September 22, 2025 • 33 mins
Welcome into the Young Dad Pod—whether you’re wrestling with a toddler who only eats beige foods, sneaking veggies into spaghetti sauce, or just trying to survive another grocery store meltdown—thanks for tuning in."Today’s guest is Misa Pignataro, a certified health coach, culinary nutritionist, educator, wife, and mom of two young girls. Her mission? To help shape your child’s tastes one bite at a time—turning chaos into calm at the dinner table and building lifelong healthy habits without the overwhelm.If you want to try her Taste-O-Meter or dive deeper into her work, head over to misascleankitchen.com for free resources, her favorite tips, and links to her programs.Chapters00:00 Introduction to Picky Eating and Family Meals02:48 Transforming Picky Eaters: Strategies for Parents05:47 The Importance of Modeling Behavior in Eating Habits08:40 Making Food Fun: The Taste-O-Meter11:56 Involving Kids in the Kitchen14:29 Building Healthy Eating Habits17:54 Reducing Sugar and Managing Snacks19:45 Meal Planning and Family Style Dining25:34 Final Thoughts on Picky Eating and ParentingCheck out the Website for Interactive Activity Guides, Resources, Full Transcripts, all things YDP- www.youngdadpod.com Clink the Link for YDP Deals (Joon, Forefathers &more)- https://linktr.ee/youngdadpod Want to be a guest on Young Dad Podcast? Send Jey Young a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.joinpodmatch.com/youngdadLastly consider a monetary donation to support the Pod, https://buymeacoffee.com/youngdadpod
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:10):
Welcome into the Young Dad podcast with your outside grill
and mow the lawn, change your dirty diapers.
Or maybe, just maybe, you got a moment to sit back, relax and
listen to your favorite podcast or figure out whatever you're
doing. Thanks for tuning in and thanks
for telling a friend today. We have a a great guest, Mesa, a
certified health coach, a nutritionist, educator, wife and
(00:30):
mom of two young girls. Permission to help shape your
child's taste, one bite at a time, turning chaos into calm as
the dinner table, and building lifelong healthy habits without
the overwhelm. And so with that, Misa, welcome
to the show. Thank you.
Thanks for having me. Of course, I, I love this topic
of having picky eaters because we haven't, I haven't talked
about this on the podcast, but yours truly is a very, very
(00:53):
picky eater, OK, of the palate of a, of a refined 5 year old.
I've always been that way. I've always been that way since
I was younger, since I was a little, little kid.
And do I suffer with the picky eaters?
Thankfully not. My, my daughters are not that
picky, thankfully. And so I'm lucky in that way
because I think I would drive myself crazy.
But you've transformed your own picky eaters, and now you coach
(01:16):
families through that process every day.
And your experience? How can parents ship their focus
from perfect meals to creating just good connection at the
table? Yeah, well, my mantra is keeping
the adventure high and the pressure low.
I think as parents, we love our kids so much.
We just want them to eat like our they're vegetables.
(01:38):
And so we can often get in the habit of like take one bite,
then you can go have dessert, take two bites and you can go
play that kind of thing. Mantra is keeping the adventure
high and the pressure low. So how can we have fun?
How can we bring curiosity to the table?
(02:00):
You know, our job as parents is to cook nutritious meals.
Most of the time decide when we're going to serve the meal.
And our kids job is to decide ifthey're going to eat the meal
and how much they're going to eat.
So it's important for us to stayin our lane and for the kids to
stay in their lane. And oftentimes we get an in
their lane by telling them what to eat and how much to eat.
(02:23):
And it can create this battle that's like meal time meltdowns,
which creates this very unpleasant food environment.
It can create anxiety. Kids don't want to come to the
table. They can create this negative
relationship around family mealsor family dinners.
And when we flip it and we just expose kids, we just build
(02:47):
curiosity, have fun at the table, not focus so much on the
food. That's when kids feel more
comfortable and more willing to try new foods.
No, that makes sense. That makes sense.
It's because we, we all want to be comfortable at the table,
right? I, I can recall a couple
experiences with, with vegetables myself that I was
just like, I don't want to do itbecause you're like forcing me
(03:09):
to do it. And it's not enjoyable to eat
this food and it's still not enjoyable for me to eat those
foods because I just don't want to.
It's just not. It's not enjoyable for me.
But yeah. So.
So how did you get into doing doing all this?
And what kind of made you made you want to get into all this?
Yeah, well, I have two girls. They're 10 and 13.
(03:32):
They're both great eaters now. But my youngest was diagnosed
with failure to thrive when she was one.
She had a lot of food sensitivity.
She had a constant runny nose, so she didn't want to eat food.
She didn't feel like her belly probably was bothering her so
she didn't start eating solid foods until she was 2 and we
(03:55):
were recommended to do tonsils and adenoids go through surgery.
But instead we went to a naturopathic Dr. and realized
that she had all these food sensitivities.
And once we figured that out, I was nursing at the time and I
was eating gluten and dairy and soy and corn and all the things
(04:17):
she was allergic to. So once I removed all of those
foods, her runny nose stopped and she started eating solid
foods, but she missed. There's this window of time, the
flavor window from six months toabout two years old where babies
are, You know, most of us will say our babies ate anything,
(04:38):
like, they eat everything. And then when they turn 2, they
all of a sudden, like, get pickyand they learn the word no add
2. And so things can start to go
sideways. So my daughter was a picky
eater. And so I just spent my time like
researching, learning, navigating, experimenting,
(04:59):
filling my parenting toolbox with a variety of different
tools. And through the years, you know,
we got out of that stage, which was really overwhelming and
stressful and all consuming for me worrying about if she was
getting enough nutrition. And I just, and talking to my
own friends that were moms that were navigating the same thing,
(05:23):
like my kids don't eat anything.They used to eat everything and
like how stressful it was. So I decided to get my health
coach certification. My background is in education.
I taught first grade for 10 years.
So I started just teaching kids cooking classes and got kind of
morphed into coaching families now.
(05:44):
But I love being able to work with families and kids and
combine my knowledge around nutrition and my background with
an education, so that's how it evolved.
That's a really, really cool mixof, of background and how, how
it all came to be. That's what I find a lot talking
to other people here on the podcast is that it's, it's some
(06:06):
personal experience that led them down the path to what
they're doing, doing now, what they're doing today, whether
it's from education or from business or from some past
experience. It's, it's really cool to see
how our, our past take us to these newer, newer paths.
And so when it comes to to kids and picky eaters, and right
(06:27):
around that age of two years oldto who knows what age what, what
would you say is really going onwhen a kid refuses to try
something new? Well, they learned the word no.
It's their new favorite word. Kids are developing their sense
of independence and, and want tobe have that autonomy.
(06:50):
So it just often times I think we try to try a new food three
times or five times and then we we just stop.
They're like, OK, they're not going to eat this.
Why bother? And because we have frustrated
and it's time consuming. It's money, you know, energy in
the kitchen. We're like, OK, I'm done.
