Fiona and I have been engaged in a battle of sorts. My nine-year-old has firm convictions about what she will and won’t eat—and they have little to do with nutritional content and everything to do with sugar, salt, and fat content. My incredibly thoughtful sister brought a large pack of our ramen of choice—yes, the cheap little Top Ramen packs, Oriental flavor, high MSG content--no nutrition but high in empty calories. I consider the packets a treat—not so bad as an occasional meal, easy on an upset stomach, etc. Fiona, however, has decided that these packets should be her sole source of nutrition. "What’s the problem, Mom? I’ll cook it myself!"
I made a lunch yesterday of two salads, rice, butterbeans, and baked apples. She ate only the baked apples. I relented eventually, at her grandmother’s support of her, and allowed her the ramen. So, yes—Fiona’s tastebuds have been winning the battle.
At lunch today, however, I drew the line. She and I were alone in the house and she was hungry, which made my job easier. She demanded instant food, and I had difficulty putting her off while I prepared lunch, so I gave her a dill pickle—her only choice. I was surprised she ate it, though I know she actually does like dill pickles. Meanwhile, I heated canned green beans (one of the few veggies I can get into her) and the rice and butterbeans again. When I set the food in front of her, she instantly turned the butterbeans away from her and began eating the green beans (already, in my mind, a success, right?). After a bit, though, I made a big deal about grinding peppercorns and sea salt on the rice and butterbeans. That was fun for her and captured her attention. She did so, though she wasn’t yet willing to taste them. I then exclaimed over how the butterbeans ‘melt in your mouth’—why they’re called ‘butter’beans—and she was more interested, finally tasting one. She loved it! She ate her whole plate of food—and the baked apples we made together again, with fruit from her grandparents’ tree.
I am truly delighted at this tiny success. It’s so important to establish good eating habits in the young, not only for their immediate health, but as they are creating the habits now that will form their lifelong patterns. So, my little girl had farm-fresh eggs with homegrown basil for breakfast and the above mentioned lunch today. Not too bad…
As for me, well…I’ve just finished reading a lovely book by Mireille Guiliano that you likely saw featured for a while on the shelves of the bookstores. I’m definitely not inclined to read a lot of dieting books, but I was always intrigued by the title of her little book, French Women Don’t Get Fat. Yes, it violates my rule of avoiding the f— word, but it certainly does catch your attention, non?
Anyhow, her foremost premise is that we should enjoy, enjoy, enjoy our food…and our other pleasures in life. The trick is to make the most of these pleasures in terms of quality rather than quantity. So, she encourages us to eat whatever we’re craving, but to do so with the utmost fanfare with limited quantities. (Sort of reminiscent of my mocha planning!) Given that she’s preaching to the choir, I adored her book. She did have some helpful tips and suggestions to round out the book—giving me a few new ideas in addition to simply encouraging me along the vein I was already travelling (we can all use an occasional nudge to do what we already know we should, right?), and, in fact, she had a section about the importance of establishing good eating habits in children early on—which I read last night, giving me extra impetus to try to redirect Fiona’s gastronomic path!
As for the ramen that Fiona’s craving…well, she’s certainly getting that. I’m not forbidding it—well, only beyond one pack per day.
Oh, right, I was going to mention my own implementation of Guiliano’s suggestions. She brings up this idea of multiple courses as being helpful. I’m a bit skeptical, as in—how can more be helpful? However, she may very well be right. My problem, along with a lot of Americans, is that quantity issue. Guiliano asserts that we eat one course, and a ton of it—rather than small courses to round things out.
Our meal began with the green beans, rice and butterbeans. I was strongly inclined to get more of the rice and butterbeans, but we happened to have the baked apples waiting for us. A small bowl of that finished the meal—and provided a closing touch, making it special and complete. Oh yes, Guiliano also speaks about making light fruit-based desserts as the norm—providing important nutrition and avoiding the pitfalls of the heavier treats.
So, we’ll see how this goes. I’ve never considered adding courses to be helpful as a technique on its own—although I suppose that was sort of what I was doing when I added the salad and broth soups to my sandwich in those dedicated calorie-counting days. The technique worked! And, I suppose it makes sense, if you think about it. If we have a single course, it’s bound to include the calorie-dense portion of the meal (at least, it will if I’m making it!). So, if we add salads and light fruit desserts and such, it will help to round out a smaller portion of the denser element of the meal.
I do recommend her book. Guiliano has such a delightful, common-sense way of saying exactly what I want to hear. She encourages farmer’s markets, daily strolls, all sorts of pleasantness that is precisely what I want to do already. Showing self-restraint on portions becomes almost fun, and Guiliano, to completely belie her book’s title, ends up commenting on how little body size really matters—that it’s our contentment, our enjoyment of life that really is important.
(Be forewarned, however: Guiliano holds French women in the highest regard—and is French by birth, though is a naturalized American citizen now. Like many women, I’ve always had a romantic streak about all things French and can easily swallow this, but, of course, this isn’t true for a large segment of the American population. She does say, towards the end of the book, that you certainly don’t need to agree with French politics to make use of the best from their culture!)
