Getting toddlers to sit down and eat as a family is a challenge for most parents, us included! What we try to do is to spin interesting stories and silly conversations to keep their interest. Sometimes it is the Diesel Food For a Diesel Engine while at another time it might be something like Eating Salad Like a Giraffe! Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but when it does, it is a great way of capturing their imagination while stretching your own.

We had another silly, but fun conversation at dinner today. Before I get into it, here is what was served so you get an idea:

1. Fettuccine with Turkey meatballs
2. Green beans with olive oil
3. Mixed salad
4. Plain yogurt, Feta cheese, grated Parmesan cheese
5. Plain milk, water

The twins love to eat pasta with a sprinkle of organic cheese (their word for grated Parmesan cheese). They mostly nibbled on the pasta and took only a few bites out of the meatballs. My daughter tried the feta cheese and a little milk from her glass.

The delicious green beans were not even touched! Our initial offers were met with stubborn resistance from both the twins! I knew I had to think of something interesting to nudge them into at least trying a few of them!

An idea popped into my mind as I announced -

“Hey guys, I am hearing a faint voice from your stomach. Let me get closer and use my special powers to listen to what it is saying”

Daughter: (with a huge grin as she lifted her T-shirt to show her stomach) – what is my stomach saying baba?

Me: Hmm..let me listen. I think it wants to eat a green bean. Just like my stomach…Mmmmm, these beans are d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s!

Daughter: (giggling) Really? Give me a bean, give me a bean..

I popped one of those beans in my mouth as I announced loudly “bean coming…bean coming”

It worked…she went straight for the beans and pulled one out from the main dish in the center, imitating “bean coming…bean coming” as if to alert her craving stomach!

Me: Now ask what your little stomach would like to eat next…

Daughter: (lifting her T-shirt) My little stomach, what would you like to eat now?

Me: My stomach says it wants another green bean…

Daughter: Me too, give me a bean, give me a bean…

Bean coming…bean coming….

I had her hooked, and even though I enjoyed it a lot and wanted to laugh out loud, I kept the game going! Popping the whole green beans one by one in my mouth and relishing the rich tomato-onion sauce, I continued to eat while pointing to my own stomach. She imitated my every move and ate a few, one after the other, enjoying the taste and making Mmmm… sounds!

After a while, as she seemed satisfied and full, I asked again – “now what does your little stomach want to eat?”

She paused for a moment and reflected back – “it’s full now, it wants to drink a little milk”

Well done, I thought! I didn’t press any further as she finished her milk and left the table.

Bottom line – get creative, get silly and just try new ways of encouraging your kids to eat more fruits and veggies.

Good luck and let me know how it goes!

Ask The Expert is a weekly column on Littlestomaks.com. The idea is to have a reader-submitted question answered by a nutrition expert or a pediatrician. Feel free to submit your question in the comments section below.

This week, Registered Dietitian Victoria Retelny offers a few practical tips to busy parents for planning their family’s weekly meals.

Question: Both my husband and I have full time jobs and we always feel rushed to put wholesome food on the table each day for the family. Can you give a few tips for planning our weekly meals good for both our toddlers and us?

Answer:

Certainly!

I am asked this question often.  The secret is: have a plan and stick with it.  When it comes to meals and snacks, keep a grocery list for the week and do your shopping on the same day(s) every week.  Remember, feeding your whole family the same foods – and not making special foods for your toddlers – is the best way to go.  By keeping to a shopping schedule you can compile a list of meals and buy ingredients for the week.  Also, you will not overspend at the grocery store by making random stops.

When planning easy, convenient meals for you and your family, think about including these components at all meals:

Vegetables/Fruit + Lean protein + Whole grains + Healthy fats

To maintain nutritional balance, half of your plate should be vegetables/fruit, one-quarter should be lean protein, and the other quarter should be whole grains.  Keep in mind, frozen veggies are fine to use – they contain just as much nutritional value, if not more, than fresh vegetables.