(07:10):
But it can take 15 to 20 times of exposing our kids for our
kids to develop that taste. So it's important for us during
that time to continue to expose and continue to try different
ways. For example, broccoli, you know,
broccoli is, can be steamed, it can be raw, it can be roasted,
it can be dipped in ranch, it can be put on pizza, you know,
(07:34):
it could be put in soup. There's so many different ways
to try broccoli. So if your kids don't like
broccoli raw, it doesn't mean they don't like broccoli.
It just means they don't like ittoday or they don't like it that
way. So try something different.
And you know, it's important to not give up and to just continue
to experiment and to for our kids to see us eating those
(07:58):
foods. It's all about modeling and just
to continue to do what you're doing and continue to eat the
foods that you want your kids toenjoy someday.
Makes sense. And that modeling is really
important and more than one way when it comes to parenting too.
It's all about the the way that we model a bunch of different
(08:19):
things, right? Like our kids are going to pick
up, they're they're going to do what we say for a little bit of
the part a little bit. They're going to do what we do
more. So yeah, they're going to copy
and paste. You know, if they see mom and
Dad eating a certain thing, they're more likely going to
want to eat that. If they see mom and dad not
eating a certain thing, but you're trying to make them eat a
certain thing, then they're going to pick up on that.
(08:40):
And they'll be like, why do I have to eat that when you don't
eat it kind of thing. And you know the I because I
said so, because I put that on your plate only works for so
long. Yeah.
Before you got to eat, change your own habit yourself.
So that's really important to recognize too, and to remember.
Yeah, I read in some book kids listen to 20% of what we say and
(09:03):
80% of what we do. So it really is a huge part of
parenting. It's modeling.
Yes, the the the classic 8020 rule.
Yes. And it's yeah.
And they do a lot more what we do, how we, how we act, how we
respond, how we navigate our, our day-to-day is how they're
(09:23):
going to pick up how to navigatetheir day-to-day.
So it's really common how those two things align.
So it's really, it's really coolat the same time, but it, it's
can also be scary because if we're not doing something but
telling them to do something, then that's when we create some
of those gaps. And those gaps are what's going
to catch up to us in the end. So.
Yeah, it feels like a lot of pressure.
(09:44):
It will. It 100% is no big deal.
Just, you know, they're going todo 80% of what you do, yeah.
No big deal. Yeah, no big deal.
Just just deal with it. You'll be fine.
Kind of kind of going back to what you mentioned at the
beginning about making food fun and making eating a fun time
(10:06):
versus, you know, something that's pressured and pressure
filled. Pressure filled.
Have something called a taste O meter.
You tell us a little bit about that and how does that turn the
food into a game and help breakdown some of the resistance
and build excitement with eating?
Yeah, so I started using this with my own kids and then I
(10:28):
started using it in kids cookingclasses and it was amazing that
so I have this taste O meter. It's on a scale of zero to 10.
And I say instead of saying takea bite, I say tell me what you
rate it. So it's that little shift in
language. I'm not telling them to take a
bite, I'm telling them to play agame.
And if they want to play the game, they have to take a bite.
(10:50):
So it's thumbs up. I love it.
Thumbs to the side, it's OK. Or thumbs down.
I don't like it yet. Putting the word yet is
important. It offers this growth mindset of
like, maybe I don't like it today, but I'll like it in the
future maybe. So I'm going to keep trying, but
it's just a really fun way to gamify it.
And I use this in my cooking classes and parents are like, Oh
(11:12):
my gosh, I can't believe they ate avocado.
I've been trying to get them to eat avocado for years or Oh my
goodness, they ate like Nori because we make rainbow veggie
sushi. I can't believe they ate that.
Like they haven't touched, you know that ever.
And it's just, I had a client whose kids asked to try new
foods just so they could use thetaste O meter.
(11:35):
So it's just this really fun way.
I, it's printed out in color, put it on the fridge as a
reminder to make things fun. And I have that on my website as
a free download. I can share with you the link to
put in the show notes if people are interested.
But it's just a just, yeah, another fun way to make it more
enjoyable and take the stress away.
(11:57):
Very cool. I like that because it's, it can
be really hard to get a kid to try something new or to enjoy it
because normally it's a one bitespit out kind of thing.
It's like, I don't like it kind of thing.
And it's not, it's not enjoyablefor anybody, especially for
parents, right? Because we'll be like, well, we
just wasted all that time tryingto cook this really good thing
(12:19):
that I like, but now you don't like it kind of thing.
And then we run into the whole predicament of it can be
frustrating. Then then you go from making one
meal to two meals, and then that's a slippery slope.
If you have multiple children, you go from making one meal to
two meals to three meals and you're making multiple different
dishes just to keep everyone happy and to keep everyone going
(12:41):
when everyone should and ideallybe eating the same thing.
Also being able to make it fun. And then that growth mindset's
really important too because yes, I just don't, You don't
like it yet. There's still opportunity for
you to like it later kind of thing.
And having something fun and easygoing to make it make all
the different there. So it's.
(13:03):
A slippery slope. It's a slippery slope with
starting one meal and two meals and all of a sudden you got 5
meals, 5 different people, all the dishes.
So I do help clients learn to cook one meal for the whole
family. I think that's important thing
to for our own sanity as well Asfor our kids, yeah.
(13:24):
No, 100%, because that keeps everyone sane, keeps everyone
happy. Yeah.
And it starts when they're they're really, really young.
But with the with the habits andcreating though that window you
mentioned from six months to twoyears, that's when our babies
are normally trying all the new foods, trying everything.
We're putting everything we can think of into them to eat and to
(13:48):
to try to enjoy, to try to get them to to like it and what not.
That's a super important window.But what if you already missed
that window and your kids are a little bit all older now?
What are a few small, sustainable ways that parents
can build a healthier eating habit?
Yeah, get your kids in the kitchen if you can get your kids
(14:08):
helping. It's amazing how much more
willing kids are to try new foods or how excited they are if
they helped make the new foods and are involved in the process.
So getting your kids in the kitchen and it doesn't have to
be this big thing on the weekend, it could be making
muffins or scrambled eggs. But during the week, if we're
busy and we got like 10 minutes to get dinner on the table, it
(14:31):
could just be, can you add this salt to my to our stir fry?
And then they could add a pinch of salt.
And then you could say somethinglike, can you tell me if it
needs more salt? And the only way for them to
tell you is to taste it. So again, you're not telling
them to taste it. You're saying, can you help me
out? Can you tell me if it needs more
(14:51):
salt or is there anything else that we can add?
Do you want to add any herbs or spices?
And then when they you guys all sit down together at the table,
Oh my gosh, this is like the perfect amount of salt.
How did you get this? So right?
Just like building up their confidence and they're going to
feel so proud. And so I think, yeah, just
(15:13):
getting them in the kitchen any way that you can, big or small,
is a great way to to get kids exposure, exposure.
And I can just be like, for example, spinach.
