French Kids Eat Everything
A Thought Worth Sharing
A deepening reverence for the Creation of our world is an unexpected benefit of Word of Wisdom Living. Have you experienced this? Sandwiched between the creations of the earth and the first parents, Adam and Eve, the book of Genesis describes the creation of our food supply.
After each Creation stage there is the benediction, “and God saw that it was good.” So a reverence for the Creation leads us to deeper respect for our food supply—as it was first created—and vice versa. This deep thought leads us to the French, who love vegetables, and a book of interest.
Rules of the French Food Culture
In the last post we noted the new book, French Kids Eat Everything by Karen Le Billon. For adults as well as children, there are profound differences between the food cultures of France and America. France is an old nation with petrified traditions; we’re a new nation where innovation is celebrated and anything goes. Which can be a problem.
We eat—snack, actually—wherever we are, walking, standing, or in the car. This horrifies the French who, with few exceptions, dine at tables and disdain snacks. We’re in a hurry so eat fast; we invented fast food. The French may indulge in fast food on occasion, but they relish the two hours spent dining each day. We see the act of eating as simply ‘fueling up.” The French don’t eat-and-run, they dine, and for them it’s a love story—one of life’s pleasures. We can learn from the French—and vice versa.
Perhaps our French readers will comment on this. Better yet, says the beautiful wife, we should take a trip to France and see for ourselves. I knew that was coming. In the meantime, Word of Wisdom Living advocates a food culture based on the best of both cultures. Here are the ten rules (with my comments):
- Parents: You are in charge of food education! A century ago Food Inc displaced moms as the judge of what to eat. Fortunately, the French thought otherwise—they kept mom in charge.
- Avoid emotional eating. No food rewards, bribes, etc.
- Parents plan and schedule meals and menus. This “planning” is the subject of two Healthy Changes.
- Eat family meals together. A future Healthy Change—the family dinner.
- Eat your veggies; think variety. This is a big issue; several Healthy Changes address the veggies.
- You don’t have to like it, but you do have to taste it. A great rule which brings to mind a conversation seen on Facebook: Determined dad to son: “You will sit at the table until your dinner is finished. If you don’t finish it tonight, you can just sleep there and eat it for breakfast. And, it won’t be nearly as good cold.” Equally determined son: “It looks like I’m going to die right here in this chair, Dad.”
- No snacking!! It’s OK to feel hungry between meals. A French proverb says hunger is the best seasoning. It’s true—food tastes great when we’re hungry but what vegetable could please children who've snacked on sweets all day.
- Slow food is happy food, as in—eat slow! I think she meant “slowly,” but you get the idea. Last night we measured our dining time (30 minutes for dinner; the French average an hour). The beautiful wife remembered the frustration of the busy years when the house was full of kids and she would cook for an hour to make dinner and it would disappear in 15 minutes. Wish I could do that one over.
- Eat mostly real food. Treats are for special occasions. Amen.
- Remember: Eating is joyful—relax! Joyful dining—a great idea for a future post.
I didn’t share these rules so you wouldn’t have to buy the book but so you would consider the book for your library. Go to Amazon.com to read part of the book online and see if you like it. (I'll admit the author's a little whiny.)
Odds and Ends
Biggest Loser: The beautiful wife loves The Biggest Loser; she’s inspired by how a healthy body transforms the lives of the contestants. We're all like that. One focus of the program is the nonstop amount of exercise. So there was a crazy moment on the last episode when they promoted a prize—a new car—by noting all the ways the car could do work we normally do, like opening and closing doors, etc. Wrong idea. I recommend my standard-shift, 1988 Ford Bronco as a healthy car. Lots of character too.
Exercise: Which leads to a recent study about Alzheimer’s disease and the benefits of exercise. Basically, the group who exercised least in the study had a 200% higher risk of AD. Exercise could be anything that takes effort, including cooking and washing dishes but I like outdoor exercise also.
Cindy's Prize: Two weeks ago we offered a prize—Pollan’s book, In Defense of Food—for the person with the best Healthy Change scorecard. You’ll recall that we had finished the first quarter so you could earn up to five points for complying with each of the 13 Healthy Changes. The possible score was 65 points and the winner, Cindy Baldwin, had 59 points. Cindy also writes the blog Being Cindy. Check her blog; she’s an impressive woman. Ms. Baldwin, if you’ll email us your address, we'll send the prize. (Email: Skip (at) wordofwisdomliving (dot) com.)
Smiling all day: Finally, if you want exercise inspiration and have a little nostalgia for Rita Hayworth, check this collage of movie dance scenes, set to the Bee Gees’ Staying Alive. You'll be dancing through the house.
Thursday, April 19, 2012 at 10:23AM | by Skip Hellewell | 15 Comments | Share Article | in book of the week, kids | Email Article
Reader Comments (15)
Ha, the warning at the beginning, which would have also eliminated the "Please comment" at the end. Otherwise, "Nothing Skip, it was all great."
