The thing that annoyed me about this book was that Le Billon writes about her family's food culture as if it's totally normal for North Americans, when I think she was very extreme on the bad side of allowing pickiness and catering to her kids' whims. I definitely got a lot out of learning about the French eating habits, but I don't think they are as much of a revelation as Le Billon seems to have. Before moving to France, they would make their kids pasta with Parmesan cheese every night and let them eat snacks all day long and thought that it was normal that they wouldn't eat more than 10 foods. I think that is just bad parenting (in most situations) and the French approach is a lot more reasonable.
According to Le Billon, French kids truly do eat everything, and they are happy to do so. They don't fight with their parents about eating good food, and they are excited about trying new foods. It all comes down to the habits and food culture that French parents across the board have created, mainly because they focus on food being a pleasurable experience, not worrying about the healthiness of foods or catering to their kids' demands. I think this is the main thing I would love to adopt from this book. Our kids are EXTREMELY good eaters (for North Americans), but too often it becomes a fight at the dinner table just asking them to eat more quickly or to try new things, and I would rather not stress out about those things.
These are the 10 food rules of French eating, according to this book:
1. Parents: YOU are in charge of food education! This is pretty obvious to me.
2. Avoid emotional eating. NO food rewards, bribes, etc. This is one I want to get better about. Too often I catch myself saying, "Okay, you don't get dessert because you didn't eat your salad" or giving them snacks when they're crying at the store. I liked how the French stick to their schedule of four meals a day, and don't eat outside those times. We are pretty good about not doing snacks most of the time, but sometimes we definitely fall short (like church).
3. Parents schedule meals and menus. Kids eat what adults eat. No short-order cooking. We've always eaten like this. Although I think I could be better about making a menu for lunch so that we eat better at that meal. Too often I have to throw together a PB and J for the boys and give them grapes and carrots and call it good--which is better than nothing but I'd like a little more variety and not so many carbs.
4. Eat family meals together. No distractions. We do this pretty well too.
5. Eat your veggies. Key: Think "variety." I loved how she talked about introducing new types of veggies to your kids. She started with just making vegetable purees as soups and giving them to her kids until they liked them. I would love to do that too. Our kids eat their veggies really well, but we don't have too much variety. It's almost always salad (spinach and lettuce, tomatoes and carrots) or frozen veggies (peas, carrots, corn, green beans), or carrots or broccoli with hummus. We could definitely be better about introducing new veggies!
6. You don't have to LIKE it, but you do have to TASTE it. Say this at every meal. The French are really good about being neutral when kids say they don't like something. Instead of forcing them to finish what's on their plates or getting mad when they won't eat, they just insist that they try everything and then if they don't want to eat more, just take it away and say, "Oh, that's okay. You'll like it more when you try it again." I could be much more neutral about this!
7. No snacking! It's OK to feel hungry between meals. I liked how they had a scheduled "snack" (really a small meal) at 4pm. I think we could do breakfast, early lunch, snack after naps, then dinner. We've been moving in that direction anyways.
8. Slow food is happy food -- as in, eat slow. She talks about how they started doing mindful eating and how it helped them all enjoy their food more. This is ironic because we are always harping on Dane to eat faster (because he just sits and talks and lounges around a lot of the time instead of eating anything at all). Maybe if we talked about how our food tastes and showed more real enjoyment in our meal instead of just scarfing it down ourselves it would go better.
9. Eat mostly real food. Treats are OK for special occasions. By "real food" she means food a human cooked from actual fruits, vegetables, meats, etc. I feel like we mostly do this. We do have snack food in our cupboards that don't necessarily qualify for this, but our meals are almost always made at home and generally from scratch.
10. Remember: Eating is joyful. Relax! We can be better about enjoying our food and spending time together.
3. Parents schedule meals and menus. Kids eat what adults eat. No short-order cooking. We've always eaten like this. Although I think I could be better about making a menu for lunch so that we eat better at that meal. Too often I have to throw together a PB and J for the boys and give them grapes and carrots and call it good--which is better than nothing but I'd like a little more variety and not so many carbs.
4. Eat family meals together. No distractions. We do this pretty well too.
5. Eat your veggies. Key: Think "variety." I loved how she talked about introducing new types of veggies to your kids. She started with just making vegetable purees as soups and giving them to her kids until they liked them. I would love to do that too. Our kids eat their veggies really well, but we don't have too much variety. It's almost always salad (spinach and lettuce, tomatoes and carrots) or frozen veggies (peas, carrots, corn, green beans), or carrots or broccoli with hummus. We could definitely be better about introducing new veggies!
6. You don't have to LIKE it, but you do have to TASTE it. Say this at every meal. The French are really good about being neutral when kids say they don't like something. Instead of forcing them to finish what's on their plates or getting mad when they won't eat, they just insist that they try everything and then if they don't want to eat more, just take it away and say, "Oh, that's okay. You'll like it more when you try it again." I could be much more neutral about this!
7. No snacking! It's OK to feel hungry between meals. I liked how they had a scheduled "snack" (really a small meal) at 4pm. I think we could do breakfast, early lunch, snack after naps, then dinner. We've been moving in that direction anyways.
8. Slow food is happy food -- as in, eat slow. She talks about how they started doing mindful eating and how it helped them all enjoy their food more. This is ironic because we are always harping on Dane to eat faster (because he just sits and talks and lounges around a lot of the time instead of eating anything at all). Maybe if we talked about how our food tastes and showed more real enjoyment in our meal instead of just scarfing it down ourselves it would go better.
9. Eat mostly real food. Treats are OK for special occasions. By "real food" she means food a human cooked from actual fruits, vegetables, meats, etc. I feel like we mostly do this. We do have snack food in our cupboards that don't necessarily qualify for this, but our meals are almost always made at home and generally from scratch.
10. Remember: Eating is joyful. Relax! We can be better about enjoying our food and spending time together.
I have some good ideas coming out from reading this book. However, since Tommy is going back to work soon and I will soon be home alone with three small children while preparing the meals in our house, I don't know if I will be able to implement them. Maybe I should re-read this in a year when we are out of the baby phase... I would definitely like to do these things: introduce more variety to our kids, stop making eating a "have-to" thing (be better about the "you have to try it but you don't have to eat everything"), and make it more fun and enjoyable for the kids AND us.
No comments:
Post a Comment