If your kids don't like spinach,you could start by baking
spinach muffins, which sounds weird, but it doesn't taste the
(15:35):
the spinach doesn't change the taste of the muffin.
It's just changes the color. So you could start with that and
then you could do spinach pancakes and then you could do
spinach smoothies and then you could do, you know, spinach stir
fry. But there's so many different
ways to get your kids to enjoy spinach.
It just takes a little bit of experimentation and asking your
(15:57):
kids, getting them involved. So that's one area that I would
start in. And the second one I would say
is all about our mindset, our, our personal mindset as parents
as well as our kids mindset. I think it's important that we
don't use the word picky eaters around our kids because they
hear that and then they internalize it and they're then
(16:20):
they say, like, I'm a picky eater, I don't like vegetables,
I'm a picky eater. I'm not going to try that.
And I've heard that, I've heard kids say that.
So I think as parents, it's important for us to just think
that, you know, our kids are just learning to like a variety
of different foods, which is what we're all doing.
We're all learning to like new foods.
(16:43):
And so if we can shift our own mindset, we show up differently
to the table. And if our kids I get help
shifting their mindset around just learning to like different
foods, I think that's really important for encouraging a
great place to start. Absolutely, absolutely.
And I think it's, I think it's important to remember too, in
(17:05):
addition to that, like our, our kids are small.
They've only been alive for however many years they've been
alive. Like for you, you have 1013.
I have 4:00 and 8:00 and we're, you know, significantly older
than our children, right? So we have many, many more years
of experience than them. And we have many, many more
years of eating and trying new foods, things like that.
And so you think about that fromthat perspective, like, OK,
(17:28):
they're, they're not liking thisbecause they haven't tried it a
bunch of times. I think they should like it
because I like it and I know what it tastes like and I know
it's really good. But this is maybe their first,
second, 4th, 6th time trying it kind of thing.
And maybe they're just not a bigfan of it right now.
That can change later kind of thing.
And so just giving them that chance to to make those changes
(17:50):
is is really important as well. Yeah.
Definitely. But I think I think getting them
in the kitchen and that exposureis, is really important because
that's where it all learns, right?
That's where a lot of our language as humans has learned
too, is in the kitchen and around the dining area.
That's where a lot of skills arelearned.
(18:10):
That's where a lot of language is learned and there's some
really great things that come from being in the kitchen and
being around the food and learning those things.
Not just the eating part of it, and not just the food part of
it, but also the language and the skills that come with it as
well. Yes, 100%.
I mean, when my kids were little, they were learning
colors, they were learning the difference between a fruit and a
(18:31):
vegetable. They were learning textures when
my kids were older, they were learning fractions.
They were learning how to read fractions if we double the
recipe. They were learning how to add
fractions together, learning howto read a recipe.
I mean, there's so many different things that you can do
in the kitchen. It's amazing.
(18:52):
Exactly, exactly. And there's a lot of great
skills that come from it as well.
So just being in the kitchen, getting them exposed to it,
getting them comfortable in the kitchen I think is really
important because then they're more comfortable around the
food. They're more comfortable around
just all the things that come with with the kitchen and within
from it. I think that's really important.
(19:13):
Sorry. Are there any like tips that you
have for reducing sugar without rebellion?
Because I personally have a fouryear old that is all about the
sugar. She lives for the sugar.
So is there anything that any tips that you have for reducing
sugar without a uprising and howwe can stop the snack parade?
(19:34):
Which, yeah. And teach kids to actually feel
full because I swear that my my youngest one, she never feels
full. She always wants a snack or
she's just going for a snack. It's just snack after a snack
after a snack. And then when it comes to meal
time, she's not eating a Dang thing.
But then 10 minutes later, she'shungry again.
Yes, I hear you. Those are all good questions.
(19:54):
So in terms of being hungry all the time and snacking
constantly, I would think about what your kids are eating.
It's important. Protein is a satiating
macronutrient. And when we think of snacks
generally, chips, goldfish bar, granola bars.
(20:16):
Those don't have any protein or very little protein and so it's
not going to be satiating. So if they have goldfish and
then they're hungry, 30 minutes later they are still hungry
because there's no protein in those.
It's important to have like protein, healthy fats, fiber to
help fill your belly. And so if you're serving
goldfish, I'd serve like Turkey with it or you know, serve
(20:39):
protein with the chips to help fill their bellies.
So then if they have the protein, they should be able to
go a few hours without eating. So you know, Turkey, beef
sticks, Greek yogurt, hard boiled eggs, those are all
protein rich foods. And then in terms of minimizing
(21:02):
the sugar, if I like to like buythe plain, like a lot of yogurt
is really high in sugar. It can have, you know, 24 grams
of added sugar and like a cup orsomething.
So if you buy the plain yogurt and the yogurt that they're used
to, you could mix the two together.
(21:23):
And so like slowly increase the plain while decreasing the sugar
sweetened yogurt. And so they don't really notice
the difference and you're just slowly increasing or buying the
plain yogurt and then adding your own Maple syrup or honey,
which will reduce the amount of added sugar.
So playing around with the ratios.
Juice is another big one that has a lot of added sugar.
(21:46):
So slowly adding water to the juice, diluting the ratio.
And then depending on the kids age, just reading labels and
reading ingredients, reading them out loud so they can hear
you like, and then looking at the grams of added sugar and
just kind of helping them be more aware of it.
(22:08):
Like 4G of sugar equals 1 teaspoon.
So a fun experiment. Let's say they're having a
granola bar that has 8 grams of added sugar.
Well that's 2 teaspoons. So you could spoon out 2
teaspoons and be like, this granola bar has this much sugar.
What do you think? And then just like even a peanut
(22:31):
butter Jelly sandwich, dependingon the bread that you get, the
peanut butter and the Jelly, that can be up to 25 grams of
added sugar, which is 6 teaspoons.
So you scoop out six teaspoons and you're like, wow, Can you
believe it? This sandwich has 6 grams of
teaspoons. And of course it's in a non
judgmental way. It's just bringing like
curiosity, Like what do you think?
(22:53):
Did you think there was that much sugar in this sandwich?
Just bringing awareness, lookingat the ingredients, looking at
the nutrition panel, looking forideally you're looking for more
protein, more fiber, less sugar.Yeah, I think those are really
important and teaching our our kids that is, is something
tricky. But I think it's also making
(23:15):
sure we have those options available for them too, right?
Making sure they have those quick grab like protein options
available, whether it's like a pepperoni steak or lunch meat
that they can just grab a couplepieces up to go with their snack
or whatever it is. We're making sure they grab it
as well because it's if they, ifthey don't see it, they won't
grab it. If it's not where their snacks
(23:36):
are and they pay a tree or closeto their stuff, they're not
going to grab it. They're going to grab where
they're used to grab. You can grab whatever you have
already there kind of thing. So if you add to it and they see
it and they know that they can have it and they know they can
grab it whenever, then I think that they're way more likely to
grab it than not. Yeah, I like, somebody told me
that, you know, you often hear kids saying, you know, they open
(23:59):
the fridge and they're like, there's like nothing in the
fridge to eat. And it's like, yeah, you got to
make it. You know, as opposed to going
into the pantry and buy and getting a bag of chips or a bar
or something that's so easy and so convenient and they don't
have to make it. You have to open the fridge.