Here are some healthful meals for your weekly rotation:

• Vegetable Pizza with whole wheat crust (100% whole wheat Boboli, assorted vegetables, and shredded part-skim mozzarella and canned crushed tomatoes). Serve with a side salad and vinaigrette dressing.
• Chicken and Couscous Primavera (shredded chicken breast, whole wheat couscous, peas, spinach, and tomatoes with balsamic vinaigrette dressing).
• Mini Turkey Cheese Burgers & Sweet Potatoes Fries (turkey patties – cut in quarters, mozzarella cheese slices, whole grain buns – cut in quarters, sweet potatoes – cut into slices, drizzled with olive oil and baked).   Serve with side salad and vinaigrette dressing.
• Whole Grain Macaroni and Cheese (whole grain macaroni, low-fat milk, shredded low-fat cheddar cheese).  Serve with oven-roasted broccoli spears drizzled with olive oil, pinch of salt and pepper.
• Asian Chicken Salad (shredded chicken breast, scallions, roasted sliced almonds, sesame seeds, shredded carrots, romaine lettuce, whole grain angel hair pasta). Mix with dressing: soy sauce, lemon juice, sugar, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, and canola oil. If your kids will not eat lettuce than just serve the chicken with the pasta – my kids call the pasta strands “worms” and love this dish!

Bon appétit!

©2010 Littlestomaks.com. All Rights Reserved

Disclaimer – Information provided in Ask The Expert column on Littlestomaks.com is intended to give you general guidance on a question related to toddler nutrition. It is not meant to be treated as medical advice. You are welcome to contact this expert for a detailed consultation on your specific situation to determine what actions, if any, you should take regarding nutrition and health of your toddlers. We do not recommend you to take any action based solely on the information presented in this column. Experts have agreed to provide their professional opinion on toddler nutrition related questions on a voluntary basis and no compensation is offered to them by Littlestomaks.com.

Greetings! Here are 5 nutrition related articles that caught my eye this week. Enjoy and drop me a comment to share your thoughts.

Vitamin D is big business these days

According to the Nutrition Business Journal quoted in a recent New York Times article, consumers gobbled up $235 million worth of vitamin D supplements in 2008 compared to a mere $41 million in 2001! Also, more physicians are ordering vitamin D tests for their patients and prescribing supplements to correct for low vitamin D levels.

This is incredible! Clearly, there is a buzz about vitamin D these days. Screaming headlines about low levels in children and adults followed by all kinds of studies claiming a “role” of vitamin D in diabetes, heart disease and cancer are creating a mass hysteria. The message is – pay attention to your vitamin D level and start loading up on it just in case because otherwise you will have a high risk of getting these terrible diseases. This is quite misleading in my opinion.

I am not against taking a vitamin D supplement. But there are  few things you should consider before you take that step.

There is a reason why the current recommendation of 400 IU per day of vitamin D has not been revised. A lot of people believe that this amount is too low. Still, there are no clinical studies which show a prevention or treatment effect of vitamin D for these diseases. Taking high doses of vitamin D (like 1000 or 2000 IU per day) is no guarantee of good health and prevention of diseases if the overall nutrition and lifestyle is poor. Supplements are not a drug folks, even though some people may try to sell them to you like that.

Bottom line – rely on food sources for your vitamin needs first, not on supplements. And if you do have a medical condition, talk to your doctor and ask for a pharmaceutical grade vitamin supplement. Here are 5 ways to tell if our child may have a vitamin D problem.

Tax soda like cigarettes – here we go again

The state of New York is on a mission to tackle the problem of obesity. While it is a worthwhile goal, which will surely have a positive impact on long term public health and healthcare costs, their approach to solving this problem is not smart at all. In fact, I think it is driven purely by politics and motivated by their deficit problem.

Tax sugar sweetened beverages (SSB) including soda they say, because that will cause people to drink less of it, which means they will not become overweight or obese since SSB’s are known to cause obesity. They have released a sugar sweetened beverage tax toolkit to provide a rationale for this tax, which in my opinion is a lot of mumbo-jumbo and twisted logic. Still, it makes an interesting read and gives you an insight into the limited range of creativity among public health officials and regulators.

I no fan of soda. But I am totally against another tax in the name of trying to improve public health when the real motivation is to fix the deficit problem. I continue to believe that soda tax will do nothing to reduce its consumption, at least not in any significant way. There are many other ways to discourage soda makers to produce healthier products or encourage the public to limit their soda consumption. But then they are not as easy as slapping another tax!

Manage salt for better health

Salt is something we can’t live without. It is also something we consume too much of and – if we continue this way – there is little doubt that most of us will not live long enough to enjoy it for long. Dr Ayala has a nice article this week on her blog about how too much of (cheap) processed food in our diets is causing us to consume way too much than just a pinch of salt we need for good health. It is a great reminder because this week is world salt awareness week.

