May 13, 2025 • 38 mins
Whether you’re dealing with a fussy toddler, a snack-obsessed primary schooler or a constantly-hungry teen, feeding kids well can feel like a full-time job. In this special bonus episode of The Nutrition Couch, Susie and Leanne dive deep into the real-life challenges of kids’ nutrition—from daily battles over veggies and treat overload to protein-poor lunchboxes and after-school hunger meltdowns.
To celebrate the release of their brand new 200-page eBook Your Kids, Their Food, Susie and Leanne are unpacking:
- Why fussy eating is more normal than you think—and how to fix it
- The treat trap: how ultra-processed foods sneak into kids’ diets daily
- Why your child’s lunchbox might be causing late-day overeating
- Smart swaps for toddlers, primary kids and teens to fuel them better
- Practical strategies that actually work (and stories from their own kitchens)
Whether you’re a parent, carer or just someone trying to help kids develop healthy habits for life, this episode is packed with relatable advice and expert strategies.
Grab the new eBook Your Kids, Their Food now at thenutritioncouch.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Whether you are a parent of a toddler likely Anne,
or a primary school age child like myself, or juggling
the teenage years, it's safe to say at some points
in time, kids and teen nutrition crosses your mind. With
so many foods out there marketed specifically to kids and
busy parents juggling issues like fussy eating, nutrient deficiencies, over eating,
(00:26):
and constant hunger, there are plenty of questions to be
answered when it comes to kids nutrition. So on today's
special release episode of The Nutrition Couch to celebrate our
brand new Kids and Teens ebook, Your Kids Their Food,
we are here to cover some of the big issues
when it comes to feeding busy, growing children. Hi, I'm
(00:46):
Susie Burrow and.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
I'm Leon Wood, and.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Together we bring you The Nutrition Couch, the weekly podcast
that keeps you up to date on everything you need
to know in the world of nutrition. Well, yeah, how
long have we been working on a kid's nutrition book
for It has.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Been a long long time coming, and we've had many, many,
many many dms being.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Like, when's it coming? I need help? So we are
proud to say it is finally here.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
It's finally here. It's been my project and I've been
really dragging the chain. Leanne is silently furious at me.
I've had like writer's block, I've had burnout. I've really
struggled to bring this together. But I think one of
the reasons is that it's got so much in it
because when you start to deep dive the world of
kids nutrition, you're dealing with toddlers. You're dealing with primary
school age kids and issues with fussy eating and feeding
(01:33):
them at school and lunch box snacks, and then you
move on to older kids and the issues that come
with not getting enough calcium or iron, and then teenagers, like,
there's so many different areas to cover. It really was
about making sure we covered all of the key issues
and did it well, and hence it has taken a while,
but I'm pretty happy with it. It's a massive book.
It's over two hundred pages long, it's got over thirty
(01:56):
toddler and child friendly recipes in it, and so to
launch it today, we will go through what's in the
book in a minute, but we thought we'd cover a
few of the key kind of issues that we see
in kids nutrition. So by way of background, my original
career started at the children's hospital at Westmead where I
worked as a pediatric dietitian working in behavioral and childhood
(02:16):
weight related areas. So I've always had a firm interest
in kids nutrition and then naturally both lean andized parents
of different age children. Now Lan's got little kids two
under three and I've got nine year old twin boys,
so we really live this on a day to day basis.
And then of course I've also done a lot of
work with teenagers around eating behavior, weight control and sports
(02:38):
nutrition as well, so we've really tried to make sure
we cover some of those key areas all in the ebook.
But I thought I've picked out kind of four key
areas of concern often for parents when it comes to
feeding kids, rather than run our usual episode style, just
to break it up a little bit and sort of
give a breakout episode on the specificity which is kids
(02:59):
nutrition them. So the first big topic that I want
to chat about and the latest research when it comes
to at Leanne is fussy eating, because it's actually pretty
normal for children aged anywhere between eighteen months to two
years when they first can say no to anything, to
show signs of fussy eating. So we'll take a look
(03:20):
at that science. So in you know, you're around young
mums regularly. Do you see a lot of your friends,
because I certainly see it with my boys who are nine.
A lot of the kids they're friends with are really fussy.
Like we have a lot who are only eating the
bland food still, the chicken nuggets and chips or the
plain margarita pizza, little to no vegetables. And it's really
(03:41):
interesting to see it in real life how that plays
out to kids as old as nine, because I think
sometimes Leamne, we're thinking of it in terms of younger children,
but it certainly starts then when it comes to rejecting
a certain number of foods. And we'll go into that
in a second. But are you seeing it a lot
with your mum friends of kids of me's age? Because Mea,
I know, MEA's a she's a good eater, you know,
like she's very happy to sit up with whatever we're having.
(04:03):
I know. But do you see it with your friends' kids?
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Absolutely, And there's a definite scale to fussy eating. You know,
you've got one end of the spectrum where there might
be some a behavioral issues, some sort of diagnosed conditions,
and it's very white it's planned food they can't touch.
There's only a handful of safe foods. And then you've
got the other end of the spectrum, where you know,
parents might term it fussy eating, but it's just normal
kind of toddler behavior. Or one day they'll eat something
(04:28):
and they'll love it, and this is my kids as well,
and the next day you serve up the exact same
thing and they don't want to borrow it. So there
is a definite spectrum of fussy eating. But I would
say that that's probably the biggest complaint I get out
of my mom friends is that there is a little
bit of fussy eating going on. And the other one
is more just the lack of fiber and that you know,
my kids constipated. What can I do? So maybe we'll
touch on that one a little bit today. But there's
(04:50):
absolutely a spectrum when it comes to fussy eating, and
there's a lot that we can do as parents to
I guess, promote better exposure to our kids through different foods,
better diversity through food, so an improvement in their gut
health because we know that the more diverse their diets,
the better their gut microbiome will be. And also just
to set them up with a really healthy relationship with
food long term, because that really does come back to
(05:12):
your childhood. And Susie and I both specialize in women's
health and particularly with sustainable fat loss, and what we
do see is a lot of these I guess behavioral
issues some adults have with food, or some of these
bad habits they have with food can stem right back
to their childhood.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
So really setting up.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Our kids with good, healthy habits long term and healthy
environments long term when it comes to our food and
our nutrition can really set us up for a wonderful
relationship with food long into our adult years as well.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
True So, by way of background, fussy eating is generally
described as the rejection of a large number of foods
for no apparent reason, and we tend to see it
around that age eighteen months to two years, when kids
first have the ability to say no to different foods. Now,
the first thing I would say is it's relatively normal
for small children to reject food, and one of the
(06:01):
reasons often they may do it is they're not that hungry.
Because small children, whilst babies under the age of twelve months,
need significant calories for growth and development. Once they're getting
to two, they actually don't need a huge amount of calories.
So if you consider they're still having a milk, you know,
several times up to six hundred meal five hundred, six
hundred mil per day. If they're going to long daycare
and childcare, they're often having hot, nutritionally complete meals there.
(06:24):
Sometimes it's quite possible they get home at five or
six pm they're absolutely exhausted, and that's why they're rejecting
the cut up carrots and greens on their plate. They're
not fussy, they just actually don't need it. But the
key thing to keep in mind that parents often are
reinforcing this behavior. So I want you to think through
what we focus on in the life of small children
in particular continues. So when small children realize that a
(06:47):
parent will pay more attention when they're not eating, it
actually reinforces their saying no behavior. Or the classic example
is you're small toddler two, three years old, even five
years old, isn't having their meat and veggies on the plate,
rejecting it, don't want it, pushing it away. And as parents,
we're highly anxious that they're not eating and we offer
something instead, And what do we offerlyand we offer white food.
(07:11):
We offer toast, we offer yogurt, we offer fruit. These
are all sweet foods that children will naturally go yes to,
above and beyond a carrot or a piece of cucumber.
And so not to blame parents, you know, we are parents.
We understand there's already a lot of pressure on busy parents.
This is not the goal of the conversation, rather than
just to observe what actually goes on. So very quickly,
(07:33):
small children learn if they say no to their carrots
and their zucchini and their peas, well, they're going to
get some yogurt. Great, they're happy because they're actually even
not that hungry. So I think you've really got to
look at what you're teaching when they do say no.
It's actually quite normal for kids to say no to
certain foods. Often they don't need much, they're not hungry,
or in the case of vegetables, they do taste quite bland,
like why would a kid want to eat a carrot
(07:55):
if they can eat a yogurt or an apple. You
can naturally see that. But the key is to keep
the food environment at home very stable, so kids learn
this is what's available and through a range of foods.
They will ideally eat something eventually, but often when you
really go back and to where these habits were formed originally,
the kids very early learned they didn't have to eat
(08:15):
that food, there's other options, and they just then reject it,
and we internalize that as they don't like it, as
opposed to kids don't even know what they like when
they're small. So one of the you know, we can
talk about the theory and there is some really strong
data to show that the number one predictor of fussy
eating behavior is parents making a different meal for the child.
So again that happens all the time. You know, you
(08:37):
have a child who's rejected the meat and veggies, the
fish and veggies, whatever, and so the parent makes something
else for them, Oh, you can have plain pasta, you
can have the chips, you know, and then they again
learn that if they don't have the boring dinner, they
can have the other ones. So a few practical strategies,
because we deep dive this in the ebook around the
theory behind it, what we can do, but some key things,
(08:58):
particularly with smaller children and when they're learning eating behavior,
because it is much more difficult to change kids once
they're eight, nine to ten, one hundred percent. But if
you've still got a child under the age of five,
and you can sort of use some behavioral management strategies,
a few things to consider. I find and found certainly
feeding my own children. I used to feed them most
of their food in the day, so by the time
(09:19):
they got to dinner, I couldn't care less if they
ate much or not. So we always had a hot
meal in the day with vegetables fish when they're hungry.
