your teen, as well as investigate diet books that focus on health rather than weight. I thought there would be more books about eating by color, but here is one for adults that I found. It focuses on the visual indicators foods give of their benefit and obviously a variety of those is most beneficial to us. I've not read this book, but it is along the lines of what I was looking for. I'd check it out of the library.

 

I would also suggest choosing a "food of the week" to highlight. Spend the first week researching the food and finding recipes that she would like to try, then implement 2 recipes the next week while researching the next food. Start with something she can tolerate, but doesn't love. Carrots, zucchini, blueberries, spinach, include proteins too, eggs, chicken, etc. Introduce smoothies, recipes like spaghetti squash, and try cauliflower pizza crust, etc. Let her explore foods, choose the recipes and prepare them. If she's still resistant to actually eating what she prepared, I'd set some ground rules for scientific food discovery. Conclusions can't be drawn by a tiny nibble gulped down with water. Set a reasonable number of human-sized bites AND provide a feedback sheet. Have her focus on one aspect of the food per bite and record her impressions. Color, texture, taste (scale from sweet to savory), taste-alike (does it taste like something else you've tried?), recipe (what could be added or removed to improve it), doneness (is it prepared to your liking, underdone, overdone, etc). Having her analyze these aspects, you get 5 bites into her and she gets to find ways of improving the food to make it more to her liking. You may discover, forgive me for saying this, that you don't prepare food the way she would choose to eat it. Overcooked broccoli is one of the worst things I can imagine eating, but I grew up with soggy brown broccoli, mushy canned green beans, and limp asparagus. YUCK! I didn't like veggies growing up, but now I can prepare them to my own taste and I like them just fine!

 

I don't agree that giving kids the green light in the kitchen will magically make them like the taste of yucky foods, but experimenting and learning together how to prepare healthy foods in desirable ways can't hurt. Ultimately, I think it comes down to maturity to decide that the value of the food is worth getting it down and learning how to prepare it in the most palatable way. I also heard of a mother (was it a friend or an article?) who allowed her child to refuse one food...just one. He chose peas, so whenever she served peas, he didn't have to eat them, but he had to eat everything else he was served. In a more extreme case, you could probably say that she can choose one food each meal to skip, but then I'd be sure we were serving two veggies. ;-)

 

In our house, we started by offering a balanced meal and praising them for trying something new. I don't have any picky eaters, so they were pretty much willing to taste anything. We continue to tell them how great it is to try new things and allow them to dislike them. Usually we say something like, "I'm so glad you tried it! How did you like it?...Oh, is there something specific you didn't care for? Hmm, maybe you'd like it with less pepper." It's ok if they try the roasted sweet potatoes and decide to leave them on the plate. We don't allow them to have seconds if they don't finish their first helpings, but if they've honestly tried a food and choose to leave it, I'm fine with that. I grew up sitting there until the brown broccoli was gone, I couldn't do that to my kids. Keep offering that positive reinforcement, some experience in food prep and she'll come around eventually.

[weederberries]

Also, because I worry, talk to the doctor about a good multivitamin. My clever 8 year old decided that he could just eat cake all day and have a multivitamin and be fine. We had to make sure he understood that many of those vitamins can only be absorbed in the presence of fats, acids, and other vitamins found in the real foods he was eating. They're a supplement, not a substitute. Cover your bases, but make sure she understands that she's still responsible for eating a variety of foods/nutrients.

 

I might also suggest lots of soups, stews, chili, etc and a good food processor. I chop the carrots fairly fine and put them in chili. Actually, it's me that doesn't care for carrots, but you don't taste them in a strong flavored dish like chili.

[goldberry]

I would, and here's why. Weight can be hereditary/genetic or cultural, or both. BUT, eating habits can affect the body the same way no matter how a person metabolizes the food. Arteries can still harden in a skinny person. Vitamin deficiencies still happen. Muscle and bone problems still happen. Diabetes still happen.

 

My family looks like Jack Skellington + Sally with children. We're still watching Weight of The Nation because it focuses on the inner health issues that happen with food choice. My 14yo had gotten into a habit of pushing the veggies to the side of the plate and eating the carbs and meat, or trying to fill up on 3 bowls of oatmeal in the morning (about 6 packs of the nasty instant stuff). I have no desire for him to end up with health problems because his habits are skewed. Years ago when he was little we made our own version of Richard Simmon's Food Mover - a device where you shut windows on pictures of what you ate. That way he could see he ate the rec. amount for grains and needed to pick a fruit or veggie snack. Or he had a treat and needed water instead of juice. It was a great tool, but we're a little past that now and needing to see WHY it's so important to eat well.

 

 

Yes! This is my concern. I was this way in my 20s. Naturally skinny, so basically just ate junk. I actually passed out several times due to blood sugar issues because of my eating. People with weight issues are often forced to look at their eating and exercise to deal with their weight. But skinny people can have less motivation because you don't see the effects right away.

[Walking-Iris]

I agree. Eating right (right for your particular needs and worldview) is important regardless of weight.

 

For the OP. I have a book called The Teen's Vegetarian Cookbook. Not trying to encourage you to go veggie, but it's written to appeal to a teen and it encourages teens to cook for themselves. Maybe she'll eat more veggies and more in general if she took ownership of her meals.

 

I think by that age you pass the point of having to need an adult to tell you what and when to eat.

[goldberry]

I agree. Eating right (right for your particular needs and worldview) is important regardless of weight.

 

For the OP. I have a book called The Teen's Vegetarian Cookbook. Not trying to encourage you to go veggie, but it's written to appeal to a teen and it encourages teens to cook for themselves. Maybe she'll eat more veggies and more in general if she took ownership of her meals.

 

I think by that age you pass the point of having to need an adult to tell you what and when to eat.

 

Thanks, I will use this. We are not vegetarian, but eat very little meat and when we do fish or chicken. We just don't like red meat, so we don't miss anything not to eat it. A lot of our recipes are vegetarian.