You have to take out a rice cake, you have to take out
(24:20):
peanut butter, you have to spread it or you have to take
out the yogurt and put some berries in it or whatever.
I, I always recommend to my clients instead of buying the
single serve yogurt or the single serve chips or the single
serve, you know, buy the whole big thing of yogurt.
You know, then they have to makeit.
And it's not just like this mindless eating.
(24:40):
It slows them down and it's like, am I really hungry?
Do I really want this because I have to make it and then I have
to clean up after myself. For the older kids, it kind of
just makes them like slow down and think, am I really hungry or
am I bored? And that makes me slow down too,
because then I'm like, well, I don't have anything quickly
available or I have to heat something up or something.
And I'm not feeling like doing that.
(25:02):
So I'm just going to not do anything then kind of thing.
And that's, that's a common, a common thing that I do when it
comes to, to meal planning. And you know, that effort that
we're talking about here. How do you make family meals
work without being a short ordercook?
Are there any good tips for mealplanning, prepping and shopping
(25:22):
efficiently? You mentioned just one, making
sure you buy the bigger one to make sure that there's effort,
but any other tips for meal planning?
Yeah, well, depending on their age, I like to get them
involved. I usually ask my family, my
husband, my kids, what do you want for dinner?
So they can chip in. And if we each share one or two
(25:42):
meals that we want, it makes my life easier.
I don't have to think about it and it gets them involved so
they have a say. And what's for dinner?
My oldest, we like to like scroll through Instagram.
My favorite food Blogger, She loves to just just the fun thing
like, oh, can we try this? Can we try this?
So or looking through a cookbookor whatever it might be.
(26:04):
So getting the kids involved is important.
And then in terms of like how you serve the dinner, I like
family style meal, which is putting all the ingredients out
on the table. So if you're doing Taco night,
you've got your guacamole, you've got your Peppers, you've
got your beef, you've got your shell, you got your lettuce, and
(26:24):
it's all like individually. So then the kids can make their
own. They're serving themselves,
they're deciding how much they want, they're deciding how they
want to put it on their plate, They're deciding if they're
going to what they're going to put on their plate.
And so everybody's plate is going to look a little
different, but we all have the same ingredients.
And even if your child doesn't choose lettuce, for example,
(26:48):
they're seeing other people eat and enjoy the lettuce and
they're being exposed to it because it's in front of them.
And maybe next time they'll choose it.
So family style is just a reallygreat way to 1 expose kids and
two, to all be eating something similar.
And then I just put it in like the glass Tupperware container,
put a lid on it so it's not all these dishes and then just put
(27:10):
it back all in the fridge. So it's just, it's an easy way.
My kids love family styles because they have a say and what
they eat and how they create it.You can do that for burger
night, pasta night, pizza night,you know, putting just all the
ingredients out on the table. OK.
(27:30):
Is there is there any, anything else when it comes to any of the
few things that we've talked about today or anything else
that you want to mention or whenit comes to helping our picky
eaters unpicky themselves? Yeah.
Well, I think just being mindfulof staying in our own, reminding
(27:52):
ourselves of our job and as muchas we want our kids to eat all
the food that we make, doing ourbest to keep that pressure off
of kids and to keep it fun. Another way that I use a lot of
the blindfold game, so like if your kids don't like Peppers,
(28:14):
you have get the red Peppers andthe orange Peppers and the
yellow Peppers and put a blindfold on and put them all in
front of you and say, can you figure out like model it for
yourself? Oh my goodness, you know, I
can't figure out which color is which and try to figure out
which is which and then have your kids try to do it.
It's just a fun way to like explore the different foods
(28:36):
without pressure and kids love doing that.
And you can do that with carrots.
So you can get all the differentcolor carrots of like the yellow
and the orange and the purple carrots.
Or you can do you know the whitesweet potato and the orange
sweet potato and there's purple sweet potato.
So if your kids are are adverse to trying a certain vegetable,
(28:57):
see if there's different colors.Another way is like if you have
access to a local farm, get local farm fresh carrots and
then get store bought carrots and see if they can taste the
difference between the two. I mean, there's so many
different ways to bring fun and curiosity to the table and it's
amazing. I hear it over and over and
again, like, Oh my gosh, my kidsare willing to eat this and they
(29:19):
actually like it because we're not telling them to eat it.
It's like we're figuring out howto have fun.
We're modeling it. And so it just takes some
creativity. No, I love that, and that's
important too because kids are all about fun.
They just want to have fun. That's all they want at the end
of the day. All right.
Well, Mesa, Are you ready to enter the last few questions of
(29:42):
the conversation here today, what I call the Dad Zone?
OK. All right, let's do it.
So first question here in the dozen.
There's four questions here. If you could invite any three
people, dead or alive, to dinner, who is coming in to your
dinner party? OK, well, Doctor Mark Hyman has
been somebody that I've looked up to.
He's in the functional medicine space.
(30:03):
He's what introduced me to the whole world of food as medicine.
So I'd love for him to come to the table, pick my, pick his
brain, learn as much as I can about the functional medicine
space. Aaron Halt is also somebody I
admire. She's a functional nutritionist.
She's built this amazing business from scratch,
(30:26):
virtually. I've watched her over the years
build this incredible business helping women.
And so I'd love to pick her brain on all things business and
how she built this multi $1,000,000 business.
And then one more. One more.
Goodness, I should have thought about this ahead of time.
(30:48):
Let's see Michelle Obama. I'd love to pick her brand.
Learn as much, You know, to haveher at the dinner table.
Yeah. What is your personal go to
guilty pleasure snack or comfortfood?
I always like to have dark chocolate on hand.
I like it. I like it.
And then last question here, second to last question here,
last one in the first part of the dad's zone.
(31:10):
Does pineapple go on pizza? Yeah.
Well, you would say that because, you know, opened
everything but different, different things for different
people. But that's OK.
And then last, last question here before we close out here
was one piece of advice that youwould give to a new parent.
So a new mom or new dad? Yeah, hold on.
(31:31):
Let me preface this a little bitmore.
They're they're young parents too.
Let's say they're like 18 to 22 years old.
So a young a young parent who's just starting out their their.
Yeah, well, in terms of food andnavigating.
In terms of whatever you want tooffer them a piece of advice
for, so they're, they're 1822 years old, they're just starting
out their parent journey, they're young.
So you can offer that one piece of advice to a mom or to a dad.
(31:54):
Yeah, it's being a parent is an amazing ride.
It's got lots of ups and downs, and you're doing an amazing job.
As long as you love your parent,as long as you you know you love
your kids, you're doing an amazing job.
Love it. Thank you.
All right, Misa, well, thank youfor giving us the time today to
(32:16):
to slow down a little bit, eat well and make food fun again.