Because the other thing I notice all the timely in
and this has evolved even since I've had my kids,
is the snack box pattern. So I'll see parents take
to the park at ten am, this big loaded box
of a range of generally high carbohydrate snacks. So it's
(09:42):
got cut up fruit, it's got some dried fruit, it's
got some like pretzels, it's got yogat covered sultanas, it's
got cut up a bit of cut up veggies. But
the kids are grazing and munching all morning, so inevitably
when they get to lunch, they're not that hungry. They
don't eat much of it. They have a sleep, they
wake up, they have some milk and then of course
hungry for dinner. You've got to feed kids the food
(10:03):
you want them to eat when they're hungry. Kids will
be hungry late morning lunchtime. Feed them a hot meal
with vegetables. Then feed them at four five o'clock. Put
the cut up vegetables out, put the frozen peas out.
They don't have to be a traditional meat and veggie plate.
It can be raw, it can be frozen, it can
be cut up as long as they're getting them. So
just program them to be eating those foods when they're hungry.
(10:24):
But what we do we fill them up on all
this other stuff and then they're not hungry, and we
wonder why they're not eating it. They don't need much.
They need very small amounts of food generally through the day.
So that's one thing I found quite helpful. I've always
done vegetables as more as snacks rather than on a
hot plate with a few different pieces. So I'll do
the frozen peas, I'll do the baby tomatoes, We'll do
(10:44):
the cut up bits so they can pick at it
as we go, and I eat that. You know, the
kids have got to see you eating it. They're not
going to if you're eating a packet of chips or nuts,
They're not going to eat a cucumber. So routinely in
my house we have always snacked on those kind of vegetables.
So when it comes to dinner, they're already full, they're
already eating. I don't need to worry about them whether
they eat, you know, their sweet potato, etc. I think
(11:06):
air fryes can be a great way to make vegetable
chips and things and make them more palatable because if
you add a little bit of salt, you ad a
little bit extraverg and olive oil, things taste better with
a dipping sauce. Then they're more likely And then of
course there's strategies like giving them a green smoothie or
putting some vegetables in the smoothie, or when you're having mince,
grading it in and incorporating it naturally into those meals.
(11:26):
But there are a couple of ideas on ways that
you can sort of start to integrate it rather than
making a big deal when they reject your dinner and
then giving attention to it, which tends to continue the behavior.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Yeah, I agree, and I have a lot of parents
that will hide the vegetables in the food. And that's
a funny one because I'm sort of fifty to fifty
on the fence. Like I like that parents are really
trying hard to get it in, but I also feel
like we're potentially not really helping them long term.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Like I'll give an example.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
My little meal will happily eat peas you'll happily eat cucumber.
Sheally eats some green beans, but she doesn't want a
bar of carrot, Like I have tried four hundred and
seventy five ways to get your carrot, and the only
time I can really get it to eat it if
it's grated into like her favorite spaghetti bolonaise, for example,
And she sees it in there and she goes, you know, Mummy,
is this carrot? I don't like carrot? And I say, yeah,
(12:13):
but you like spaghetti. You just try it bub you
can't even taste it. And so she will happily eat
it in spaghetti. But if I put it any different
way or shape cooked or raw on a plate, even
with her favorite dipping sauce, I could put you know, freakin'
Tella next to it, and she still wouldn't need it,
Like she just doesn't want a bar of it. So
I think as parents, you know, put the veggies in,
but don't completely pulverize them so they're absolutely not even
(12:36):
visible to the children. I think it's really important that
kids understand that they're in there, but sometimes the flavor
or sauce can mask it. It's not a bad thing
to make vegetables taste good. If you want to get
your kids eating cauliflower, cover it in cheesy sauce. It's
not a bad thing because plain vegetables don't really taste
that great, and most adults don't like eating plain vegetables,
and then we expect out two and three year olds
(12:57):
or young children, our ten year olds to eat plain
vegetables well, So it's not a bad thing to make
it taste yummy. It's not a bad thing to use
some sauce. It's not a bad thing to cover some
broccoli in some cheese. We just want to expose our
children to lots of vegetables regularly, and if they taste good,
we have a far better uptake in terms of them
eating it. But exposure to vegetables is a really, really
(13:19):
big point that I'll just quickly touch on. Susie because
I've had so many girlfriends of mine do the right things,
and they say to me, oh, I've tried it, I've
given it two or three times. I don't eat it,
So I don't bother anymore because I'm just wasting and
throwing it out.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
And the research is really clear.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
For young children in particular, but even for older fussy children,
it's even more exposures. Young children need between ten and
twenty exposures to a new food before they may even
be willing to accept it on the plate, let alone
eat it. And so with my young kids, like even me,
and with carrots, like we've gone from her just flinging
(13:54):
it off the plate. We'll not even have a bar
of it being on her plate, to them being just
on the table next to the plate, to then being
allowed on the plate. She still won't eat it raw,
she still won't eat it unless it's incorporated as part
of a spaghetti and a sauce. But she'll touch it,
you'll feel it, She'll let it go on the plate.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
And that's where we're at.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
And I hope that in the next couple of weeks
or months, she might, you know, might pick that up,
might have a bite she has occasionally eaten a small
amount of raw carrot, but she's not fully accepting of
that yet. And that is absolutely okay, because really fussy
kids can actually need more than thirty exposures to food.
So you really have to persevere, You really have to
be patient, and you really have to be very neutral
(14:33):
in your emotions with those exposures. Sometimes my kids, like
they'll eat broccoli, but occasionally they'll fling it off the
plate and say I don't want it. I don't get curranky,
I don't raise my voice.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
I just say, no problem.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
But the food stays on our plate because I know
it's a save food. I know they've had that before.
The food stays on their plate. If broccoli is a
food that your kid has never eaten before and they've
never wanted a bar of it, perhaps the exposure is
just allowing it to be on the table next to
the plate. It might not even make it onto their
because when you count an exposure towards vegetables for children,
(15:04):
one is just being on their plate. One is just
seeing it on the table next to it. Another exposure
might be picking it up and smelling it. Another exposure
is just touching the food another exposure, maybe the child
helping you to prep it. So if they're a bit
older peeling some carrots or cutting some carrots, or if
they're a bit younger, putting the carrots onto the plate,
or sprinkling the grated carrot into the spaghetti bolonnaise. Even
(15:25):
just watching you eat it and enjoy it is counted
as an exposure. So there are many, many ways for
young children or even older fussy children to gain exposure
to vegetables. But I think as parents we think, oh,
I put it on the plate two d three times,
they don't like it.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
I'm done, I tried. We just need far.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Far, far more exposures to we even get our kids
comfortable to having that food on the plate, let alone
actually eating it. And I think one of the best
ways to expose our children to multiple ranges of vegetables
is to make it taste good. Is to see you
eating it. If you don't like the vegetable, really, no
chance that kid is probably even going to try it.
If they see you screwing up their face, or if
(16:05):
there's another adult at the table saying ill capskum, I
don't blame you for not eating that, there's no way
that these kids are ever really going to even try that.
So you've got to be very positive, but not forceful.
We don't ever force kids to eat the vegetables. We
don't want to bribe them, we don't want to really
put any emotion to the vegetables. We just want to
be very neutral. It's on your plate, just leave it there.
(16:27):
If you don't want to eat it, no problem. But
you know it is something that's yummy. Mummy will try some,
but or Daddy will try some, but I'm not actually
going to, you know, force you to eat it today.
And then that counts as an exposure. And the more
that that food is on the plate, the more that
child begins to accept that that's natural, it's normal.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Perhaps I'll pick it up one.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
Day, Perhaps I'll have a little liquor a little bite,
and then before you know it, it might take months,
might even take a year, but they'll be that regular
exposure will cause them to actually try that food. So
twenty to thirty exposures for some fossy children is really
what it takes.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
And multiple times.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
You can't expose the kid to broccoli once and then
try it again six weeks later, because I probably won't
really even remember that initial exposure. So regular and stay
persistent with that, but be very, very neutral in your
emotions is probably the best way that you can encourage
fussy children to actually begin to try some of those vegetables.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
True, and I'm with me to be honest, I'm not
a big fan of carrots, although my children are massive
fans of them. But when I was recently up with
you and I was left with Tilly for a very
brief moment because my skills with small children are far
less than they once were, and I kept putting the
cucumber on her plate we had the baby cukes, and
she was just like, nah, I'm not having I know.
(17:41):
I was like, oh, come on, tell you, like, just
Jimmy prout here so I can like showley aamne what
a good what a good feeder I am? But like
she was giving me nothing, man, nothing all right? Well,
that leads on to another topic I really wanted to cover.
And as I said, we go into much more detail
with strategies and ideas for fussy eating in the ebook,
but I wanted to talk a little bit about this
whole idea of kids and treats because when I was
(18:05):
growing up, a treat was a Saturday night block of
chocolate with the family, or a birthday cake very occasionally,
whereas now I find that the kids are constantly asking
for a treat, like daily, like after dinner a treat.
There is constant treats at school, so parents are always
bringing in cakes, cupcakes, lollipops, lollies, treats. Then and I
(18:30):
find small children at the cafe. There's the kid's banana bread,
there's the kid's baby Chino with a little biscuit with it.