The food industry is taking notice. Many companies are quietly working on reducing the sodium content of their products while preserving taste and texture. New salt reduction technologies are being developed and deployed in these products. Some may still have an issue with it; but I have a more pragmatic approach. There is a reason why processed food sells – it offers convenience at a reasonable price. There is no reason to completely eliminate it, just balance it with more cooking at home, read the nutrition facts labels and select the right products. Try to limit daily sodium to less than 2300 mg (1 tsp of salt) and avoid products where a single serving has any more than 15 – 20% of this daily value. Another thing you can do is to reduce the portion size of these foods both at home and in restaurants.

5 out-of-the box ideas for helping your kids eat well

Jenna of KidAppeal has a great blog post this week with a few out-of-the box ideas for you if you need help getting your kids to eat well (who doesn’t!). I really liked her idea of “making food relevant” and “having fun”, because you do need to be able to engage them at the table. We have recently discovered that story telling works with our twins in capturing their attention long enough for them to try the food at the table. Talking about diesel food for a diesel engine does not make sense to an adult, but it captures my son’s attention! You can also play a game, read from their favorite book, solve a puzzle or simply have a conversation about what they did at school or daycare. It will help if the TV is off so they can focus on you and the food.

By the way, Jenna has a weekly feature Big Words Little Foodies every Tuesday where she invites parents to share funny things their kids say about food. Check it out and share your funny stories!

Food rules from Michael Pollan

“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants”. This is the essence of Mr. Pollan’s message in his new book Food Rules – An Eater’s Manual which gets a nice review in this week’s New York Times. I think this is sound advice, one that was commonly practiced as late as just a few generations ago prior to the modern day (processed) food revolution. But it also requires not only a change in your mindset about food but also a change in lifestyle. Giving up the western diet (meat, refined sugars, fat and salt via processed food) may sound simple in a book, but difficult to accomplish and sustain unless you make significant changes in your lifestyle.

What food rules do you live by these days? What changes, if any, do you plan on making in the near future?

Enjoy and let me know what is on your mind.

Photo Source: adactio on Flickr via everystockphoto
©2010 Littlestomaks.com

I know – the title does not make any sense whatsoever! But hang on, because this post is less about nutrition and more about getting creative and having fun at the table!

One of my blogger friends Jenna of KidAppeal is hosting her Big Words from Little Foodies Recipe Swap. It is an interesting project because it takes the focus away from feeding and nutrition to engagement and interaction with the kids and having fun. That is why the weird title because I want to share with you a recent mealtime experience I had with our twins.

My son is crazy about trains! He lives and breathes diesel engines. Sometimes I get a sense that he imagines himself to be a diesel engine! That is why the only sure way of capturing his attention (and imagination) is to talk to him about trains. These days, I try to spin a story about adventures of a diesel engine at the dinner table so he can stay seated for at least 15-20 minutes and try the food on the table.

Now, did you know that there are many different kinds of diesel engines? There is Santa Fe, Canadian National, CSX, Burlington Northern, Amtrak and Southern Pacific? Well, don’t feel too bad if you had no idea because I had no clue either before he got so fascinated with diesel trains. (Strictly speaking, these are the railroad companies who own the diesel engines. But to my son, the name belongs to the diesel engine because that is what he looks at in his train books and magazines).

Recently we had our Green Bean with Olive Oil, basmati rice, meatballs and salad on the table for us at dinner. TwinToddlersMom also had a few other options for the twins – spaghetti, cut cucumber, baked fish sticks, feta cheese and strawberries just in case. Some of these items are their favorites so we try to keep them handy. Sometimes it works and sometimes it does not!

Anyway, here is how our conversation went -

Me – Do you want to hear the story when Canadian National diesel became very hungry and his engineer got him some diesel food?

Son – YES, tell me the story baba!

Me – Well, you need to come to the table so we can have our dinner and listen to the story

It worked, because he was in his chair in no time, eagerly waiting for the story as he scanned the different options on the table.

Me – Ok. Canadian National diesel engine was a very strong engine. He was red, orange and yellow…

Son – no baba, Canadian National engine is red and white!

Me – Yes, that’s right! Anyway, he worked hard pulling his freight trains from city to city from Canada to the United States…

Daughter – No baba, only Amtrak goes city to city, not a freight train! (she tries to jump in to get her share of attention!)

Me – Yes, that’s right! Anyway, he worked hard pulling his freight trains from the docks to the city. He carried all kinds of stuff. He had hopper cars, tank cars, flat cars, box cars, gondola cars and a caboose. But one day, he got very hungry and his tummy started grumbling…

Son - you mean he lost all of his diesel gas?