Love the simple ingredients of the soup and I just happen to have a bone in the freezer.
keep it all. I read every word. Maybe you could have posted it in 3 posts to keep it shorter? Or two? One book review post and one recipe post?
Also I thought of you when using a favorite cookbook. Simply in Season (world Community Cookbook) It is worth a look.
Thanks for the time you spend writing these posts. I find them very helpful in how to get my family eating better.
I read (and enjoyed) every word. But I always do. You could do a separate post with just the recipe, maybe? I'll read no matter what you do.
Feel free to split it into two posts, so we get a little bit every day... I'm happy with a lead-up one day and the actual recipe the next!
I say keep it long, I love reading your posts! :)
I love it all, too! I agree that maybe the recipes could be separate. That way I could bookmark just the recipe to come back to later but not have to find it at the bottom of a post the next time. Otherwise, keep it coming! I've referred at least 3 people to this site and I love the balanced, non-extreme views on eating and being healthy.
Nothing!
I also love the idea of a separate post just for the recipe. I love them and would like an easier way to come back and find older recipe posts.
I agree with everyone else about the recipe being on a different day. Otherwise it's all great!
And YES, I'm smiling now thinking about that video I just watched!
I enjoyed it all! And am now thinking a bowl of soup sounds fantastic for dinner...even though it's (already!) 90 degrees out.
As always, thanks for your research and posts.
Such good advice! I am trying to change my kids snacking habits—too often food is entertainment in our culture, especially during sacrament meeting at church—our early misguided efforts to keep her quiet have resulted in her thinking the hour should be an endless snack buffet! By cutting way back on snacks, I notice her eating better meals.
I love your posts, all the info is so helpful! I would vote for making shorter, more frequent posts as well, don't cut your content just spread it out! (It would make it easier to search for later, too.)
Nothing, Skip! It was all great! And I would have said that even if you hadn't suggested it.
I get sucked into your writing style so I never really pay attention to how long it is. I just look forward to learning something new every time. Thank so much!
The post was great! Split Pea Soup is one of my favorite soups. I think those 10 French eating rules are great! Although my body doesn't want to comply with no snacking and I have a million food aversions right now (I am in my first trimester of pregnancy.) I am baffled at first trimester food aversions and nausea. It seems when I need to eat the healthiest, I want to vomit at the thought of fresh vegetables. I am usually the opposite--I want to vomit when I think of eating processed food. Also, my stomach is settled when I keep food in it. If I get hungry, I am in for it!
I know you have done a post on nutrition and fertility. Perhaps you could do one on nutrition in pregnancy? (If you already haven't.)
I enjoyed this post (I didn't watch the video-but don't tend to do that anywhere very often). I liked reading the rules. I often feel that feeding my family is my nemesis. I wake up to 6 hungry little mouths to feed and three of those need their lunch packed too. We tend to eat home-cooked meals rather than the fast/freezer/boxed meals, so feeding my crew takes a lot of time and preparation. My kids are also grazers so they are constantly snacking. I do keep a lot of fruits and vegetables around so when they tell me their hungry then I tell them to get a fruit or vegetable. If they aren't hungry enought to want that then they don't eat. The exceptions are string cheese, yogurt, or slices of bread.
I feel like I am always thinking about food. I empathize with your wife in taking and hour to put it together to have it eaten in 15 minutes. Then you have to clean up. After that someone is asking for a snack or what's for the next meal. Maybe I need to remember that it is ok for kids to be a little hungry and that more times than not they are just bored.
Skip, you do a fantastic job with this blog. Truly. I enjoy every post and share the content with my family regularly.
We have lived in East Asia for nearly nine years and note the stark differences in diet, lifestyle and children compared to the US. The children and adults we have met enjoy vegetables of all kinds - the majority are locally grown. Lunch is a 'hot' affair (in the three countries we have lived) and the thought of a cold sandwich at lunch leaves our Asian friends, well, cold.
We relocated two years ago from one Asian country to another. Previously eating vegetarian was no problem at our daughter's school, but in this country when we inquired we were met with blank stares. I now pack lunches. One teacher actually asked if our daughter is 'able to digest' the meal of brown rice instead of white! We assured her that it was no problem. (I also make and send almond or peanut milk for the girls for their milk break.) We are foreigners here and are expected to be different. Ironically when we return bi-annually for a visit to the US where we 'should' fit in, we don't and always feel a bit odd at meal times. Being vegetarian and not eating processed foods - and not snacking - throws a real wrench at the MAD.
Educating our children on the power of food for current and future health has been a bit of a mantra of ours since they first joined the eating set. We strive to keep them from feeling neither deprived or superior.
It has been just tremendous for my husband and I to steadily improve our diets and lifestyle to influence our girls over the past seven years and look forward to continued health and well-being.
Keep up the good work, Skip. We need you out here!