The kids are not what you’d call “adventurous” eaters. They’ll do anything to avoid trying something new, or something they can’t identify, and vegetables are treated the same way most people treat poison.
It’s the one thing I miss the most, other than sleep, from our pre-adoption days. I miss eating meals that involved vegetables. I miss eating vegetables without being surrounded by weeping children.
Knowing that the kids are not fond of particularly healthy foods, we’ve still managed to keep things reasonably healthy.
We add dissolvable fiber to anything we can, we eat whole-wheat pasta exclusively, we buy bread that doesn’t remotely resemble Wonder. They take vitamins every day. We avoid red meat.
I make homemade granola bars so I can increase the protein and fiber content of their snacks. We make popsicles from real juice instead of sugar water.
And we don’t let the kids have artificial sweeteners or microwaveable meals. Whenever possible, we make things out of identifiable ingredients rather than packets or boxes.
This is not to say we’re food police. The kids do get candy and junk food sometimes. We eat frozen pizza every Friday. We buy pop in 2L bottles that last at least a week for all of us. The kids have eaten at A&W and Subway a few times.
Regular conversations happen about why we eat the foods we do and why we don’t visit McDonalds at all. Why we make food rather than buy it pre-made. Why we do and don’t eat certain things.
The kids tend to roll their eyes. Cry because there are vegetables on their plates.
I grit my teeth. I clench my jaw. I take any opportunity I can get to eat broccoli..
Oldest One has been learning about nutrition at school in his health class. A few days ago he came home and told me about a spinach salad he had made in class, and eaten, and how very good it tasted.
Yesterday he was inspecting the contents of the fridge – the orange juice, the vegetables in the crisper, the margarine made with olive oil. “We eat really healthy, don’t we?” he commented.
“Yep. We need more vegetables, though. But yeah, we eat pretty healthy.” I spoke as casually as possible.
“Huh.” He shuffled off to do something else.
The comparisons between his own life and the lives of the kids around him are one of the best ways for him to learn. He has remarked in the past about how some kids bring cans of pop for lunch and eat a lot of prepackaged crap and how he has fresh food and juice instead.
And now he knows for sure that we’re doing the right thing around here.
I wonder if I could possibly give his school some suggestions about future lesson plans. Perhaps “Why Cleaning Your Room Is Important” or “Why Calling Your Brother Retarded Is Wrong”?
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