Waste Not, Taste Not

By Margaret Nicklas for Start Smart with HealthStart

Sitting at the dinner table, while my husband and I dig into plates of stir-fried veggies and brown rice, my eight-year-old son holds his head in his hands.

“Do I really have to eat this?” he asks, holding up a dark green curl of kale, shiny with olive oil.

“You only have a tiny bit on your plate,” I respond, slightly frustrated. “Besides, it’s delicious,” I add.

Thinking better of my reaction, I ask if he’d like carrots instead.

“No, thanks,” he answers, sounding resigned. Sprinkling extra salt on the tablespoon of green, leafy matter on his plate, he puts a piece in his mouth, gulps some water, chews, and finally swallows. As if they are pills, he gets the green stuff down, then asks for some pasta.

While kale may not be a favorite for many children, my child treats virtually all vegetables this way along with other foods he’s decided not to like. After years of offering him “our food” and getting nothing but a polite “no,” I decided to buck the advice I’d read – which warns against pressuring a child to eat any particular food – and began insisting he eat a small serving at dinner of at least one vegetable or other “grown up” food he’d been steadfastly rejecting for years.

I agonized over this switch, because it went against common parenting wisdom, but also because I was loath to recreate the battle scenes I had witnessed at the dinner table in my own childhood. That is until it dawned on me that, without realizing the adverse effect, I had let my strong aversion to waste rob my son of the early exposure to flavors and textures he needed to be more open to more foods.

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Most current thinking on the subject of kids and food recommends that parents offer but not insist children eat “healthy food.” For instance, a 2012 article posted in Slate features research that showed kids were less likely to eat the soup they were pressured to eat and reiterates that picky eating is normal. But what isn’t as routinely discussed is the amount of waste inevitably involved in exposing children to new foods. Based on my own experience, I now wish I’d viewed food waste as an early investment cost that would likely have paid off later in terms of my child’s improved nutrition, less special “kid food” preparation time for me, and more harmony at the table.

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Having grown up in a large family where there were very few “extras” in the budget, I find throwing away anything that still has a use very difficult. Tossing out food, even when it’s stale or moldy, is especially hard.

So back in the day when my son was just starting on solids, those cute little jars of baby food were an easy sell for both of us. Sure – lots of it ended up in the trash. But he was eating at least some veggies – the standard carrots, squash, peas and sweet potatoes. It bothered me less to discard those unappetizing mounds of orange, green, or brown mush then to throw out my own good cooking. The problem was, they didn’t taste like the food we eat and there really wasn’t much variety. So when he graduated to regular food, we were starting from scratch.

Unprepared for his resistance and unwilling to sacrifice portions of “good food” I knew he’d barely touch, I was quick to offer his favorites instead– sliced apples or strawberries stood in for green beans, plain pasta replaced a baked potato, and so on. We avoided waste and kept eating relatively stress-free, but at what cost?

I realize now that instead of “baby food” from a jar, I should have been giving him our food – vegetables, meat, sauces, and all, run through the blender – right from the beginning. It would have required a lot of self-control for me to watch my lovingly made beef stew or freshly steamed organic broccoli end up smeared on the high chair or dumped on the floor. But if I had been willing and able to bite my lip and let it happen, I think it would have been well worth the price.

Experts say that children typically need to taste a new food many times – perhaps as many as 20 – to start liking it. And as a result of my new campaign, my son is slowly adding to the list of vegetables and other foods he will eat. For instance, he now says he likes corn and mushrooms. But it’s a slow process that sometimes robs us of that stress-free dining experience I was shooting for. And I know that he is still not getting necessary nutrients, especially the ones that occur in green veggies.

As this link explains, babies can safely eat what adults do with a few exceptions. So do yourself and your child favor. Skip the pre-fab baby food and avoid the temptation to serve “kid food” like chicken nuggets if you are eating pot roast and onions. Prepare healthy, interesting meals and let your child eat and play with an age-appropriately processed version of whatever you are eating. And if it makes you cringe a little to see that expensive organic eggplant or grass-fed beef flying across the room, just remember, a little pain now could lead to a lifetime of gains for you and your child.

Margaret Nicklas is a freelance health writer and journalist. Find her on Facebook or connect with her on Twitter @MargaretNicklas.

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