There are just so many treats, and the reason I
wanted to chat about it was, particularly in the case
of young children. The issue with so many treats is
that they displace the key foods we want them to eat,
because going back to that idea that they don't need
(18:52):
a whole lot of food, if you consider I think
the data shows that, and again I talk about this
in the ebook, but I think at least fifty percent
of calorie of kids under the age of five is
coming from discretionary food, so that's junk food, and that's
foods we don't need. It's really high. I think it's
up to fifty, but I have to double check it
is in there. But basically they're having so many extra foods.
(19:13):
So that's things like cake, biscuits, banana bread, potato chips,
chocolate like treats all the time, and I think we
see that in our day to day because they might
have a juice and a banana bread when you go
to the coffee shop, and then we give them a
treat for doing something that we want them to do,
and then after dinner there's another treat, or they visit
their grandparents and there's treats. So I just wanted to
(19:33):
have a discussion about how these can slip into kids
start so easily, and how they play such a key
role in displacing other foods. So I think one of
the key messages I would say is be very clear
about how often you are offering that treat. So if
you are planning to do desserts and things regularly, you've
got to make sure that their child friendly or at
(19:53):
least have got some health value. So you're much better
to give them a kid's yogurt or even a little
bit of milk with e even if you put a
little bit of milo or something in it. Then to
be routinely going for heavier treats like proper ice cream
or lollies or chocolate. But I think one of the
things I see most is that the treat size is
lean and not child size, their adult size. So the
(20:15):
kids will go to the shop and they will have
a Magnum, they won't have a mini magnum, or they'll
have a whole size of banana bread rather than a
kid's size. So I think just be mindful of keeping
those portions under control of treats is important. And with
small kids, doing things like just like one or two
Smarties or one or two eminems rather than packets of anything.
If you are buying snack food, rather than putting a
(20:36):
whole packet in, open the packet and just give a
couple of pieces out of it. Anything that keeps portions
under control. Because yeah, one of the issues is that
the kid's treats are like adult sized portions. They're having
a smoothie that's an adult size. You've got to constantly
bring it down and be that small child size, which
will help a lot in terms of calorie intaken and
(20:56):
preventing overeating.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
Yeah, you're so right, and especially for more children, the
treats are just everywhere, and they end up, like, you know,
we think that they're a cost effective option, but they
actually end up being far more costly than some of
our other whole food based options, like a small apple
or a couple of you know, carrots with some homus.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Because you know, you go to the park and you.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
See the parents and they get out the you know,
the bag and the mini packet of oreos, a mini
packet of tiny teddies, a mini packet of shapes, a
mini packet of pretzels. Like you said, we just fill
up on so many snacks, and for small children, some
of those mini packets of the treat foods can be
one hundred calories. When you've got small children, that's all
they really need.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
One two hundred.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Calories is plenty for you know, snacks or main meals
in between. And then, as you said, we've filled up
on snacks at the park, we might get home and
have a bottle of milk, or a lot of parents
will give kids.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Like a juice popper at the park.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
They get home and they're not hungry for lunch, and
that's the reason they're not eating it, because they're having
so many of these snack foods throughout the day and
these are still ultra processed foods. And this is why
so much of our kids diet is coming from discretionary foods,
because it's all of these package based foods that we
don't really see.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
Is the treat.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
So yes, you've got the doughnuts and the biscuits and
the banana bread at the cafe, and the and the
you know, the birthday cake at a party. But I
think because kids are getting these snacks so regularly, parents
often forget that there's still ultra processed foods. You know,
the mini packet of tiny ted is a mini packet
of oreos. There's still the treats. But then we go
to the coffee shop, we get the baby China with
(22:23):
the marshmallow. That's another treat.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
You know. We might get a Croissanta share, that's another treat.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
And then we go out to dinner and the kid's
meal is often the chicken nuggets and chips. Really that's
another treat that's going in through the diet. Then it
might be a free juice with the kid's meal, another
treat going in. And then we wonder why they don't
want the vegetables. We wonder why they don't want the
plain chicken breasts because they're so used to having the
nuggets and the juice with the kid's meal. So I
(22:48):
think it's just really important to just take stock of
kids diets and even just look at what you're buying
in the trolley every week. If you've got more than
one or two boxes of say kids treats in the trolley,
particularly if they're small ChIL we're probably overdoing it. But
even for bigger kids like eight ten plus, those little
treats like the mini oreos and mini tiny Teddies, they're
(23:08):
just not going to even touch the sides of growing children.
Like if you've got ten year olds fourteen year olds
and they have one of them, it's nowhere near enough
for a balanced snack. And that's why kids will get
bigger kids will get so hungry, and little kids will
fill up so much on those things. So there's a
large spectrum either side of the scale based on the
age of the children. Biggie kids need a bit of protein,
(23:28):
you need a bit of fiber in that snack. Smaller
kids it's probably far too much. So if you can
split the mini packet of tiny Teddies between two small children,
or just give them a few out of them and
save the rest of them the next day. That's going
to be far better and won't fill them up anywhere
near as much between meals, and will allow you to
get more nutritious options in during the main meal.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
True. True, And I love that example of the foods
that the whenever you're eating out, there's so many chips
is and there's so many fries.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
It's always nuggets in the chips, right, And like sometimes
it's spaghetti. But I've got a one year old on
a three year old. I'm not going to order a
spaghetti option for them at the restaurant.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
It's going to go everywhere. I'll be mortified. Can you imagine?
Speaker 3 (24:06):
That would be literally be spaghetti on the roof of
the restaurant. So I'm like most parents, I am forced
to get the chicken in the chips because a the
kids love it. It's one of them, you know, the
cleaner options. Occasionally there's fish and chips, and I might
order that because my kids like fish, but it's always battered,
it's always crumbed, it always comes with a hundred chips.
So there's not really that many options for small children
(24:27):
off the menu. Occasionally I'll get a steak in and veggies,
and the kids might share a bit of steak, a
few chips and a bit of broccoli. But it really
just depends on where you're going. So you know, we
are bound by what's on off the cafes and we
don't want to make a huge mess. Hence I never
order spaghetti for my kids if we're out. But there
are a lot of things that we can control within
the home environment, and I think that's so much better
(24:48):
that we do that rather than getting too wrapped up
on what's on offer outside.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
Of the house.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
But we do need to take that into consideration that
all of those things going in outside of the house
is still treats, because I've certainly been to many res
restaurants where you get the kids menu and you get
the nuggets and the chips, and it keeps the kids happy,
but it comes with the free juice, and it comes
with the free ice cream. And I would always say,
but I've noticed that I don't want it. I just
want water, no ice cream. But sometimes they just bring
it to the table and then the minute the kid
(25:13):
sees it, it's like you get a meltdown or you
just give the kids the juice, like, it's really difficult
for parents to do that. So as much as we
can control what's on off inside the house, it's going
to be far better for our kids nutrition long term.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
True. And I have to say that I am quite
strict on soft drink, Like I still see kids, you know,
quite young kids at primary school at parties and the
parents are bringing soft drink or ordering it. Like there
is no place in the diet for young children for
soft drink, even for special occasion. It is so bad
for them, that intensely sweet beverage. And if you're someone
who's never given your kids soft drink you'll notice they
(25:49):
don't even like it now. They don't look for it,
they don't ask for it. So the more you say no,
the better. It shouldn't be a party food. It's a
toxic food for all of us. We shouldn't be encouraging
our kids to drink it at any point in time.
And I do feel quite strongly about that, and I
am like you. Whenever there's an opportunity at a pubor
or something and they offer them a juice or a
soft drink, I always say no, I'll just have water
or sparkling water, because that's how strongly I feel about
(26:11):
it being completely inappropriate. And a lot of my kids
friends at school they've got cavities in their teeth, you know,
of course they do. They've been drinking juice and soft
drink as long as I've known them. They're too little.
So yeah, if you can be strict, that's something to
be strict about, which leads to another topic that is
really relevant to kids and teen nutrition actually, and is
the need for protein in the diet. Now. Proteins are
(26:33):
certainly a buzzword when it comes to adult nutrition and
women in perimenopause and in terms of promoting healthy body
composition and not get enough in the diet. Now, it's
a little bit tricky when it comes to kids because
kids don't actually need a lot of protein. It's not
the same situation as adults. They need far less, you know.
I think the overall amounts and again we go into
(26:54):
great detail in this in the book, but it's only
say thirty fifty grams in total per day for a
primary school age child, which is literally having some chicken
or lean meat or fish at dinner, some dairy and
that's it. You don't need to supplement, and that's why
higher protein foods like the yogurts, certainly protein powder, protein
bread are completely inappropriate for children. But one area of
protein I did want to talk about in particular with
(27:16):
primary school aged children is the need for protein at
school because if you consider what generally goes in a
school lunch box, it is generally all high carbohydrate food
because they half counschent, sip, and often it's fruit because
even though we'd prefer veggies, a lot of kids will
prefer apple, mandarin, plum, peach, watermelon, grapes over carrots, celery, cucumber, capsukum.
(27:39):
So if you can get veggies in crunch and sip,
that's ideal, but if not as softened fruit, then the
normal snack food for kids muslei bars, packets of staff,
rice things, pretzels are or high carbohydrate.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
It can be.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Really tricky to get protein on the sandwiches or wraps
because you might be worried about it going not great.
You're in Queensland, it gets hot, so you might do
something plainer on a sand like even a slice of cheese,
or just to spread like a veggimite, because again that's
what kids tend to go for a lot of kids
are still eating white bread, so that entire lunch box
is high carbohydrate. And the issue with that is that
(28:13):
they arrive home from school absolutely starving because they haven't
had any dietary bulk to hold them and keep them satisfied,
and then they tend to overeat through the afternoon and
then inevitably don't want their healthy dinner because they've snapped
too much when they've got home from school. So I
wanted just to talk a little bit about the importance
of protein in the school lunch box because that will
(28:33):
help to control their appetite and prevent that over eating.