If you want to try the taste themeter or dive deeper into your
work can head over to Misa's cleankitchen.com.
That's MISASCLEANKITC hen.com. I'll also put that in the show
notes in the description as well.
You can get free resources, yourfavorite tips and links to her
(32:38):
programs as well over there. Any other things that we should
mention here at the end for you Misa?
Yeah, they can just follow me onInstagram as well.
I've got lots of tips and recipes there as well.
Love it. Well, with Lisa, thank you so
much for the conversation today.I really did appreciate it.
I really did appreciate your time.
And I hope our our listeners learned a little something here
as well, something they can takeback and apply to their own
(33:00):
day-to-day cooking and eating habits.
And until next time, we'll catchyou right here on the Young Dad
Podcast.
Welcome into the Young Dad podcast with your outside grill
and mow the lawn, change your dirty diapers.
Or maybe, just maybe, you got a moment to sit back, relax and
listen to your favorite podcast or figure out whatever you're
doing. Thanks for tuning in and thanks
for telling a friend today. We have a a great guest, Mesa, a
certified health coach, a nutritionist, educator, wife and
(00:30):
mom of two young girls. Permission to help shape your
child's taste, one bite at a time, turning chaos into calm as
the dinner table, and building lifelong healthy habits without
the overwhelm. And so with that, Misa, welcome
to the show. Thank you.
Thanks for having me. Of course, I, I love this topic
of having picky eaters because we haven't, I haven't talked
about this on the podcast, but yours truly is a very, very
(00:53):
picky eater, OK, of the palate of a, of a refined 5 year old.
I've always been that way. I've always been that way since
I was younger, since I was a little, little kid.
And do I suffer with the picky eaters?
Thankfully not. My, my daughters are not that
picky, thankfully. And so I'm lucky in that way
because I think I would drive myself crazy.
But you've transformed your own picky eaters, and now you coach
(01:16):
families through that process every day.
And your experience? How can parents ship their focus
from perfect meals to creating just good connection at the
table? Yeah, well, my mantra is keeping
the adventure high and the pressure low.
I think as parents, we love our kids so much.
We just want them to eat like our they're vegetables.
(01:38):
And so we can often get in the habit of like take one bite,
then you can go have dessert, take two bites and you can go
play that kind of thing. Mantra is keeping the adventure
high and the pressure low. So how can we have fun?
How can we bring curiosity to the table?
(02:00):
You know, our job as parents is to cook nutritious meals.
Most of the time decide when we're going to serve the meal.
And our kids job is to decide ifthey're going to eat the meal
and how much they're going to eat.
So it's important for us to stayin our lane and for the kids to
stay in their lane. And oftentimes we get an in
their lane by telling them what to eat and how much to eat.
(02:23):
And it can create this battle that's like meal time meltdowns,
which creates this very unpleasant food environment.
It can create anxiety. Kids don't want to come to the
table. They can create this negative
relationship around family mealsor family dinners.
And when we flip it and we just expose kids, we just build
(02:47):
curiosity, have fun at the table, not focus so much on the
food. That's when kids feel more
comfortable and more willing to try new foods.
No, that makes sense. That makes sense.
It's because we, we all want to be comfortable at the table,
right? I, I can recall a couple
experiences with, with vegetables myself that I was
just like, I don't want to do itbecause you're like forcing me
(03:09):
to do it. And it's not enjoyable to eat
this food and it's still not enjoyable for me to eat those
foods because I just don't want to.
It's just not. It's not enjoyable for me.
But yeah. So.
So how did you get into doing doing all this?
And what kind of made you made you want to get into all this?
Yeah, well, I have two girls. They're 10 and 13.
(03:32):
They're both great eaters now. But my youngest was diagnosed
with failure to thrive when she was one.
She had a lot of food sensitivity.
She had a constant runny nose, so she didn't want to eat food.
She didn't feel like her belly probably was bothering her so
she didn't start eating solid foods until she was 2 and we
(03:55):
were recommended to do tonsils and adenoids go through surgery.
But instead we went to a naturopathic Dr. and realized
that she had all these food sensitivities.
And once we figured that out, I was nursing at the time and I
was eating gluten and dairy and soy and corn and all the things
(04:17):
she was allergic to. So once I removed all of those
foods, her runny nose stopped and she started eating solid
foods, but she missed. There's this window of time, the
flavor window from six months toabout two years old where babies
are, You know, most of us will say our babies ate anything,
(04:38):
like, they eat everything. And then when they turn 2, they
all of a sudden, like, get pickyand they learn the word no add
2. And so things can start to go
sideways. So my daughter was a picky
eater. And so I just spent my time like
researching, learning, navigating, experimenting,
(04:59):
filling my parenting toolbox with a variety of different
tools. And through the years, you know,
we got out of that stage, which was really overwhelming and
stressful and all consuming for me worrying about if she was
getting enough nutrition. And I just, and talking to my
own friends that were moms that were navigating the same thing,
(05:23):
like my kids don't eat anything.They used to eat everything and
like how stressful it was. So I decided to get my health
coach certification. My background is in education.
I taught first grade for 10 years.
So I started just teaching kids cooking classes and got kind of
morphed into coaching families now.
(05:44):
But I love being able to work with families and kids and
combine my knowledge around nutrition and my background with
an education, so that's how it evolved.
That's a really, really cool mixof, of background and how, how
it all came to be. That's what I find a lot talking
to other people here on the podcast is that it's, it's some
(06:06):
personal experience that led them down the path to what
they're doing, doing now, what they're doing today, whether
it's from education or from business or from some past
experience. It's, it's really cool to see
how our, our past take us to these newer, newer paths.
And so when it comes to to kids and picky eaters, and right
(06:27):
around that age of two years oldto who knows what age what, what
would you say is really going onwhen a kid refuses to try
something new? Well, they learned the word no.
It's their new favorite word. Kids are developing their sense
of independence and, and want tobe have that autonomy.
(06:50):
So it just often times I think we try to try a new food three
times or five times and then we we just stop.
They're like, OK, they're not going to eat this.
Why bother? And because we have frustrated
and it's time consuming. It's money, you know, energy in
the kitchen. We're like, OK, I'm done.
(07:10):
But it can take 15 to 20 times of exposing our kids for our
kids to develop that taste. So it's important for us during
that time to continue to expose and continue to try different
ways. For example, broccoli, you know,
broccoli is, can be steamed, it can be raw, it can be roasted,
it can be dipped in ranch, it can be put on pizza, you know,
(07:34):
it could be put in soup. There's so many different ways
to try broccoli. So if your kids don't like
broccoli raw, it doesn't mean they don't like broccoli.
It just means they don't like ittoday or they don't like it that
way. So try something different.
And you know, it's important to not give up and to just continue
to experiment and to for our kids to see us eating those
(07:58):
foods. It's all about modeling and just
to continue to do what you're doing and continue to eat the
foods that you want your kids toenjoy someday.