Daughter - and his diesel energy?

By now, they were nibbling on a couple of cucumbers, bits of feta cheese and a meatball…green beans stayed untouched!

Me - Yes, that’s right! So he asked his engineer for some diesel food so he could get his diesel energy back. Do you want to get your diesel energy back?

This was clearly a ploy to get them to try some of the green beans, but it didn’t work! And I of course did not push. If they wanted to, they could always eat a few of those sitting on their plate.

Anyway, this went on for a while, when suddenly, out of the blue, my son announced -

I NEED TO GO POOP!

I know, I know – it does not sound very appetizing on the table and even somewhat of an anticlimactic ending to a silly, but otherwise engaging story! But I am sure every toddler parent has heard this announcement on the table at least a few times. The only way to deal with it is to laugh it off!

So I guess, that’s it. Call it funny, silly, hilarious, insane, nonsense! The real challenge is not getting them to eat the food, but to get them to pay attention. Stories help, so give them a shot.

What is your favorite story? What has worked for you? Please share in your comments.

And of course, make sure you visit Jenna’s blog for stories from other parents.

Enjoy!

©2010 Littlestomaks.com

Ask The Expert is a weekly column on Littlestomaks.com. The idea is to have a reader-submitted question answered by a nutrition expert or a pediatrician. Feel free to submit your question in the comments section below.

This week, Registered Dietitian Cindy Williams offers practical tips to help you get your growing toddler to eat a variety of foods including fruits and vegetables.

Question: How do I get my 3 year old to eat better? He never eats veggies and only eats a handful of items like chicken nuggets, pizza, pasta, rice, and cereal.

Answer:

Toddlers are notoriously fussy eaters. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, their growth rate has slowed so they usually don’t need to eat so much.

Second, as we fret about the nutritional inadequacy of two bites of toast for breakfast and desperately cajole them to eat a bit more, our darling child learns that with one tiny word – NO – they can make mummy and daddy act really funny. And if they keep on saying it long enough they might get really yummy stuff to eat. This is when the frazzled parents finally give in to the child’s incessant tearful demands for his favorite food and think ‘At least he’s eating something’. What can we do to win this power battle and come through it with a healthy child that eats a wide range of foods? Here are a few ideas.

1. Serve one new food at a time, along with familiar foods. Include one favorite food with each meal.
2. It can take up to 15 tries of a new food for your child to like it. Don’t give up on the first refusal. Try again in a few days.
3. Just like adults there will be some foods that your child won’t like even after 15 tries. Take a break and try again when they are a little older and their taste-buds have developed a bit more.
4. Add vegetables to the favorite foods e.g. pizza topped with cooked spinach, finely chopped red pepper or broccoli or pasta topped with thick vegetable soup as a pasta sauce.
5. Hide vegetables in favorite foods e.g. grated carrot and pumpkin in pasta sauce, mince and burgers. Fried rice with egg, corn, red pepper and carrot.
6. Try corn on the cob. Cut a cob in three to make it easy for little fingers to handle.
7. Toddlers can’t eat huge meals. Give them small snacks through the day. Try carrot sticks, baby tomatoes, cut fruit pieces, grapes and cheese cubes.
8. Try it raw. Serve raw sliced vegetables for your children to nibble while you make dinner. They may eat their whole vegetable quota before the meal.
9. Turn food into play. Give food fun names e.g. ‘moon squirters’ for baby tomatoes. Arrange food to look like a face, a house, a rocket ship or a train. My 4-year-old ate a pile of mashed potato with fish and vegetables because it was called ‘Tracey Island’ from Thunderbirds!
10. Make finger food. Toddlers prefer distinctive pieces of food that they can identify and pick up in their fingers.Eat as a family when possible. Children learn by example. If they see their parents and older siblings enjoying vegetables and other healthy food they are more likely to want to try it.
11. Involve your child in growing or picking fruit, vegetables and herbs. Taste it right there in the garden. It’s much more fun than eating at the table.
12. Point out interesting fruit and vegetables in the supermarket and let your child choose one to take home.
13. Let your child help out in the kitchen. They could drop tomatoes in the salad, shell peas, peel a banana, drop fruit into the blender or turn it on when making a fruit smoothie, pat out some pizza dough or sprinkle cheese.

REMEMBER…

You are not a restaurant

When a toddler complains that they don’t like their meal and that they want something different, empathize with them but don’t jump up and make something else.