So a few of the superfoods that I will routinely
try and add to my own kid's lunch box. I'm
a big fan of dairy based snacks, so whether it's
baby bell, whether it's cheese and crackers. I even will
use the little flavored chocolate milk drinks. Yes, they have
somematted sugar, but I would rather they have that than
juice or other high carbohydrate snacks. Myself, I put in
(28:55):
either lean sausages or pieces of chicken strips in the
lunch box. Now now it is insulated lunch box. I've
also got a thermos meatballs because my kids prefer that
to a sandwich. But if you have a kid who
enjoys a sandwich and they're happy to have some meat
on there, because that leads us to the conversation about
processed meat, because really it's not suggested that we include
(29:17):
much ham or turkey in our diet at all. You know,
it contains night traits, it is associated with an increased
risk of bowel cancer. But it is a tricky one
at school because what do we put on the school lunches.
You know, Leanne I grew up with Devon back in
the early eighties. Now a lot of people are still
using ham, turkey, you know. I think the message is
just try and mix it up because they're actually not
(29:37):
as high in protein as proper chicken meat or tuna anyway.
So if you can get some sort of hard boiled
egg or tuna or lean leftover meat onto wrap sandwiches
or even as a piece, that's going to be much better,
particularly for kids as they move through the primary school
edges and they're getting to say nine, ten eleven, and
they're really getting quite hungry.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
Yeah, it's really difficult. Eggs are a really great one.
Like you can put a couple boiled eggs into a
lunch box. You can mash them down with a bit
of mail, a little bit of curry powder and make
like an egg and lettuce sandwich. You could do like
a little minifro tatas to go into the lunch box.
But certainly depending on where you are, you would want
an ice break with that, particularly if you live in Queensland.
Or like Susie said, you can use a thermos and
they're really handy. I've had a lot of my clients
(30:17):
who you know, might be in like a sales role
or something. They're on the road a lot. They don't
have access to a regular microwave or you know, kitchen
type facilities, so they will use thermass and they're really great.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
You don't have to put a full meal into a thermos.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
I think a lot of times people think, oh, I'm
not eating a full curry or a spaghetti, so I
don't have a need for a thermos. But like Susie said,
you can just put a couple of meatballs into a thermist.
You can put a bit of warm chicken breast through
a bit of crumb chicken into a thermos and it
will keep it hot. But really we do want to
eat that type of food at the first break, but
I think depending on a lot of schools, they do
sort of do this sip and crunch at the first break,
so it's a little bit harder to kind of have
(30:51):
that warmer meal. But I think eggs are a really
really great addition. And then any type of leftover protein
that you've got from dinner the night before with some steaks,
like you said, a lean sausage or a little bit
of crumb chicken breast is a really good option as well.
And then you can add the veggiemi sandwich on the side.
There's no problem with using a bit of spread on
a sandwich if that's what you want. But certainly for
(31:11):
bigger children, there has to be a bit of protein
in the lunch box somewhere or they are going to
come back absolutely ravenous, like you said. And if you're
not comfortable with putting the protein in the lunch box
because you don't want it stored for too long without
you know, a refrigerator, bring it with you to afternoon
tea when you pick the kids up from school.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
Let's be honest.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
Kids aren't going to wait till five, six, seven o'clock
for dinner. They're starving. They need some marterrooon tea snack.
So that's where you can bring the protein for afternoon tea.
Bring some protein, bring some veggies, let the munch on
that in the car on.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
The way home.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
And then, like Susie said in the beginning, it doesn't
really matter if they eat too much or not much
at all at dinner because they've had a really solid,
balanced afternoon tea. I follow a like a mummy blogger
I think on Instagram, and she's huge interfeeding her kids
dinner at three o'clock. And people are like, that's so weird,
why would you do that? But she's like, I literally
feed my kid a hot main meal at three o'clock
when I pick up from schools three thirty or whatever
(32:01):
it is, and they eat a really well balanced main meal.
So if they want a bit of cereal they want
just a banana at six o'clock, seven o'clock later on,
I'm not even phazed because they've eaten a great, hot,
balanced meal with some vegetables at you know, three thirty
four o'clock, So I'm a big fan luck instead of
getting a main meal in early because by the time
it gets to five six o'clock, most kids, you know,
is there anything like mine?
Speaker 2 (32:21):
They're a bit feral.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
They're just they're overtired, they're overstrung, they need a god
as sleep and it's just a massive flight at the
kitchen dinner table every single night.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
So if you can get those nutrients.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
In earlier, you're only going to you know, do the
best you can for your family, and it's only going
to pay off for you long term.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
True and true, true, All right ly and well. For
our final segment of this special episode on kids and
teen nutrition, I wanted to talk a little bit about
teenagers because I do get a lot of questions on
our Nutrition Couch podcast instro about feeding teenagers, and it's
a whole different kettle of fish, whether you're looking at
growth or concern about weight gain or even not gaining weight,
(32:58):
hunger preparing for exam. We certainly cover all of those
key issues, including energy, drinks, and fast food, But what
I wanted to chat specifically around teenagers, and what I
would like the take home message to be is that yes,
teenagers and particularly teenage boys have huge energy demands, particularly
if they're really active and tall. Young teenage girls will
(33:19):
tend to go through their growth but a lot earlier
and as such potentially be battling unwanted necessary weight gain
and hormone issues if they're having difficulty with their periods
and iron. So we cover that too, But I wanted
to talk about with teens. Probably my biggest take home messages.
Teens need meals, not snacks, because you see teens constantly
(33:41):
fueling up on snack foods. So the shapes, the music bars,
the crackers, the dip, the acy balls, the energy drinks.
But the trouble with all of those foods is they've
got no proteins, so they're never full and they just
keep eating or fiber. Yeah, So as a parent of teenagers,
the best thing I would en courage parents to do
(34:01):
is have meals around so that when they get home
from school they can eat leftovers. You're actually putting like
lean meat, you know, using sandwiches as a snack at
school and then reverting to the cooked food in thermoss
for the actual lunch meal. Because if they're only eating
sandwiches and snack food all day, they will eat you
out of house and home when they get home and
(34:22):
again reaching for high carbohydrate things. So I would be
really making sure they've got access to smoothies, toasted sandwiches,
dumplings and at amrmaie leftovers, make extra pasta, put some
chicken through it, or put some tuna through it. The
more you can earn them towards balanced meals, the better
you will find it in terms of appetite, control nutrient intake,
(34:43):
and minimize your spend on all snack food. It's a
waste of money filling teenagers up on snack food. They're
never going to be full, and it's going to cost
you an absolute fortune for refined process carbohydrates and really
poor quality nutrition.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
Yeah, I completely agree.
Speaker 3 (34:57):
And how many times have you got leftovers where you're like,
it's it's not quite enough for a meal, so maybe
I'll just finish it off today. Like I have so
many ladies that I work with that have this struggle.
They're like, oh, I probably overeate at dinner because there
was only a little bit left and I didn't, you know,
I didn't want to waste it and it wasn't enough
for lunch the next day. That is the perfect thing
to give to your growing teenagers, just a little bit
of the leftovers, a little bit of me it's a
(35:18):
little bit of you know, a little bit of rice,
a little bit of veggiees, that tiny bit of stir
fry that you think, oh, should I eat it? Should
I just put a little bit extra into Hubby's plate. Like, really,
we probably don't need that extra nutrition, particularly if.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
The goal is weight loss for US adults.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
But really that's where growing kids can fuel up and
really get in nice balanced meals. Sushi is a great
optionist snacks for growing teenagers as well. If you're going
to make it yourself, it's a bit finicky, but if
you just buy it, particularly if you're going past like
one of the sushi shops sort of around closing time.
Often they'll do half priced rolls and stuff, so it
can be I guess quite affordable a few times a week.
(35:52):
A bit of tuna on some corn bins, a bit
of cheese, cottage cheese, tomato. There's some really good options
that like mini meals that you can fuel kids up
with teenage growing kids. Some soups, some chicken and veggie
soup is a really great idea if it's cooler in winter,
or like Susy Sai'd just some dumplings and some ottamamate.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
It's a really smart choice. Kids just need that extra fuel.
Speaker 3 (36:11):
But again, there's a massive spectrum between growing teenage boys
who literally are just always playing sports, they're always running around,
they're just doing some form of training or exercise all
the time, versus you know, some teenage girls really don't
play any sport and they're going through those puberty years
and they're just not burning anywhere near enough calories to
say some of their male counterparts. So it really is
(36:32):
a spectrum based on where your kids at, how much
activity they do, and really even for some kids, you know,
metabolism and that does come back to genetics. Some kids
are just metabolically so superior than other kids, and it's
like nothing you can give them touches the edges. But
that's where really the protein and the fiber from the
vegetables comes in really really helpful, because if they're just
(36:52):
going to fill up on carb carb carb, they're just
going to be constantly putting it in, burning it off,
and never really ever feeling satiated. The great tips to
use mini meals or leftovers for growing teens to actually
balance their nutrition properly throughout the day.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
Perfect all right, Lemma. We could literally talk about kids
and teen nutrition all day. So if you are interested
in all things feeding your kids with ideas, practical solutions,
and the theory of key nutrient requirements for kids across
the lifespan, our latest ebook of over two hundred pages
is available at the nutritioncouch dot com. It's called Your Kids,
Their Food. It's packed full of practical tips, information on
(37:31):
feeding kids in general, lots of product ideas, lots of
practical tips on how to improve their nutrient intake, and
lots of your most common nutrition questions answered. So whether
you have a fussy eater, whether you have a teenager,
whether you have a really active primary school aged child,
we have all the nutrition information you will need. So
check that out and as always, thank you so much
(37:52):
for listening, and we will see you next Wednesday for
our regular episode drop have a great week.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
Thank you for listening.
