67goingon50 reprints a tweet by Dave Asprey, author of New York Times Bestseller Bulletproof Diet. Footnotes and a few sentences have been removed; the few 67 edits are in square brackets.
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67goingon50 has not read and therefore cannot endorse Dave Asprey's book or diet but thinks most of this advice for parents is brilliant. For the original, go to Dave Asprey.
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1) Use Popeye language
“You should eat your spinach because it’s healthy,” won’t convince anyone. Your kids don’t care about being healthy. Healthy is boring, and it probably means the food tastes like crap.
Kids want to be strong. They want to be superhuman. So take a page out of the classic cartoon character Popeye’s book – next time your son won’t eat his spinach, tell him it’ll make him strong, not that it’s healthy.
When my son Alan was 4 or 5 his teacher offered him an apple for snack. His immediate response was, “Is it organic? And is it old?” That’s because he knows that pesticides and moldy fruit make you weak, and no kid wants to be weak.
Explain to your kids that a good diet will make them superhuman: butter will help them get better at soccer, or drawing, or Minecraft, or whatever else they’re into. That high-fructose corn syrup-laden cookie, on the other hand, will take away their power.
That’s the language of children. Choose your adjectives carefully. How you talk about food with your kids can change their willingness to eat it.
2) Be firm at mealtime
Explain to your children that they won’t die if they don’t eat. If you make broccoli for dinner and your daughter says she won’t eat it, be calm and firm. Say, “That’s okay, but this is what we’re eating and we’re not having any snacks. It takes months to starve, so I’m fine with you not eating dinner, or even breakfast tomorrow if you don’t want to, but when you eat, you’ll eat what we’re serving.”
Your kids will probably look at you in horror. Then they’ll realize that even if they feel like they’re going to die from hunger, they won’t actually die, and you aren’t budging. Then they’ll eat their damn broccoli.
If your children are especially stubborn, don’t argue or cajole. Let them go to bed hungry for a night. Biologically they’ll be fine. You’ll only have to do this once or twice before your kids get it.
3) Make [healthier] versions of familiar meals
Research shows that children find familiar foods more satisfying. You can smooth a transition over to more [healthy] foods by upgrading the classics your kid loves. For example:
- [Try] organic, 100% grass-fed hot dogs
- Swap out spaghetti for zoodles (spiralized zucchini) topped with plenty of tomato sauce and organ meatballs.
4) Cook with your kids
Several studies show that children are more likely to eat new and healthy foods if they play a role in making them. There’s something satisfying about enjoying the fruits (or vegetables) of your own labor. Capitalize on that satisfaction.
I cook with my kids all the time. It’s not just to get them to eat [healthy] food (they do that anyway at
this point). Cooking introduces children to risks like fire and knives, which teaches them to manage danger. It also shows them that you trust them.
this point). Cooking introduces children to risks like fire and knives, which teaches them to manage danger. It also shows them that you trust them.
More and more we tend toward protecting children from any kind of risk. I’m not suggesting you hand your daughter a cleaver and set her loose in the house, but teaching her to cut her own apples or make rice is a good way to show her that everyday life has risks – and that she can handle them.
5) Bonus tip: gratitude
While we’re talking about raising children, here’s a tip that extends outside the kitchen.
Practice gratitude with your kids. Every night before bed, my wife and I sit with our children and ask them to say three things they were grateful for about the day. Gratitude changes your brain in all kinds of ways: it increases positivity and overall happiness, makes you more resilient to stress, even when it’s intense, and counters depression, leading to a greater sense of meaning in life . Oh, and it improves sleep quality. . Happier, more resilient kids? That’s a big return for a couple minutes’ time every night.
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67 goingon50 adds:
- Tivali & other Middle Eastern food producers offer excellent vegetarian hot dogs
- Children with a sweet tooth should be encouraged to eat more fruit and vegetable based sweets and low-sugar desserts
(see NavBar:RecipesII/Low-No-sugar)
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