You provide the quality, they choose the quantity

Young children are perfectly designed to eat when they are hungry and stop when they are full. They may miss a meal in protest at the ‘yukky’ food but their rumbling tummy will eventually have them eating whatever you have provided.

My niece went through this fussy stage as a toddler. One evening came the final showdown. She refused her dinner and demanded something else. Her dad told her that was fine; they would just keep it for her breakfast. Off she went to bed with no dinner and lots of tears, much to the horror of her mom. The next morning dinner was waiting. She refused it. Off they went to church. The dinner went too! Finally she gave in and the battle was won. Hopefully you won’t need to be this brutal, but it worked.

If necessary, give your child a temporary nutritional supplement

If you’re concerned that your fussy toddler isn’t getting enough nutrients, particularly iron which is critically important at this age, give him a temporary nutritional supplement. Nutrient fortified milk is great. Also give him fruit with his meals to increase iron absorption. Once you feel assured that he’s getting all his nutritional needs, you are less likely to fall into the ‘At least he’s eating something’ trap. You’ll be ready to take back the reins of power.

It’s a stage that will end

Hang in there. Keep serving up a variety of food and flavours. Take a few deep breaths, perhaps a glass of wine, and know that this stage won’t last forever.

©2009 Littlestomaks.com. All Rights Reserved

Disclaimer – Information provided in Ask The Expert column on Littlestomaks.com is intended to give you general guidance on a question related to toddler nutrition. It is not meant to be treated as medical advice. You are welcome to contact this expert for a detailed consultation on your specific situation to determine what actions, if any, you should take regarding nutrition and health of your toddlers. We do not recommend you to take any action based solely on the information presented in this column. Experts have agreed to provide their professional opinion on toddler nutrition related questions on a voluntary basis and no compensation is offered to them by Littlestomaks.com.

Ask The Expert is a weekly column on Littlestomaks.com. The idea is to have a reader-submitted question answered by a nutrition expert or a pediatrician. Feel free to submit your question in the comments section below.

This week, Registered Dietitian Janice Baker suggests you provide a healthy, balanced nutrition and encourage physical activity to manage your child’s diabetes risk.

Question: What foods can I be feeding my child (as opposed to not feeding her) to help her avoid becoming diabetic since there is a family history?

Answer:

The most important nutrition habits for children, as well as adults, to minimize the risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes include regular balanced meals including whole grains, lean protein sources, lowfat dairy products, fruits and vegetables. Portion sizes  and food types may vary according to your child’s age, appetite and activity level.  Limit juices to 4 ounces per day, avoid soft drinks and sugary drinks, and minimize fast food.  Encourage water as a beverage.  Have meals together as a family as much as possible so that role modeling healthful eating behaviors and choices take place.  And definitely avoid one of those most detrimental habits that can increase a child’s risk of obesity and diabetes- eating in front of the television set! Have your child sit down at a specific area meant for eating for most, if not all, meals and snacks.

Along with this, limit any “screen time” and encourage active play and movement throughout the day.  Kid’s body’s are meant to move!

©2009 Littlestomaks.com. All Rights Reserved

Disclaimer – Information provided in Ask The Expert column on Littlestomaks.com is intended to give you general guidance on a question related to toddler nutrition. It is not meant to be treated as medical advice. You are welcome to contact this expert for a detailed consultation on your specific situation to determine what actions, if any, you should take regarding nutrition and health of your toddlers. We do not recommend you to take any action based solely on the information presented in this column. Experts have agreed to provide their professional opinion on toddler nutrition related questions on a voluntary basis and no compensation is offered to them by Littlestomaks.com.

Oh no! It is Friday the 13^th! A coincidence maybe, but I just noticed that this is the 3rd Friday the 13th this year. Maybe that is why we are having a nightmarish year so far – there is simply no good news anymore! Hopefully things will change for the better soon.

Here are 5 nutrition related articles that caught my eye this week. Enjoy and drop me a comment to share your thoughts.

Toronto conference raises another red flag on vitamin D

If  you want to be heard, scream louder! That seems to have been the strategy of the conference organizers in Toronto who made loud proclamations like “breast cancer risk virtually eradicated by elevated vitamin D levels” and “97% of Canadians are vitamin D deficient and don’t even know it”. I love it when I hear attention grabbing headlines like these! Sounds like the vitamin D enthusiasts are getting desperate because their research so far has not been able to influence policy decisions by health officials.