Makes sense. And that modeling is really
important and more than one way when it comes to parenting too.
It's all about the the way that we model a bunch of different
(08:19):
things, right? Like our kids are going to pick
up, they're they're going to do what we say for a little bit of
the part a little bit. They're going to do what we do
more. So yeah, they're going to copy
and paste. You know, if they see mom and
Dad eating a certain thing, they're more likely going to
want to eat that. If they see mom and dad not
eating a certain thing, but you're trying to make them eat a
certain thing, then they're going to pick up on that.
(08:40):
And they'll be like, why do I have to eat that when you don't
eat it kind of thing. And you know the I because I
said so, because I put that on your plate only works for so
long. Yeah.
Before you got to eat, change your own habit yourself.
So that's really important to recognize too, and to remember.
Yeah, I read in some book kids listen to 20% of what we say and
(09:03):
80% of what we do. So it really is a huge part of
parenting. It's modeling.
Yes, the the the classic 8020 rule.
Yes. And it's yeah.
And they do a lot more what we do, how we, how we act, how we
respond, how we navigate our, our day-to-day is how they're
(09:23):
going to pick up how to navigatetheir day-to-day.
So it's really common how those two things align.
So it's really, it's really coolat the same time, but it, it's
can also be scary because if we're not doing something but
telling them to do something, then that's when we create some
of those gaps. And those gaps are what's going
to catch up to us in the end. So.
Yeah, it feels like a lot of pressure.
(09:44):
It will. It 100% is no big deal.
Just, you know, they're going todo 80% of what you do, yeah.
No big deal. Yeah, no big deal.
Just just deal with it. You'll be fine.
Kind of kind of going back to what you mentioned at the
beginning about making food fun and making eating a fun time
(10:06):
versus, you know, something that's pressured and pressure
filled. Pressure filled.
Have something called a taste O meter.
You tell us a little bit about that and how does that turn the
food into a game and help breakdown some of the resistance
and build excitement with eating?
Yeah, so I started using this with my own kids and then I
(10:28):
started using it in kids cookingclasses and it was amazing that
so I have this taste O meter. It's on a scale of zero to 10.
And I say instead of saying takea bite, I say tell me what you
rate it. So it's that little shift in
language. I'm not telling them to take a
bite, I'm telling them to play agame.
And if they want to play the game, they have to take a bite.
(10:50):
So it's thumbs up. I love it.
Thumbs to the side, it's OK. Or thumbs down.
I don't like it yet. Putting the word yet is
important. It offers this growth mindset of
like, maybe I don't like it today, but I'll like it in the
future maybe. So I'm going to keep trying, but
it's just a really fun way to gamify it.
And I use this in my cooking classes and parents are like, Oh
(11:12):
my gosh, I can't believe they ate avocado.
I've been trying to get them to eat avocado for years or Oh my
goodness, they ate like Nori because we make rainbow veggie
sushi. I can't believe they ate that.
Like they haven't touched, you know that ever.
And it's just, I had a client whose kids asked to try new
foods just so they could use thetaste O meter.
(11:35):
So it's just this really fun way.
I, it's printed out in color, put it on the fridge as a
reminder to make things fun. And I have that on my website as
a free download. I can share with you the link to
put in the show notes if people are interested.
But it's just a just, yeah, another fun way to make it more
enjoyable and take the stress away.
(11:57):
Very cool. I like that because it's, it can
be really hard to get a kid to try something new or to enjoy it
because normally it's a one bitespit out kind of thing.
It's like, I don't like it kind of thing.
And it's not, it's not enjoyablefor anybody, especially for
parents, right? Because we'll be like, well, we
just wasted all that time tryingto cook this really good thing
(12:19):
that I like, but now you don't like it kind of thing.
And then we run into the whole predicament of it can be
frustrating. Then then you go from making one
meal to two meals, and then that's a slippery slope.
If you have multiple children, you go from making one meal to
two meals to three meals and you're making multiple different
dishes just to keep everyone happy and to keep everyone going
(12:41):
when everyone should and ideallybe eating the same thing.
Also being able to make it fun. And then that growth mindset's
really important too because yes, I just don't, You don't
like it yet. There's still opportunity for
you to like it later kind of thing.
And having something fun and easygoing to make it make all
the different there. So it's.
(13:03):
A slippery slope. It's a slippery slope with
starting one meal and two meals and all of a sudden you got 5
meals, 5 different people, all the dishes.
So I do help clients learn to cook one meal for the whole
family. I think that's important thing
to for our own sanity as well Asfor our kids, yeah.
(13:24):
No, 100%, because that keeps everyone sane, keeps everyone
happy. Yeah.
And it starts when they're they're really, really young.
But with the with the habits andcreating though that window you
mentioned from six months to twoyears, that's when our babies
are normally trying all the new foods, trying everything.
We're putting everything we can think of into them to eat and to
(13:48):
to try to enjoy, to try to get them to to like it and what not.
That's a super important window.But what if you already missed
that window and your kids are a little bit all older now?
What are a few small, sustainable ways that parents
can build a healthier eating habit?
Yeah, get your kids in the kitchen if you can get your kids
(14:08):
helping. It's amazing how much more
willing kids are to try new foods or how excited they are if
they helped make the new foods and are involved in the process.
So getting your kids in the kitchen and it doesn't have to
be this big thing on the weekend, it could be making
muffins or scrambled eggs. But during the week, if we're
busy and we got like 10 minutes to get dinner on the table, it
(14:31):
could just be, can you add this salt to my to our stir fry?
And then they could add a pinch of salt.
And then you could say somethinglike, can you tell me if it
needs more salt? And the only way for them to
tell you is to taste it. So again, you're not telling
them to taste it. You're saying, can you help me
out? Can you tell me if it needs more
(14:51):
salt or is there anything else that we can add?
Do you want to add any herbs or spices?
And then when they you guys all sit down together at the table,
Oh my gosh, this is like the perfect amount of salt.
How did you get this? So right?
Just like building up their confidence and they're going to
feel so proud. And so I think, yeah, just
(15:13):
getting them in the kitchen any way that you can, big or small,
is a great way to to get kids exposure, exposure.
And I can just be like, for example, spinach.
If your kids don't like spinach,you could start by baking
spinach muffins, which sounds weird, but it doesn't taste the
(15:35):
the spinach doesn't change the taste of the muffin.
It's just changes the color. So you could start with that and
then you could do spinach pancakes and then you could do
spinach smoothies and then you could do, you know, spinach stir
fry. But there's so many different
ways to get your kids to enjoy spinach.
It just takes a little bit of experimentation and asking your
(15:57):
kids, getting them involved. So that's one area that I would
start in. And the second one I would say
is all about our mindset, our, our personal mindset as parents
as well as our kids mindset. I think it's important that we
don't use the word picky eaters around our kids because they
hear that and then they internalize it and they're then
(16:20):
they say, like, I'm a picky eater, I don't like vegetables,
I'm a picky eater. I'm not going to try that.
And I've heard that, I've heard kids say that.
