Over lunch, I was cross tabbing some data (which is one of my fav things to do over lunch). I saw that 63% of moms can relate to the idea that every meal is a chance to make a change for the better.
This gives me a lot of hope. I’m constantly seeing the news reports about obesity in American, and I find particularly disturbing the reports of obesity in children being on the rise. I think to myself, this is something we parents can control. We buy their food, by and large, so we can control what they eat. Even if its through an allowance, we have control because we can take the allowance away if they abuse it.
I have a feeling that many parents might laugh at me for saying this. Its true, I am a new parent, and yes, I am already caving occaisionally to Chloe’s craving for buttered toast. I stupidly introduced her to it and now I shall reap my reward… Still. Chloe can’t go out and buy toast. She can’t even open the fridge, much less figure out our luddite-unfriendly toaster/oven/broiler/convection oven. I can stop her from eating toast, anytime.
It’s just so interesting to me that we parents start out with the best of intentions and yet still things can go awry. 68% of expectant and new moms say that since becoming a parent, they are now more focused on serving more nutritious meals to their families. Yet at the same time, HALF of these same moms say they are trying to buy food and cook meals their family will eat. At the end of the day, I think that’s the problem. Its hard to get your family to eat nutritious meals.
My brilliant husband recently bought me a book that might help. It’s by Jessica Seinfeld and is called “Deceptively Delicious”. The premise is that if you hide the nutrition inside of what appears to be non-nutritious foods like pizza, then people will eat it. The book advises that you keep a full store of pureed foods in your freezer, so you can easily add brussel sprouts to mac’n'cheese. Its a fabulous idea, but I think it just teaches your family that pizza is nutritious because you never know, someone might have cleverly hidden brussel sprouts in there.
