12 Steps to Whole Foods

Introduction
parenting theory says that you should just keep offering the options, hoping that one day, the child’s natural
instinct will be towards the broccoli (while otherwise eating white flour and processed cheese for years). I
wonder how much broccoli you will throw away (or eat yourself) attempting to follow this advice!
This theory and advice is worthless on many levels, and I’ll mention just three. First, when we have given
children a taste for processed food by serving it regularly, any desires for natural foods change and often
diminish. (On the flip side: in my research published in The Green Smoothies Diet, 65% of regular greensmoothie
drinkers noticed that their cravings for sweets and junk food was reduced or eliminated!) Sugar is the
most addictive substance on the planet—more addictive than cocaine, according to several studies. Those
addictions and unnaturally altered tastes lead a child to make poor choices most of the time.
Second, a small child does not have the wisdom and judgment to make good food choices. He knows only what
tastes good, not what his body needs. Once one of my university students gave a presentation on nutrition and
asked the class, “When you were 8 years old, given the choice, would you have chosen a piece of Chuck E
Cheese pizza or a plate of fruit?” One hundred percent of the class, myself included, raised their hands for the
pizza. This is why God, in His infinite wisdom, gave children parents.
Third, the past two generations have been the first in history where this idea of “options” came into vogue,
especially where junk food is usually one of those “options.” I trust in the wisdom of history and tradition:
encouraging children to have tantrums, express an opinion about every food, and demand that parents go
running to find something else is unwise counsel.
Catering to every child’s likes and dislikes can be an exercise in frustration and burnout for a mom, and it’s just
a bad habit to get into. Young parents may not realize what the fruits of indulging “picky” will be. I may not be
popular for saying what follows, but I’m going to do it anyway. If you allow your children to say no to
nutritious foods now, you will spend hundreds of hours in your future making separate meals for each of
them—and preparing several different meals takes so much longer than just one. Do that today and I promise
that your child will absolutely demand it tomorrow. You will also feel guilty and wonder what the difference
good nutrition would have made, should your child encounter any of the many health problems caused by a
modern diet of processed food. It’s not worth it.
When you’re making a meal, everyone in the family eating that meal is both a worldwide tradition and an
opportunity to learn many good things, open mindedness being just one of them. Emphasize good manners as
you emphasize good nutrition. In my family growing up, we weren’t allowed to say that we “hate” or “don’t
like” any food my mother made. Both of my parents required that we show respect for the effort my mom made
in preparing the meal.
We were allowed to say, “I don’t care for this very much.” Of course, that became something we joked about:
imagine eight children saying that in the most proper British accent we could come up with. Imagine how I was
mocked when I told my husband’s teenaged siblings that rule when we were first married and I made broccoli
soup for his large family. But the joking did help my two youngest sisters-in-law open their minds enough to
try the soup. One of them even liked it.
We learned good manners in addition to being open to new foods, and both are important to learn as we
become adults and enter into social situations. I hereby publicly thank my parents for providing one
nutritionally sound meal, three times a day, with the only “option” being to eat it or go hungry.
14 12 Steps to Whole Foods
© Copyright Robyn Openshaw