So I think as parents, it's important for us to just think
that, you know, our kids are just learning to like a variety
of different foods, which is what we're all doing.
We're all learning to like new foods.
(16:43):
And so if we can shift our own mindset, we show up differently
to the table. And if our kids I get help
shifting their mindset around just learning to like different
foods, I think that's really important for encouraging a
great place to start. Absolutely, absolutely.
And I think it's, I think it's important to remember too, in
(17:05):
addition to that, like our, our kids are small.
They've only been alive for however many years they've been
alive. Like for you, you have 1013.
I have 4:00 and 8:00 and we're, you know, significantly older
than our children, right? So we have many, many more years
of experience than them. And we have many, many more
years of eating and trying new foods, things like that.
And so you think about that fromthat perspective, like, OK,
(17:28):
they're, they're not liking thisbecause they haven't tried it a
bunch of times. I think they should like it
because I like it and I know what it tastes like and I know
it's really good. But this is maybe their first,
second, 4th, 6th time trying it kind of thing.
And maybe they're just not a bigfan of it right now.
That can change later kind of thing.
And so just giving them that chance to to make those changes
(17:50):
is is really important as well. Yeah.
Definitely. But I think I think getting them
in the kitchen and that exposureis, is really important because
that's where it all learns, right?
That's where a lot of our language as humans has learned
too, is in the kitchen and around the dining area.
That's where a lot of skills arelearned.
(18:10):
That's where a lot of language is learned and there's some
really great things that come from being in the kitchen and
being around the food and learning those things.
Not just the eating part of it, and not just the food part of
it, but also the language and the skills that come with it as
well. Yes, 100%.
I mean, when my kids were little, they were learning
colors, they were learning the difference between a fruit and a
(18:31):
vegetable. They were learning textures when
my kids were older, they were learning fractions.
They were learning how to read fractions if we double the
recipe. They were learning how to add
fractions together, learning howto read a recipe.
I mean, there's so many different things that you can do
in the kitchen. It's amazing.
(18:52):
Exactly, exactly. And there's a lot of great
skills that come from it as well.
So just being in the kitchen, getting them exposed to it,
getting them comfortable in the kitchen I think is really
important because then they're more comfortable around the
food. They're more comfortable around
just all the things that come with with the kitchen and within
from it. I think that's really important.
(19:13):
Sorry. Are there any like tips that you
have for reducing sugar without rebellion?
Because I personally have a fouryear old that is all about the
sugar. She lives for the sugar.
So is there anything that any tips that you have for reducing
sugar without a uprising and howwe can stop the snack parade?
(19:34):
Which, yeah. And teach kids to actually feel
full because I swear that my my youngest one, she never feels
full. She always wants a snack or
she's just going for a snack. It's just snack after a snack
after a snack. And then when it comes to meal
time, she's not eating a Dang thing.
But then 10 minutes later, she'shungry again.
Yes, I hear you. Those are all good questions.
(19:54):
So in terms of being hungry all the time and snacking
constantly, I would think about what your kids are eating.
It's important. Protein is a satiating
macronutrient. And when we think of snacks
generally, chips, goldfish bar, granola bars.
(20:16):
Those don't have any protein or very little protein and so it's
not going to be satiating. So if they have goldfish and
then they're hungry, 30 minutes later they are still hungry
because there's no protein in those.
It's important to have like protein, healthy fats, fiber to
help fill your belly. And so if you're serving
goldfish, I'd serve like Turkey with it or you know, serve
(20:39):
protein with the chips to help fill their bellies.
So then if they have the protein, they should be able to
go a few hours without eating. So you know, Turkey, beef
sticks, Greek yogurt, hard boiled eggs, those are all
protein rich foods. And then in terms of minimizing
(21:02):
the sugar, if I like to like buythe plain, like a lot of yogurt
is really high in sugar. It can have, you know, 24 grams
of added sugar and like a cup orsomething.
So if you buy the plain yogurt and the yogurt that they're used
to, you could mix the two together.
(21:23):
And so like slowly increase the plain while decreasing the sugar
sweetened yogurt. And so they don't really notice
the difference and you're just slowly increasing or buying the
plain yogurt and then adding your own Maple syrup or honey,
which will reduce the amount of added sugar.
So playing around with the ratios.
Juice is another big one that has a lot of added sugar.
(21:46):
So slowly adding water to the juice, diluting the ratio.
And then depending on the kids age, just reading labels and
reading ingredients, reading them out loud so they can hear
you like, and then looking at the grams of added sugar and
just kind of helping them be more aware of it.
(22:08):
Like 4G of sugar equals 1 teaspoon.
So a fun experiment. Let's say they're having a
granola bar that has 8 grams of added sugar.
Well that's 2 teaspoons. So you could spoon out 2
teaspoons and be like, this granola bar has this much sugar.
What do you think? And then just like even a peanut
(22:31):
butter Jelly sandwich, dependingon the bread that you get, the
peanut butter and the Jelly, that can be up to 25 grams of
added sugar, which is 6 teaspoons.
So you scoop out six teaspoons and you're like, wow, Can you
believe it? This sandwich has 6 grams of
teaspoons. And of course it's in a non
judgmental way. It's just bringing like
curiosity, Like what do you think?
(22:53):
Did you think there was that much sugar in this sandwich?
Just bringing awareness, lookingat the ingredients, looking at
the nutrition panel, looking forideally you're looking for more
protein, more fiber, less sugar.Yeah, I think those are really
important and teaching our our kids that is, is something
tricky. But I think it's also making
(23:15):
sure we have those options available for them too, right?
Making sure they have those quick grab like protein options
available, whether it's like a pepperoni steak or lunch meat
that they can just grab a couplepieces up to go with their snack
or whatever it is. We're making sure they grab it
as well because it's if they, ifthey don't see it, they won't
grab it. If it's not where their snacks
(23:36):
are and they pay a tree or closeto their stuff, they're not
going to grab it. They're going to grab where
they're used to grab. You can grab whatever you have
already there kind of thing. So if you add to it and they see
it and they know that they can have it and they know they can
grab it whenever, then I think that they're way more likely to
grab it than not. Yeah, I like, somebody told me
that, you know, you often hear kids saying, you know, they open
(23:59):
the fridge and they're like, there's like nothing in the
fridge to eat. And it's like, yeah, you got to
make it. You know, as opposed to going
into the pantry and buy and getting a bag of chips or a bar
or something that's so easy and so convenient and they don't
have to make it. You have to open the fridge.
You have to take out a rice cake, you have to take out
(24:20):
peanut butter, you have to spread it or you have to take
out the yogurt and put some berries in it or whatever.
I, I always recommend to my clients instead of buying the
single serve yogurt or the single serve chips or the single
serve, you know, buy the whole big thing of yogurt.
You know, then they have to makeit.
And it's not just like this mindless eating.
(24:40):
It slows them down and it's like, am I really hungry?
