Sanjay Raja’s new book The Food Talk offers advice on how you can talk about food with your children and change their eating habits for the better. In the book, he stresses that talking to your children about food is just as important as talking to them about sex: food and sex are very pleasurable, but they always involve risk. He also points out that if your kids can say “mac and cheese” or “chicken steaks,” they can say “carbs” and “protein” and know what those words mean. We all want our children to eat better, more nutritious and healthier food. We just don’t know how to make that happen, and there are plenty of culprits trying to sabotage us along the way.
Raja provides step-by-step instructions in this book for parents to do everything from starting to talk about food with their children, to getting them to read food labels and cut sugar out of their diets. Make no mistake, yes, children are forced to eat sugar, but we can also teach them about the effects sugar has on the body and teach them to cultivate a taste for nutritious foods, including broccoli and cauliflower.
Raja also has tips for getting around the culprits that could sabotage you and your kids: birthday parties filled with sugary cakes and brownies, grandparents wanting to treat grandkids, and school lunch featuring cheese pizza and chicken tenders. instead of vegetables. vegetables. Based on Raja’s advice, you will be able to create a plan to deal with each of these situations and have your children learn to make the right decisions for themselves.
You will also be surprised by many of the myths about food and children’s eating habits that Raja exposes and that, too often, we accept without a second thought. For example, a myth or belief that we may not think twice about is “Children should not eat from the adult menu.” In response to this, Raja says, “How silly. While portions can be smaller, kids shouldn’t be limited to what’s commonly offered on kids’ menus: buttered pasta, grilled cheese sandwiches, wings fried chicken, pizza, hot dogs, corn dogs and fried foods in general. None of these foods is really nutritious. Instead, children should be taught to eat what adults eat and to be adventurous in their food choices. Raja offers advice on how to make that sense of adventure prevail.
As Raja explains, every meal is really an opportunity to talk to your kids about food and the nutrients that food offers their bodies. Based on his own experience, Raja states: “Knowing more and more about the food they eat has become more and more interesting for my twins. When we buy ginger, we talk about the fact that ginger is a spice that is good because it helps reduce sore muscles When a recipe calls for cinnamon, we remind each other that cinnamon helps keep blood healthy by lowering sugar and, yes, sugar is bad. Zucchini, eggplant and tomatoes are low in calories and have fiber and other vitamins They understand that seed vegetables like lentils have a little more calories because they contain carbohydrates and are very high in fiber , iron and magnesium They also know the difference between a seed vegetable and a flower vegetable and what vitamins they contain individually.
You may be thinking, “What are these, miracle kids? My kids would never do that,” but as Raja says, “There is a fallacy in the American mindset that nutrition is a challenging and difficult subject, best left alone.” hands of scientists with multiple degrees. in biology and chemistry, certainly not a topic for children! Nothing could be further from the truth. These are not difficult concepts. These are things your child needs to know to start making informed decisions, and to start eating excuses. No parent would be upset if their children started learning their alphabets or numbers before they started school, they would have a head start! We expect our children to learn the basics of math and reading at a young age because everything is based on these concepts. Even more with nutrition! It is literally the building block of your child’s body and mind. Therefore, you should not hesitate to teach our children the basics of good nutrition and healthy eating.”
With each episode of The Food Talk, I found myself agreeing with Raja more and more. Is it really that hard to talk about food with kids, or have we just never given it enough thought? I think The Food Talk is the perfect book for parents to start having these educational talks with their children. I also suspect that parents will find that they have to practice what they preach, which means they will eliminate some of their poor food choices and make better ones for themselves. If you read this book and start implementing its advice, soon you and your kids will be happier, healthier, and able to pass up those chocolate bars at the checkout aisle. It is not a dream that cannot come true. Make it happen starting with this book.