Getting Kids to Eat Healthy

There's been a lot of discussion out in marketplace the last couple of years about ways to get kids to eat healthy foods. Since I'm really into taking care of myself through eating right, taking vitamins and natural supplements, using homeopathic remedies, eating organic and growing some of my own produce, and lifting weights, it's an important topic for me, too.

But it seems all the talk centers around how to "trick" kids into eating healthy - you know, something crazy like putting white bean puree in their homemade cookies. I have two things to say about this: (1) Gross!, and (2) Tell me why it's acceptable to let your kids THINK you're giving them lots of cookies to eat (even if you're slipping them ye olde vegetables)? Aren't you in actuality sending them the message that junk is OK? Remember, they DON'T KNOW your good intentions, or they never would touch that cookie in the first place. Not even if you said "pretty please."

I admit I have grated a few carrots and added to my crockpot spaghetti sauce to sneak an extra veggie serving in on my oblivious son. But I also plop down a bowl of spinach salad with his supper and tell him he has to eat it all because "green vegetables are good for your body."

I think it is healthier to teach your child that a cookie is OK sometimes - even the ones with lots of sugar (don't they all have it?). At the same time, I think it's wise to teach them to balance that with a healthy vegetable or two. What a better way to really learn how to eat balanced meals to create the best mix of fuel for your body.

Otherwise, don't you feel a little like you're cheating them in the nutrition education department? That maybe they will grow up wondering why cookies worked so well for them as children but are not working so well now?

Happy (and healthy) eating,
TCB