Thursday, April 12, 2012

Obsessed with what my kids eat: Maybe more parents should


Yesterday I went on a field trip with my six year old (holy cow she is six!), and I found myself obsessing over what she was eating. I was counting up grams of protein and amounts of calcium in my head. I found myself looking up values of different nutrients in one type of bread versus another type of bread and so on.


Then it occurred to me: Before I put my kids on a mostly vegan diet, I never really thought about what they ate. I tried to make sure that they ate healthy meals, but really, I never gave it much thought. So, why am I obsessing now?

If you go online and search out information about being a vegan parent, there is so much information about how it can be bad for kids from information about B12 to vitamin D and protein. People tend to fall into one of two camps: vehemently against vegan kids or absolutely for it. I am the kinda gal who has to do the research, so I just had to keep reading. The truth is that B12 is a food additive because it comes from bacteria, but most people get it from dairy and eggs. Vitamin D is added to dairy as well. Most Americans eat too much protein. If you spend 10-15 minutes outside without sunscreen, your body makes plenty of Vitamin D, by the way.

And, many of the products we eat in our house have B12 as an additive. There are plenty of ways you can get B12--from supplements, nutritional yeast, other foods.

So, because of my new found obsession, I decided to do a side by side comparison of what my kids eat now and what they ate before the new diet (I put the values into Livestrong's my plate calorie counter). What I found out is that they eat about the same amount of protein. They eat more calcium and get more essential nutrients such as vitamin A and K and Manganese. The most important finding is that they eat less calories and less fat (with virtually no trans fats) while getting this valuable punch of nutrition.

I could only think to myself, I wish I had spent more time thinking about what we were all eating before! I don't think parents like me are the problem. I do think about it. I make sure they have access to a wide variety of foods. And I am positive they have changed their taste buds. They eat everything from turnips to Swiss chard. I rarely hear complaints. We don't have a cookie in the house, and not a single child has complained.

I'm not saying that we shouldn't have cookies. If you have read my other posts, then you know we love a good Oreo. But it isn't something that we must eat in our house everyday now. On many of the blogs, the Vegan parents say something like, "if I said I was going to feed my kids pink slime nuggets and chemicals pressed with sugar disguised as cookies, no one would say anything." That really resonated with me. We don't question if someone feeds their kids junk food diets. We rail if someone says having obese children is akin to child abuse, but then when we want to do something like go Vegan for health, ethical, and environmental reasons, then people say you might be doing something wrong. We have internalized this message so much that I have become obsessed with what my children are eating.

Here is the basic fact of the matter, my kids are healthy, they are energetic, lovely children. I am concerned about them, and I make sure that they get what they need. I may make mistakes in terms of what I feed them, but you know what, it can't be worse than a steady diet of McDonald's. So, back to the field trip that sparked this obsession. I was surrounded by five, six, and some seven-year-old children. Many of these children were already displaying the signs of an unhealthy life style (such as obesity and type II diabetes). I was sitting with my field trip group at the park, eating lunch, and I was looking at their lunches.

Let me start by telling you what Medea was eating:
Peanut butter and Vegan marshmallow fluff sandwich on whole wheat, whole grain bread.
Fruit salad with pineapple, cantaloupe, strawberries, blueberries.
Mishmash (applesauce with cinnamon).

Normally I pack a "dessert" item in her lunch like a bar or a cookie or something, but we were out. She recently told me she doesn't have enough time to eat her entire lunch so she would rather have the mishmash than the cookie. She at the fruit salad first and then the sandwich. She saved her mishmash for after she played a while. (Preview: We are going to make oatmeal energy bars so the recipe will be coming soon!)

The other children were eating one of two meals. They had either brought their meal from home or they had a school provided lunch. Let's start with the school provided lunch. The school lunch was a ham and cheese single sandwich. A bag of baked chips and an apple. Every child (three in my group) who brought a lunch from home brought a lunchable. The lunchables were ham and cheese with crackers, a Capri Sun, and a chocolate bar. Each child with a brought lunch also had it supplemented--one child had chips, one had more candy, one had a granola bar. The lunches were gross. Not a single child ate all of their sandwich, but they did eat the candy. Most of them ate at least part of the apple as well.

I noticed that some of the parents who had also chaperoned the field trip brought their kids fast food lunches. It was everywhere. I felt so overwhelmed by the fast food, processed nation that my kids live in. My 13-year-old is still giving me a hassle about how we eat, but I know in my heart that at least she gets good, whole foods at home. I hope that some of that wears off on her. Maybe the compassion component will come later.

For now, I am going to try to obsess just a little less and just to make sure that I continue to plan well rounded, yummy meals for us to eat.


On a funny note from the field trip: As one of the stations, you could be an artist. We all drew pigs and wrote "save the pigs!" I included a picture of Mae's drawing. (I wrote the words).

5 comments:

Camille said...

Loved your comment on Nina Planck's article on Room for Debate! I'm adding your blog to my feed.

Wellman Group said...

Thanks so much @Camille! I hope you enjoy the blog. Let me know if there is anything you want to see me talk about specifically in the blog.

LolaMontez said...

Wow, you are very obsessive and clearly have a problem. Maybe you need a job, because this much fanaticism over your child's diet suggests you have too much time on your hands.

You make fun of a ham and cheese sandwich, but feed your VEGAN kid "vegan marshmallow fluff"!

You claim you can see "signs of Type II diabetes" (a blood glucose condition) in other people's kids!

Do you realize that marshmallow fluff, vegan or otherwise, is all SUGAR? and CARBS? That peanut butter is mostly fat and sugar? It is YOUR kids lunch that is a nutritional nightmare, not the kid eating a ham sandwich and a granola bar.

Gr3tch3n said...

Enjoyed this post and your rebuttal to the lady in the Times. I have to say, chaperoning a recent field trip w my preschooler's class, I was impressed by the healthful items the moms packed in the lunches, although hidden sugars were still insipid. I hope, too, that the vegan fluff you mention is a treat item and not a staple : ) But, it's a process and a journey, this healthful eating...http://mamameyeah.blogspot.com/2012/04/i-love-you-and-want-you-to-be-happy-so.html

Wellman Group said...

@LolaMontez Thank you for your feedback. I just wanted to clarify that we use natural peanut butter, so it is just peanuts. The marshmallow fluff is a treat not a staple (they usually have a fruit spread).
I also understand that a ham and cheese sandwich can appear to be healthy, but when it is a highly processed meal (not to mention the factory farming component), then it isn't that healthy. That is my point.
A granola bar seems healthy. That is the messaging we receive, but if you read the label, the kids should have just ate a candy bar.

@Gr3tch3n
Thank you for reading and commenting. The fluff is a treat and not a staple (we were just trying it out!) I loved your blog, thanks for the link.