Speaker 3 (38:02):
Mostads
Whether you are a parent of a toddler likely Anne,
or a primary school age child like myself, or juggling
the teenage years, it's safe to say at some points
in time, kids and teen nutrition crosses your mind. With
so many foods out there marketed specifically to kids and
busy parents juggling issues like fussy eating, nutrient deficiencies, over eating,
(00:26):
and constant hunger, there are plenty of questions to be
answered when it comes to kids nutrition. So on today's
special release episode of The Nutrition Couch to celebrate our
brand new Kids and Teens ebook, Your Kids Their Food,
we are here to cover some of the big issues
when it comes to feeding busy, growing children. Hi, I'm
(00:46):
Susie Burrow and.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
I'm Leon Wood, and.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Together we bring you The Nutrition Couch, the weekly podcast
that keeps you up to date on everything you need
to know in the world of nutrition. Well, yeah, how
long have we been working on a kid's nutrition book
for It has.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Been a long long time coming, and we've had many, many,
many many dms being.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Like, when's it coming? I need help? So we are
proud to say it is finally here.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
It's finally here. It's been my project and I've been
really dragging the chain. Leanne is silently furious at me.
I've had like writer's block, I've had burnout. I've really
struggled to bring this together. But I think one of
the reasons is that it's got so much in it
because when you start to deep dive the world of
kids nutrition, you're dealing with toddlers. You're dealing with primary
school age kids and issues with fussy eating and feeding
(01:33):
them at school and lunch box snacks, and then you
move on to older kids and the issues that come
with not getting enough calcium or iron, and then teenagers, like,
there's so many different areas to cover. It really was
about making sure we covered all of the key issues
and did it well, and hence it has taken a while,
but I'm pretty happy with it. It's a massive book.
It's over two hundred pages long, it's got over thirty
(01:56):
toddler and child friendly recipes in it, and so to
launch it today, we will go through what's in the
book in a minute, but we thought we'd cover a
few of the key kind of issues that we see
in kids nutrition. So by way of background, my original
career started at the children's hospital at Westmead where I
worked as a pediatric dietitian working in behavioral and childhood
(02:16):
weight related areas. So I've always had a firm interest
in kids nutrition and then naturally both lean andized parents
of different age children. Now Lan's got little kids two
under three and I've got nine year old twin boys,
so we really live this on a day to day basis.
And then of course I've also done a lot of
work with teenagers around eating behavior, weight control and sports
(02:38):
nutrition as well, so we've really tried to make sure
we cover some of those key areas all in the ebook.
But I thought I've picked out kind of four key
areas of concern often for parents when it comes to
feeding kids, rather than run our usual episode style, just
to break it up a little bit and sort of
give a breakout episode on the specificity which is kids
(02:59):
nutrition them. So the first big topic that I want
to chat about and the latest research when it comes
to at Leanne is fussy eating, because it's actually pretty
normal for children aged anywhere between eighteen months to two
years when they first can say no to anything, to
show signs of fussy eating. So we'll take a look
(03:20):
at that science. So in you know, you're around young
mums regularly. Do you see a lot of your friends,
because I certainly see it with my boys who are nine.
A lot of the kids they're friends with are really fussy.
Like we have a lot who are only eating the
bland food still, the chicken nuggets and chips or the
plain margarita pizza, little to no vegetables. And it's really
(03:41):
interesting to see it in real life how that plays
out to kids as old as nine, because I think
sometimes Leamne, we're thinking of it in terms of younger children,
but it certainly starts then when it comes to rejecting
a certain number of foods. And we'll go into that
in a second. But are you seeing it a lot
with your mum friends of kids of me's age? Because Mea,
I know, MEA's a she's a good eater, you know,
like she's very happy to sit up with whatever we're having.
(04:03):
I know. But do you see it with your friends' kids?
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Absolutely, And there's a definite scale to fussy eating. You know,
you've got one end of the spectrum where there might
be some a behavioral issues, some sort of diagnosed conditions,
and it's very white it's planned food they can't touch.
There's only a handful of safe foods. And then you've
got the other end of the spectrum, where you know,
parents might term it fussy eating, but it's just normal
kind of toddler behavior. Or one day they'll eat something
(04:28):
and they'll love it, and this is my kids as well,
and the next day you serve up the exact same
thing and they don't want to borrow it. So there
is a definite spectrum of fussy eating. But I would
say that that's probably the biggest complaint I get out
of my mom friends is that there is a little
bit of fussy eating going on. And the other one
is more just the lack of fiber and that you know,
my kids constipated. What can I do? So maybe we'll
touch on that one a little bit today. But there's
(04:50):
absolutely a spectrum when it comes to fussy eating, and
there's a lot that we can do as parents to
I guess, promote better exposure to our kids through different foods,
better diversity through food, so an improvement in their gut
health because we know that the more diverse their diets,
the better their gut microbiome will be. And also just
to set them up with a really healthy relationship with
food long term, because that really does come back to
(05:12):
your childhood. And Susie and I both specialize in women's
health and particularly with sustainable fat loss, and what we
do see is a lot of these I guess behavioral
issues some adults have with food, or some of these
bad habits they have with food can stem right back
to their childhood.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
So really setting up.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Our kids with good, healthy habits long term and healthy
environments long term when it comes to our food and
our nutrition can really set us up for a wonderful
relationship with food long into our adult years as well.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
True So, by way of background, fussy eating is generally
described as the rejection of a large number of foods
for no apparent reason, and we tend to see it
around that age eighteen months to two years, when kids
first have the ability to say no to different foods. Now,
the first thing I would say is it's relatively normal
for small children to reject food, and one of the
(06:01):
reasons often they may do it is they're not that hungry.
Because small children, whilst babies under the age of twelve months,
need significant calories for growth and development. Once they're getting
to two, they actually don't need a huge amount of calories.
So if you consider they're still having a milk, you know,
several times up to six hundred meal five hundred, six
hundred mil per day. If they're going to long daycare
and childcare, they're often having hot, nutritionally complete meals there.
(06:24):
Sometimes it's quite possible they get home at five or
six pm they're absolutely exhausted, and that's why they're rejecting
the cut up carrots and greens on their plate. They're
not fussy, they just actually don't need it. But the
key thing to keep in mind that parents often are
reinforcing this behavior. So I want you to think through
what we focus on in the life of small children
in particular continues. So when small children realize that a
(06:47):
parent will pay more attention when they're not eating, it
actually reinforces their saying no behavior. Or the classic example
is you're small toddler two, three years old, even five
years old, isn't having their meat and veggies on the plate,
rejecting it, don't want it, pushing it away. And as parents,
we're highly anxious that they're not eating and we offer
something instead, And what do we offerlyand we offer white food.
(07:11):
We offer toast, we offer yogurt, we offer fruit. These
are all sweet foods that children will naturally go yes to,
above and beyond a carrot or a piece of cucumber.
And so not to blame parents, you know, we are parents.
We understand there's already a lot of pressure on busy parents.
This is not the goal of the conversation, rather than
just to observe what actually goes on. So very quickly,
(07:33):
small children learn if they say no to their carrots
and their zucchini and their peas, well, they're going to
get some yogurt. Great, they're happy because they're actually even
not that hungry. So I think you've really got to
look at what you're teaching when they do say no.
It's actually quite normal for kids to say no to
certain foods. Often they don't need much, they're not hungry,
or in the case of vegetables, they do taste quite bland,
like why would a kid want to eat a carrot
(07:55):
if they can eat a yogurt or an apple. You
can naturally see that. But the key is to keep
the food environment at home very stable, so kids learn
this is what's available and through a range of foods.
They will ideally eat something eventually, but often when you
really go back and to where these habits were formed originally,
the kids very early learned they didn't have to eat
(08:15):
that food, there's other options, and they just then reject it,
and we internalize that as they don't like it, as
opposed to kids don't even know what they like when
they're small. So one of the you know, we can
talk about the theory and there is some really strong
data to show that the number one predictor of fussy
eating behavior is parents making a different meal for the child.
So again that happens all the time. You know, you
(08:37):
have a child who's rejected the meat and veggies, the
fish and veggies, whatever, and so the parent makes something
else for them, Oh, you can have plain pasta, you
can have the chips, you know, and then they again
learn that if they don't have the boring dinner, they
can have the other ones. So a few practical strategies,
because we deep dive this in the ebook around the
theory behind it, what we can do, but some key things,
(08:58):
particularly with smaller children and when they're learning eating behavior,
because it is much more difficult to change kids once
they're eight, nine to ten, one hundred percent. But if
you've still got a child under the age of five,
and you can sort of use some behavioral management strategies,
a few things to consider. I find and found certainly
feeding my own children. I used to feed them most
of their food in the day, so by the time
(09:19):
they got to dinner, I couldn't care less if they
ate much or not. So we always had a hot
meal in the day with vegetables fish when they're hungry.