Interestingly, a non-profit “grassroots” organization called Grassroots Health is leading this fight with their flagship D*Action panel of leading researchers in North America. They recommend 2000 IU of daily vitamin D and blood levels of 100-150 nmol/mL to reduce the risk of all kinds of chronic diseases. Their mission is to promote awareness of the vitamin D problem by educational seminars and encourage people to get their blood levels checked two times a year.

There is no consensus on optimal vitamin D levels, especially for children. Keep in mind that the current recommendation is 400 IU for infants, children and adolescents. Many “experts” believe children need about 10 times the current recommended levels! I am not really convinced of that and I don’t recommend you to fall for this kind of advice without testing and consultation with your pediatrician.

Will you raise your hand for chocolate milk?

The creators of the “Got Milk?” campaign now want you to encourage your children to “raise their hand” for chocolate milk in school. The logic is simple – kids are not drinking enough milk, vitamin D levels are low, chocolate milk is popular so why not let them drink more of it in school? It is not as bad as candy and soda anyway! Check this out:

I am not necessarily against this idea because it seems like a practical solution to a common problem. Some experts have opposed this idea because of extra calories coming from added sugar. Kids are getting enough sugar already so chocolate milk has no place in schools, they say.

What do you think? If you raise your hand for the chocolate milk mustache this time, try to cut those extra calories from somewhere else in your child’s diet.

By the way, I understand why this video would use dietitians to endorse this idea, but what’s up with the actors and models? Does their endorsement carry the same weight? But then, I probably don’t understand Marketing!

Getting the division of responsibility right in feeding toddlers

I was thrilled to read Dr Kathleen Cuneo’s sound advice in response to my guest post on her blog a couple of weeks ago about challenges of feeding toddlers using Ellyn Satter’s division of responsibility idea. 5 challenges that we have faced with our 3 year old twins are – can’t be sure if they are really full, they are not hungry at dinner time, they are distracted by TV, they are too tired and you are just too tired and “give in”.

As she promised, Dr Cuneo followed up with a couple of posts on her blog, which I strongly recommend you to read if you are facing a similar challenge. In her post Are They Really Full? she advises parents to acknowledge their fears and do a realistic assessment of how much their children are eating on average. Probably about what they need because they are naturally programmed to regulate their food intake. So keep your fears in check and use division of responsibility consistently.

Just like getting a workout buddy can keep you on track to burn those extra calories in the gym each week, a community-level program to fight childhood obesity is more likely to work based on recent experience in Europe. Together Let’s Prevent Childhood Obesity is a proven program in France (it goes by the name EPODE), which aims to build healthier habits over a lifetime by using all key stakeholders at the local level. First started in 2003, EPODE now extends to 1.8 million people across 167 French cities, 20 in Spain and 8 in Belgium. Greece and Australia are expected to follow soon. The results, measured by BMI of children have shown reduction in the percentage of overweight and obese children.

Why does it work so well? I think the key is making it a community level issue and not an individual issue. Also encouraging healthy habits, moderation and not stigmatizing certain foods. Mindful eating, peer pressure and involvement of key opinion leaders such as dietitians, chefs and school administrators seem to create a supportive environment for the individual.

Should we wait for our policy makers to wake up and act? Why not get a Mom’s group together and develop a simple action plan to address this problem in your community? What do you think?

Changing the way we eat in 2010 and beyond

Registered Dietitian Janet Helm provides a great preview of what we might expect in the 2010 revision of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Looks like the experts are considering the following recommendations – fight obesity, promote nutrient-rich foods, focus on nutrients of concern (vitamin D etc.), emphasize plant-based foods, highlight diversity of vegetables and cut the salt. How the exact guidelines will turn out, no one knows but we can probably expect more emphasis on these points. I think it is quite timely and a clear recognition of a link between what we put in our bodies and our present healthcare challenges.

There is no shortage of advice and guidelines and yet we are facing a public health crisis. I think the gap is in implementation and accountability.

Enjoy and do let me know what you think. I would love to have you share your best tips in comments below.

Photo source – everystockphoto

©2009 Littlestomaks.com

I have a guest post today on challenges of feeding our two little monkeys as we try to apply Ellyn Satter’s division of responsibility.

Simply put, division of responsibility means parents are responsible for what, when and where and the child is responsible for how much and whether.

Check it out at Dr. Kathleen Cuneo’s Dinner Together blog. Feel free to share your challenges and tips in trying to feed your little one!

Photo: Littlestomaks.com All rights reserved
©2009 Littlestomaks.com