12 Steps to Whole Foods

Introduction
sugary foods for even a few days, and tastes change rather dramatically (of course, you have to live with the
withdrawal symptoms in the meantime, but they don’t usually last more than a few days). Fruit tastes better, for
instance, when you’re “off” sugar. And green smoothies are in the realm of possibilities when Capri Sun has
been out of the picture for a while!
A fair amount of research on “food neophobes,” which you can Google if you want to learn more, indicates that
picky children must be exposed to a food nine to 10 times before accepting it. So don’t try green smoothies, or
cauliflower, or Indian Dahl twice and then throw in the towel. Kids eat whole foods when whole foods become
a lifestyle.
When all else fails, resort to bribery. Do it in a subtle way you can live with. I haven’t used this technique, but
I might if I were starting out with older children and needing to break them of bad habits. My friend Brenda
pays her kids $20 for a month of eating no sugar, and then doubles that amount for each additional month. If
that’s too crass for you, start out your green smoothie experiment with a chart on the fridge and a fun family
outing planned for the end of the month for anyone who drinks a glassful every day that you make it during the
month. The downside to this approach is that kids will expect to be rewarded in the future as well, so decide in
advance how desperate you are, and if you can live with that.
Then have a conversation with your kids and document in a 12 Steps journal entry the health effects they
noticed, as well. Tell them at the beginning of the month that it’s a personal experiment for them as well as a
family experiment, and you want them to keep an eye on whether they have more energy, more focus in school,
better digestion, or a more positive mood. Tell them these are very common side effects of kicking out sugar
and eating nutritious food.
Tell your kids about Principal Yvonne Sanders-Butler in Lithonia, Georgia, who changed her diet when heart
problems threatened her life. She lost 60 lbs. and got her life back. But she also banned sugar in her school and
saw math and reading scores go up 15% and visits to the school nurse and discipline problems decrease.
Educating your children will help your changes become permanent rather than just another short-lived “health
kick.” The more you talk to your kids, the more they’ll hold you accountable for long-term changes!
I went on a highly rated network television show in the summer of 2007 and stayed with a family whose
lifestyle was the virtual opposite of my own. The inner-city skaters I was with ate a diet of exclusively junk
food. Most of them didn’t even know the names of most everyday vegetables and had never tasted whole-grain
bread. The crew, I’m sure, thought the kids would absolutely revolt when I whipped out the green smoothies.
Imagine the lack of drama—the boring, almost unwatchable footage—of a couple dozen boys drinking the
smoothies and saying, “Hmm, that’s pretty good. Can I have more?” The big vegetarian dinner I prepared
featuring lots of raw vegetables was probably just as frustrating for the directors and producers: the kids ate it
all up, said thank you, and asked for more!
If inner-city skaters who’d never eaten spinach or beets went for it, your kids will, too. Give it time and
patience and your best leadership skills, find the ingredients they like best, and tell them a few reasons why
they should give nutritious foods a try.
Avoid cutting the skins off fruit (and the crusts off whole-grain breads) for your small children. First, more
nutrition and fiber (and less sugar) is found in the skin than anywhere else. Second, the minute you do this one
time, the child will demand it, and you have now made nature’s perfect fast foods a labor-intensive chore for
the rest of your child’s life in your home. Third, you are helping the child’s jaw and palate weaken and narrow,
making him less able to break down fibrous whole foods with their superior nutrition.
© Copyright Robyn Openshaw 12 Steps to Whole Foods 17