Because the other thing I notice all the timely in
and this has evolved even since I've had my kids,
is the snack box pattern. So I'll see parents take
to the park at ten am, this big loaded box
of a range of generally high carbohydrate snacks. So it's
(09:42):
got cut up fruit, it's got some dried fruit, it's
got some like pretzels, it's got yogat covered sultanas, it's
got cut up a bit of cut up veggies. But
the kids are grazing and munching all morning, so inevitably
when they get to lunch, they're not that hungry. They
don't eat much of it. They have a sleep, they
wake up, they have some milk and then of course
hungry for dinner. You've got to feed kids the food
(10:03):
you want them to eat when they're hungry. Kids will
be hungry late morning lunchtime. Feed them a hot meal
with vegetables. Then feed them at four five o'clock. Put
the cut up vegetables out, put the frozen peas out.
They don't have to be a traditional meat and veggie plate.
It can be raw, it can be frozen, it can
be cut up as long as they're getting them. So
just program them to be eating those foods when they're hungry.
(10:24):
But what we do we fill them up on all
this other stuff and then they're not hungry, and we
wonder why they're not eating it. They don't need much.
They need very small amounts of food generally through the day.
So that's one thing I found quite helpful. I've always
done vegetables as more as snacks rather than on a
hot plate with a few different pieces. So I'll do
the frozen peas, I'll do the baby tomatoes, We'll do
(10:44):
the cut up bits so they can pick at it
as we go, and I eat that. You know, the
kids have got to see you eating it. They're not
going to if you're eating a packet of chips or nuts,
They're not going to eat a cucumber. So routinely in
my house we have always snacked on those kind of vegetables.
So when it comes to dinner, they're already full, they're
already eating. I don't need to worry about them whether
they eat, you know, their sweet potato, etc. I think
(11:06):
air fryes can be a great way to make vegetable
chips and things and make them more palatable because if
you add a little bit of salt, you ad a
little bit extraverg and olive oil, things taste better with
a dipping sauce. Then they're more likely And then of
course there's strategies like giving them a green smoothie or
putting some vegetables in the smoothie, or when you're having mince,
grading it in and incorporating it naturally into those meals.
(11:26):
But there are a couple of ideas on ways that
you can sort of start to integrate it rather than
making a big deal when they reject your dinner and
then giving attention to it, which tends to continue the behavior.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Yeah, I agree, and I have a lot of parents
that will hide the vegetables in the food. And that's
a funny one because I'm sort of fifty to fifty
on the fence. Like I like that parents are really
trying hard to get it in, but I also feel
like we're potentially not really helping them long term.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Like I'll give an example.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
My little meal will happily eat peas you'll happily eat cucumber.
Sheally eats some green beans, but she doesn't want a
bar of carrot, Like I have tried four hundred and
seventy five ways to get your carrot, and the only
time I can really get it to eat it if
it's grated into like her favorite spaghetti bolonaise, for example,
And she sees it in there and she goes, you know, Mummy,
is this carrot? I don't like carrot? And I say, yeah,
(12:13):
but you like spaghetti. You just try it bub you
can't even taste it. And so she will happily eat
it in spaghetti. But if I put it any different
way or shape cooked or raw on a plate, even
with her favorite dipping sauce, I could put you know, freakin'
Tella next to it, and she still wouldn't need it,
Like she just doesn't want a bar of it. So
I think as parents, you know, put the veggies in,
but don't completely pulverize them so they're absolutely not even
(12:36):
visible to the children. I think it's really important that
kids understand that they're in there, but sometimes the flavor
or sauce can mask it. It's not a bad thing
to make vegetables taste good. If you want to get
your kids eating cauliflower, cover it in cheesy sauce. It's
not a bad thing because plain vegetables don't really taste
that great, and most adults don't like eating plain vegetables,
and then we expect out two and three year olds
(12:57):
or young children, our ten year olds to eat plain
vegetables well, So it's not a bad thing to make
it taste yummy. It's not a bad thing to use
some sauce. It's not a bad thing to cover some
broccoli in some cheese. We just want to expose our
children to lots of vegetables regularly, and if they taste good,
we have a far better uptake in terms of them
eating it. But exposure to vegetables is a really, really
(13:19):
big point that I'll just quickly touch on. Susie because
I've had so many girlfriends of mine do the right things,
and they say to me, oh, I've tried it, I've
given it two or three times. I don't eat it,
So I don't bother anymore because I'm just wasting and
throwing it out.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
And the research is really clear.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
For young children in particular, but even for older fussy children,
it's even more exposures. Young children need between ten and
twenty exposures to a new food before they may even
be willing to accept it on the plate, let alone
eat it. And so with my young kids, like even me,
and with carrots, like we've gone from her just flinging
(13:54):
it off the plate. We'll not even have a bar
of it being on her plate, to them being just
on the table next to the plate, to then being
allowed on the plate. She still won't eat it raw,
she still won't eat it unless it's incorporated as part
of a spaghetti and a sauce. But she'll touch it,
you'll feel it, She'll let it go on the plate.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
And that's where we're at.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
And I hope that in the next couple of weeks
or months, she might, you know, might pick that up,
might have a bite she has occasionally eaten a small
amount of raw carrot, but she's not fully accepting of
that yet. And that is absolutely okay, because really fussy
kids can actually need more than thirty exposures to food.
So you really have to persevere, You really have to
be patient, and you really have to be very neutral
(14:33):
in your emotions with those exposures. Sometimes my kids, like
they'll eat broccoli, but occasionally they'll fling it off the
plate and say I don't want it. I don't get curranky,
I don't raise my voice.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
I just say, no problem.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
But the food stays on our plate because I know
it's a save food. I know they've had that before.
The food stays on their plate. If broccoli is a
food that your kid has never eaten before and they've
never wanted a bar of it, perhaps the exposure is
just allowing it to be on the table next to
the plate. It might not even make it onto their
because when you count an exposure towards vegetables for children,
(15:04):
one is just being on their plate. One is just
seeing it on the table next to it. Another exposure
might be picking it up and smelling it. Another exposure
is just touching the food another exposure, maybe the child
helping you to prep it. So if they're a bit
older peeling some carrots or cutting some carrots, or if
they're a bit younger, putting the carrots onto the plate,
or sprinkling the grated carrot into the spaghetti bolonnaise. Even
(15:25):
just watching you eat it and enjoy it is counted
as an exposure. So there are many, many ways for
young children or even older fussy children to gain exposure
to vegetables. But I think as parents we think, oh,
I put it on the plate two d three times,
they don't like it.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
I'm done, I tried. We just need far.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Far, far more exposures to we even get our kids
comfortable to having that food on the plate, let alone
actually eating it. And I think one of the best
ways to expose our children to multiple ranges of vegetables
is to make it taste good. Is to see you
eating it. If you don't like the vegetable, really, no
chance that kid is probably even going to try it.
If they see you screwing up their face, or if
(16:05):
there's another adult at the table saying ill capskum, I
don't blame you for not eating that, there's no way
that these kids are ever really going to even try that.
So you've got to be very positive, but not forceful.
We don't ever force kids to eat the vegetables. We
don't want to bribe them, we don't want to really
put any emotion to the vegetables. We just want to
be very neutral. It's on your plate, just leave it there.
(16:27):
If you don't want to eat it, no problem. But
you know it is something that's yummy. Mummy will try some,
but or Daddy will try some, but I'm not actually
going to, you know, force you to eat it today.
And then that counts as an exposure. And the more
that that food is on the plate, the more that
child begins to accept that that's natural, it's normal.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Perhaps I'll pick it up one.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
Day, Perhaps I'll have a little liquor a little bite,
and then before you know it, it might take months,
might even take a year, but they'll be that regular
exposure will cause them to actually try that food. So
twenty to thirty exposures for some fossy children is really
what it takes.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
And multiple times.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
You can't expose the kid to broccoli once and then
try it again six weeks later, because I probably won't
really even remember that initial exposure. So regular and stay
persistent with that, but be very, very neutral in your
emotions is probably the best way that you can encourage
fussy children to actually begin to try some of those vegetables.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
True, and I'm with me to be honest, I'm not
a big fan of carrots, although my children are massive
fans of them. But when I was recently up with
you and I was left with Tilly for a very
brief moment because my skills with small children are far
less than they once were, and I kept putting the
cucumber on her plate we had the baby cukes, and
she was just like, nah, I'm not having I know.
(17:41):
I was like, oh, come on, tell you, like, just
Jimmy prout here so I can like showley aamne what
a good what a good feeder I am? But like
she was giving me nothing, man, nothing all right? Well,
that leads on to another topic I really wanted to cover.
And as I said, we go into much more detail
with strategies and ideas for fussy eating in the ebook,
but I wanted to talk a little bit about this
whole idea of kids and treats because when I was
(18:05):
growing up, a treat was a Saturday night block of
chocolate with the family, or a birthday cake very occasionally,
whereas now I find that the kids are constantly asking
for a treat, like daily, like after dinner a treat.
There is constant treats at school, so parents are always
bringing in cakes, cupcakes, lollipops, lollies, treats. Then and I
(18:30):
find small children at the cafe. There's the kid's banana bread,
there's the kid's baby Chino with a little biscuit with it.
There are just so many treats, and the reason I
wanted to chat about it was, particularly in the case
of young children. The issue with so many treats is
that they displace the key foods we want them to eat,
because going back to that idea that they don't need
(18:52):
a whole lot of food, if you consider I think
the data shows that, and again I talk about this
in the ebook, but I think at least fifty percent
of calorie of kids under the age of five is
coming from discretionary food, so that's junk food, and that's
foods we don't need. It's really high. I think it's
up to fifty, but I have to double check it
is in there. But basically they're having so many extra foods.