Do I really want this because I have to make it and then I have
to clean up after myself. For the older kids, it kind of
just makes them like slow down and think, am I really hungry or
am I bored? And that makes me slow down too,
because then I'm like, well, I don't have anything quickly
available or I have to heat something up or something.
And I'm not feeling like doing that.
(25:02):
So I'm just going to not do anything then kind of thing.
And that's, that's a common, a common thing that I do when it
comes to, to meal planning. And you know, that effort that
we're talking about here. How do you make family meals
work without being a short ordercook?
Are there any good tips for mealplanning, prepping and shopping
(25:22):
efficiently? You mentioned just one, making
sure you buy the bigger one to make sure that there's effort,
but any other tips for meal planning?
Yeah, well, depending on their age, I like to get them
involved. I usually ask my family, my
husband, my kids, what do you want for dinner?
So they can chip in. And if we each share one or two
(25:42):
meals that we want, it makes my life easier.
I don't have to think about it and it gets them involved so
they have a say. And what's for dinner?
My oldest, we like to like scroll through Instagram.
My favorite food Blogger, She loves to just just the fun thing
like, oh, can we try this? Can we try this?
So or looking through a cookbookor whatever it might be.
(26:04):
So getting the kids involved is important.
And then in terms of like how you serve the dinner, I like
family style meal, which is putting all the ingredients out
on the table. So if you're doing Taco night,
you've got your guacamole, you've got your Peppers, you've
got your beef, you've got your shell, you got your lettuce, and
(26:24):
it's all like individually. So then the kids can make their
own. They're serving themselves,
they're deciding how much they want, they're deciding how they
want to put it on their plate, They're deciding if they're
going to what they're going to put on their plate.
And so everybody's plate is going to look a little
different, but we all have the same ingredients.
And even if your child doesn't choose lettuce, for example,
(26:48):
they're seeing other people eat and enjoy the lettuce and
they're being exposed to it because it's in front of them.
And maybe next time they'll choose it.
So family style is just a reallygreat way to 1 expose kids and
two, to all be eating something similar.
And then I just put it in like the glass Tupperware container,
put a lid on it so it's not all these dishes and then just put
(27:10):
it back all in the fridge. So it's just, it's an easy way.
My kids love family styles because they have a say and what
they eat and how they create it.You can do that for burger
night, pasta night, pizza night,you know, putting just all the
ingredients out on the table. OK.
(27:30):
Is there is there any, anything else when it comes to any of the
few things that we've talked about today or anything else
that you want to mention or whenit comes to helping our picky
eaters unpicky themselves? Yeah.
Well, I think just being mindfulof staying in our own, reminding
(27:52):
ourselves of our job and as muchas we want our kids to eat all
the food that we make, doing ourbest to keep that pressure off
of kids and to keep it fun. Another way that I use a lot of
the blindfold game, so like if your kids don't like Peppers,
(28:14):
you have get the red Peppers andthe orange Peppers and the
yellow Peppers and put a blindfold on and put them all in
front of you and say, can you figure out like model it for
yourself? Oh my goodness, you know, I
can't figure out which color is which and try to figure out
which is which and then have your kids try to do it.
It's just a fun way to like explore the different foods
(28:36):
without pressure and kids love doing that.
And you can do that with carrots.
So you can get all the differentcolor carrots of like the yellow
and the orange and the purple carrots.
Or you can do you know the whitesweet potato and the orange
sweet potato and there's purple sweet potato.
So if your kids are are adverse to trying a certain vegetable,
(28:57):
see if there's different colors.Another way is like if you have
access to a local farm, get local farm fresh carrots and
then get store bought carrots and see if they can taste the
difference between the two. I mean, there's so many
different ways to bring fun and curiosity to the table and it's
amazing. I hear it over and over and
again, like, Oh my gosh, my kidsare willing to eat this and they
(29:19):
actually like it because we're not telling them to eat it.
It's like we're figuring out howto have fun.
We're modeling it. And so it just takes some
creativity. No, I love that, and that's
important too because kids are all about fun.
They just want to have fun. That's all they want at the end
of the day. All right.
Well, Mesa, Are you ready to enter the last few questions of
(29:42):
the conversation here today, what I call the Dad Zone?
OK. All right, let's do it.
So first question here in the dozen.
There's four questions here. If you could invite any three
people, dead or alive, to dinner, who is coming in to your
dinner party? OK, well, Doctor Mark Hyman has
been somebody that I've looked up to.
He's in the functional medicine space.
(30:03):
He's what introduced me to the whole world of food as medicine.
So I'd love for him to come to the table, pick my, pick his
brain, learn as much as I can about the functional medicine
space. Aaron Halt is also somebody I
admire. She's a functional nutritionist.
She's built this amazing business from scratch,
(30:26):
virtually. I've watched her over the years
build this incredible business helping women.
And so I'd love to pick her brain on all things business and
how she built this multi $1,000,000 business.
And then one more. One more.
Goodness, I should have thought about this ahead of time.
(30:48):
Let's see Michelle Obama. I'd love to pick her brand.
Learn as much, You know, to haveher at the dinner table.
Yeah. What is your personal go to
guilty pleasure snack or comfortfood?
I always like to have dark chocolate on hand.
I like it. I like it.
And then last question here, second to last question here,
last one in the first part of the dad's zone.
(31:10):
Does pineapple go on pizza? Yeah.
Well, you would say that because, you know, opened
everything but different, different things for different
people. But that's OK.
And then last, last question here before we close out here
was one piece of advice that youwould give to a new parent.
So a new mom or new dad? Yeah, hold on.
(31:31):
Let me preface this a little bitmore.
They're they're young parents too.
Let's say they're like 18 to 22 years old.
So a young a young parent who's just starting out their their.
Yeah, well, in terms of food andnavigating.
In terms of whatever you want tooffer them a piece of advice
for, so they're, they're 1822 years old, they're just starting
out their parent journey, they're young.
So you can offer that one piece of advice to a mom or to a dad.
(31:54):
Yeah, it's being a parent is an amazing ride.
It's got lots of ups and downs, and you're doing an amazing job.
As long as you love your parent,as long as you you know you love
your kids, you're doing an amazing job.
Love it. Thank you.
All right, Misa, well, thank youfor giving us the time today to
(32:16):
to slow down a little bit, eat well and make food fun again.
If you want to try the taste themeter or dive deeper into your
work can head over to Misa's cleankitchen.com.
That's MISASCLEANKITC hen.com. I'll also put that in the show
notes in the description as well.
You can get free resources, yourfavorite tips and links to her
(32:38):
programs as well over there. Any other things that we should
mention here at the end for you Misa?
Yeah, they can just follow me onInstagram as well.
I've got lots of tips and recipes there as well.
Love it. Well, with Lisa, thank you so
much for the conversation today.I really did appreciate it.
I really did appreciate your time.
And I hope our our listeners learned a little something here
as well, something they can takeback and apply to their own
(33:00):
day-to-day cooking and eating habits.
And until next time, we'll catchyou right here on the Young Dad
Podcast.
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