(19:13):
So that's things like cake, biscuits, banana bread, potato chips,
chocolate like treats all the time, and I think we
see that in our day to day because they might
have a juice and a banana bread when you go
to the coffee shop, and then we give them a
treat for doing something that we want them to do,
and then after dinner there's another treat, or they visit
their grandparents and there's treats. So I just wanted to
(19:33):
have a discussion about how these can slip into kids
start so easily, and how they play such a key
role in displacing other foods. So I think one of
the key messages I would say is be very clear
about how often you are offering that treat. So if
you are planning to do desserts and things regularly, you've
got to make sure that their child friendly or at
(19:53):
least have got some health value. So you're much better
to give them a kid's yogurt or even a little
bit of milk with e even if you put a
little bit of milo or something in it. Then to
be routinely going for heavier treats like proper ice cream
or lollies or chocolate. But I think one of the
things I see most is that the treat size is
lean and not child size, their adult size. So the
(20:15):
kids will go to the shop and they will have
a Magnum, they won't have a mini magnum, or they'll
have a whole size of banana bread rather than a
kid's size. So I think just be mindful of keeping
those portions under control of treats is important. And with
small kids, doing things like just like one or two
Smarties or one or two eminems rather than packets of anything.
If you are buying snack food, rather than putting a
(20:36):
whole packet in, open the packet and just give a
couple of pieces out of it. Anything that keeps portions
under control. Because yeah, one of the issues is that
the kid's treats are like adult sized portions. They're having
a smoothie that's an adult size. You've got to constantly
bring it down and be that small child size, which
will help a lot in terms of calorie intaken and
(20:56):
preventing overeating.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
Yeah, you're so right, and especially for more children, the
treats are just everywhere, and they end up, like, you know,
we think that they're a cost effective option, but they
actually end up being far more costly than some of
our other whole food based options, like a small apple
or a couple of you know, carrots with some homus.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Because you know, you go to the park and you.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
See the parents and they get out the you know,
the bag and the mini packet of oreos, a mini
packet of tiny teddies, a mini packet of shapes, a
mini packet of pretzels. Like you said, we just fill
up on so many snacks, and for small children, some
of those mini packets of the treat foods can be
one hundred calories. When you've got small children, that's all
they really need.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
One two hundred.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Calories is plenty for you know, snacks or main meals
in between. And then, as you said, we've filled up
on snacks at the park, we might get home and
have a bottle of milk, or a lot of parents
will give kids.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Like a juice popper at the park.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
They get home and they're not hungry for lunch, and
that's the reason they're not eating it, because they're having
so many of these snack foods throughout the day and
these are still ultra processed foods. And this is why
so much of our kids diet is coming from discretionary foods,
because it's all of these package based foods that we
don't really see.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
Is the treat.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
So yes, you've got the doughnuts and the biscuits and
the banana bread at the cafe, and the and the
you know, the birthday cake at a party. But I
think because kids are getting these snacks so regularly, parents
often forget that there's still ultra processed foods. You know,
the mini packet of tiny ted is a mini packet
of oreos. There's still the treats. But then we go
to the coffee shop, we get the baby China with
(22:23):
the marshmallow. That's another treat.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
You know. We might get a Croissanta share, that's another treat.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
And then we go out to dinner and the kid's
meal is often the chicken nuggets and chips. Really that's
another treat that's going in through the diet. Then it
might be a free juice with the kid's meal, another
treat going in. And then we wonder why they don't
want the vegetables. We wonder why they don't want the
plain chicken breasts because they're so used to having the
nuggets and the juice with the kid's meal. So I
(22:48):
think it's just really important to just take stock of
kids diets and even just look at what you're buying
in the trolley every week. If you've got more than
one or two boxes of say kids treats in the trolley,
particularly if they're small ChIL we're probably overdoing it. But
even for bigger kids like eight ten plus, those little
treats like the mini oreos and mini tiny Teddies, they're
(23:08):
just not going to even touch the sides of growing children.
Like if you've got ten year olds fourteen year olds
and they have one of them, it's nowhere near enough
for a balanced snack. And that's why kids will get
bigger kids will get so hungry, and little kids will
fill up so much on those things. So there's a
large spectrum either side of the scale based on the
age of the children. Biggie kids need a bit of protein,
(23:28):
you need a bit of fiber in that snack. Smaller
kids it's probably far too much. So if you can
split the mini packet of tiny Teddies between two small children,
or just give them a few out of them and
save the rest of them the next day. That's going
to be far better and won't fill them up anywhere
near as much between meals, and will allow you to
get more nutritious options in during the main meal.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
True. True, And I love that example of the foods
that the whenever you're eating out, there's so many chips
is and there's so many fries.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
It's always nuggets in the chips, right, And like sometimes
it's spaghetti. But I've got a one year old on
a three year old. I'm not going to order a
spaghetti option for them at the restaurant.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
It's going to go everywhere. I'll be mortified. Can you imagine?
Speaker 3 (24:06):
That would be literally be spaghetti on the roof of
the restaurant. So I'm like most parents, I am forced
to get the chicken in the chips because a the
kids love it. It's one of them, you know, the
cleaner options. Occasionally there's fish and chips, and I might
order that because my kids like fish, but it's always battered,
it's always crumbed, it always comes with a hundred chips.
So there's not really that many options for small children
(24:27):
off the menu. Occasionally I'll get a steak in and veggies,
and the kids might share a bit of steak, a
few chips and a bit of broccoli. But it really
just depends on where you're going. So you know, we
are bound by what's on off the cafes and we
don't want to make a huge mess. Hence I never
order spaghetti for my kids if we're out. But there
are a lot of things that we can control within
the home environment, and I think that's so much better
(24:48):
that we do that rather than getting too wrapped up
on what's on offer outside.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
Of the house.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
But we do need to take that into consideration that
all of those things going in outside of the house
is still treats, because I've certainly been to many res
restaurants where you get the kids menu and you get
the nuggets and the chips, and it keeps the kids happy,
but it comes with the free juice, and it comes
with the free ice cream. And I would always say,
but I've noticed that I don't want it. I just
want water, no ice cream. But sometimes they just bring
it to the table and then the minute the kid
(25:13):
sees it, it's like you get a meltdown or you
just give the kids the juice, like, it's really difficult
for parents to do that. So as much as we
can control what's on off inside the house, it's going
to be far better for our kids nutrition long term.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
True. And I have to say that I am quite
strict on soft drink, Like I still see kids, you know,
quite young kids at primary school at parties and the
parents are bringing soft drink or ordering it. Like there
is no place in the diet for young children for
soft drink, even for special occasion. It is so bad
for them, that intensely sweet beverage. And if you're someone
who's never given your kids soft drink you'll notice they
(25:49):
don't even like it now. They don't look for it,
they don't ask for it. So the more you say no,
the better. It shouldn't be a party food. It's a
toxic food for all of us. We shouldn't be encouraging
our kids to drink it at any point in time.
And I do feel quite strongly about that, and I
am like you. Whenever there's an opportunity at a pubor
or something and they offer them a juice or a
soft drink, I always say no, I'll just have water
or sparkling water, because that's how strongly I feel about
(26:11):
it being completely inappropriate. And a lot of my kids
friends at school they've got cavities in their teeth, you know,
of course they do. They've been drinking juice and soft
drink as long as I've known them. They're too little.
So yeah, if you can be strict, that's something to
be strict about, which leads to another topic that is
really relevant to kids and teen nutrition actually, and is
the need for protein in the diet. Now. Proteins are
(26:33):
certainly a buzzword when it comes to adult nutrition and
women in perimenopause and in terms of promoting healthy body
composition and not get enough in the diet. Now, it's
a little bit tricky when it comes to kids because
kids don't actually need a lot of protein. It's not
the same situation as adults. They need far less, you know.
I think the overall amounts and again we go into
(26:54):
great detail in this in the book, but it's only
say thirty fifty grams in total per day for a
primary school age child, which is literally having some chicken
or lean meat or fish at dinner, some dairy and
that's it. You don't need to supplement, and that's why
higher protein foods like the yogurts, certainly protein powder, protein
bread are completely inappropriate for children. But one area of
protein I did want to talk about in particular with
(27:16):
primary school aged children is the need for protein at
school because if you consider what generally goes in a
school lunch box, it is generally all high carbohydrate food
because they half counschent, sip, and often it's fruit because
even though we'd prefer veggies, a lot of kids will
prefer apple, mandarin, plum, peach, watermelon, grapes over carrots, celery, cucumber, capsukum.
(27:39):
So if you can get veggies in crunch and sip,
that's ideal, but if not as softened fruit, then the
normal snack food for kids muslei bars, packets of staff,
rice things, pretzels are or high carbohydrate.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
It can be.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Really tricky to get protein on the sandwiches or wraps
because you might be worried about it going not great.
You're in Queensland, it gets hot, so you might do
something plainer on a sand like even a slice of cheese,
or just to spread like a veggimite, because again that's
what kids tend to go for a lot of kids
are still eating white bread, so that entire lunch box
is high carbohydrate. And the issue with that is that
(28:13):
they arrive home from school absolutely starving because they haven't
had any dietary bulk to hold them and keep them satisfied,
and then they tend to overeat through the afternoon and
then inevitably don't want their healthy dinner because they've snapped
too much when they've got home from school. So I
wanted just to talk a little bit about the importance
of protein in the school lunch box because that will
(28:33):
help to control their appetite and prevent that over eating.
So a few of the superfoods that I will routinely
try and add to my own kid's lunch box. I'm
a big fan of dairy based snacks, so whether it's
baby bell, whether it's cheese and crackers. I even will
use the little flavored chocolate milk drinks. Yes, they have
somematted sugar, but I would rather they have that than
juice or other high carbohydrate snacks. Myself, I put in
(28:55):
either lean sausages or pieces of chicken strips in the
lunch box. Now now it is insulated lunch box. I've
also got a thermos meatballs because my kids prefer that
to a sandwich. But if you have a kid who
enjoys a sandwich and they're happy to have some meat
on there, because that leads us to the conversation about
processed meat, because really it's not suggested that we include
(29:17):
much ham or turkey in our diet at all. You know,
it contains night traits, it is associated with an increased
risk of bowel cancer. But it is a tricky one
at school because what do we put on the school lunches.
You know, Leanne I grew up with Devon back in
the early eighties. Now a lot of people are still
using ham, turkey, you know. I think the message is
just try and mix it up because they're actually not
(29:37):
as high in protein as proper chicken meat or tuna anyway.
So if you can get some sort of hard boiled
egg or tuna or lean leftover meat onto wrap sandwiches
or even as a piece, that's going to be much better,
particularly for kids as they move through the primary school
edges and they're getting to say nine, ten eleven, and
they're really getting quite hungry.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
Yeah, it's really difficult. Eggs are a really great one.
Like you can put a couple boiled eggs into a
lunch box. You can mash them down with a bit
of mail, a little bit of curry powder and make
like an egg and lettuce sandwich. You could do like
a little minifro tatas to go into the lunch box.
But certainly depending on where you are, you would want
an ice break with that, particularly if you live in Queensland.
Or like Susie said, you can use a thermos and
they're really handy. I've had a lot of my clients
(30:17):
who you know, might be in like a sales role
or something. They're on the road a lot. They don't
have access to a regular microwave or you know, kitchen
type facilities, so they will use thermass and they're really great.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
You don't have to put a full meal into a thermos.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
I think a lot of times people think, oh, I'm
not eating a full curry or a spaghetti, so I
don't have a need for a thermos. But like Susie said,
you can just put a couple of meatballs into a thermist.
You can put a bit of warm chicken breast through
a bit of crumb chicken into a thermos and it
will keep it hot. But really we do want to
eat that type of food at the first break, but
I think depending on a lot of schools, they do
sort of do this sip and crunch at the first break,
so it's a little bit harder to kind of have
(30:51):
that warmer meal. But I think eggs are a really
really great addition. And then any type of leftover protein
that you've got from dinner the night before with some steaks,
like you said, a lean sausage or a little bit
of crumb chicken breast is a really good option as well.
And then you can add the veggiemi sandwich on the side.
There's no problem with using a bit of spread on
a sandwich if that's what you want. But certainly for
(31:11):
bigger children, there has to be a bit of protein
in the lunch box somewhere or they are going to
come back absolutely ravenous, like you said. And if you're
not comfortable with putting the protein in the lunch box
because you don't want it stored for too long without
you know, a refrigerator, bring it with you to afternoon
tea when you pick the kids up from school.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
Let's be honest.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
Kids aren't going to wait till five, six, seven o'clock
for dinner. They're starving. They need some marterrooon tea snack.
So that's where you can bring the protein for afternoon tea.
Bring some protein, bring some veggies, let the munch on
that in the car on.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
The way home.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
And then, like Susie said in the beginning, it doesn't
really matter if they eat too much or not much
at all at dinner because they've had a really solid,
balanced afternoon tea. I follow a like a mummy blogger
I think on Instagram, and she's huge interfeeding her kids
dinner at three o'clock. And people are like, that's so weird,
why would you do that? But she's like, I literally
feed my kid a hot main meal at three o'clock
when I pick up from schools three thirty or whatever
(32:01):
it is, and they eat a really well balanced main meal.
So if they want a bit of cereal they want
just a banana at six o'clock, seven o'clock later on,
I'm not even phazed because they've eaten a great, hot,
balanced meal with some vegetables at you know, three thirty
four o'clock, So I'm a big fan luck instead of
getting a main meal in early because by the time
it gets to five six o'clock, most kids, you know,
is there anything like mine?
Speaker 2 (32:21):
They're a bit feral.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
They're just they're overtired, they're overstrung, they need a god
as sleep and it's just a massive flight at the
kitchen dinner table every single night.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
So if you can get those nutrients.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
In earlier, you're only going to you know, do the
best you can for your family, and it's only going
to pay off for you long term.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
True and true, true, All right ly and well. For
our final segment of this special episode on kids and
teen nutrition, I wanted to talk a little bit about
teenagers because I do get a lot of questions on
our Nutrition Couch podcast instro about feeding teenagers, and it's
a whole different kettle of fish, whether you're looking at
growth or concern about weight gain or even not gaining weight,
(32:58):
hunger preparing for exam. We certainly cover all of those
key issues, including energy, drinks, and fast food, But what
I wanted to chat specifically around teenagers, and what I
would like the take home message to be is that yes,
teenagers and particularly teenage boys have huge energy demands, particularly
if they're really active and tall. Young teenage girls will
(33:19):
tend to go through their growth but a lot earlier
and as such potentially be battling unwanted necessary weight gain
and hormone issues if they're having difficulty with their periods
and iron. So we cover that too, But I wanted
to talk about with teens. Probably my biggest take home messages.
Teens need meals, not snacks, because you see teens constantly
(33:41):
fueling up on snack foods. So the shapes, the music bars,
the crackers, the dip, the acy balls, the energy drinks.
But the trouble with all of those foods is they've
got no proteins, so they're never full and they just
keep eating or fiber. Yeah, So as a parent of teenagers,
the best thing I would en courage parents to do
(34:01):
is have meals around so that when they get home
from school they can eat leftovers. You're actually putting like
lean meat, you know, using sandwiches as a snack at
school and then reverting to the cooked food in thermoss
for the actual lunch meal. Because if they're only eating
sandwiches and snack food all day, they will eat you
out of house and home when they get home and
(34:22):
again reaching for high carbohydrate things. So I would be
really making sure they've got access to smoothies, toasted sandwiches,
dumplings and at amrmaie leftovers, make extra pasta, put some
chicken through it, or put some tuna through it. The
more you can earn them towards balanced meals, the better
you will find it in terms of appetite, control nutrient intake,
(34:43):
and minimize your spend on all snack food. It's a
waste of money filling teenagers up on snack food. They're
never going to be full, and it's going to cost
you an absolute fortune for refined process carbohydrates and really
poor quality nutrition.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
Yeah, I completely agree.
Speaker 3 (34:57):
And how many times have you got leftovers where you're like,
it's it's not quite enough for a meal, so maybe
I'll just finish it off today. Like I have so
many ladies that I work with that have this struggle.
They're like, oh, I probably overeate at dinner because there
was only a little bit left and I didn't, you know,
I didn't want to waste it and it wasn't enough
for lunch the next day. That is the perfect thing
to give to your growing teenagers, just a little bit
of the leftovers, a little bit of me it's a
(35:18):
little bit of you know, a little bit of rice,
a little bit of veggiees, that tiny bit of stir
fry that you think, oh, should I eat it? Should
I just put a little bit extra into Hubby's plate. Like, really,
we probably don't need that extra nutrition, particularly if.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
The goal is weight loss for US adults.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
But really that's where growing kids can fuel up and
really get in nice balanced meals. Sushi is a great
optionist snacks for growing teenagers as well. If you're going
to make it yourself, it's a bit finicky, but if
you just buy it, particularly if you're going past like
one of the sushi shops sort of around closing time.
Often they'll do half priced rolls and stuff, so it
can be I guess quite affordable a few times a week.
(35:52):
A bit of tuna on some corn bins, a bit
of cheese, cottage cheese, tomato. There's some really good options
that like mini meals that you can fuel kids up
with teenage growing kids. Some soups, some chicken and veggie
soup is a really great idea if it's cooler in winter,
or like Susy Sai'd just some dumplings and some ottamamate.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
It's a really smart choice. Kids just need that extra fuel.
Speaker 3 (36:11):
But again, there's a massive spectrum between growing teenage boys
who literally are just always playing sports, they're always running around,
they're just doing some form of training or exercise all
the time, versus you know, some teenage girls really don't
play any sport and they're going through those puberty years
and they're just not burning anywhere near enough calories to
say some of their male counterparts. So it really is
(36:32):
a spectrum based on where your kids at, how much
activity they do, and really even for some kids, you know,
metabolism and that does come back to genetics. Some kids
are just metabolically so superior than other kids, and it's
like nothing you can give them touches the edges. But
that's where really the protein and the fiber from the
vegetables comes in really really helpful, because if they're just
(36:52):
going to fill up on carb carb carb, they're just
going to be constantly putting it in, burning it off,
and never really ever feeling satiated. The great tips to
use mini meals or leftovers for growing teens to actually
balance their nutrition properly throughout the day.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
Perfect all right, Lemma. We could literally talk about kids
and teen nutrition all day. So if you are interested
in all things feeding your kids with ideas, practical solutions,
and the theory of key nutrient requirements for kids across
the lifespan, our latest ebook of over two hundred pages
is available at the nutritioncouch dot com. It's called Your Kids,
Their Food. It's packed full of practical tips, information on
(37:31):
feeding kids in general, lots of product ideas, lots of
practical tips on how to improve their nutrient intake, and
lots of your most common nutrition questions answered. So whether
you have a fussy eater, whether you have a teenager,
whether you have a really active primary school aged child,
we have all the nutrition information you will need. So
check that out and as always, thank you so much
(37:52):
for listening, and we will see you next Wednesday for
our regular episode drop have a great week.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
Thank you for listening.
Speaker 3 (38:02):
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