• Home
  • Start Here!
    • Subscribe
    • Topics
    • Top Tips!
  • About
    • Services
    • Contact Us!
    • Media
    • Disclaimer
  • Blog
    • Popular Posts
    • Recipe Index
  • Books
    • RD Book Coaching Services
  • Podcast
  • Privacy Policy
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • RSS Feed

Maryann Jacobsen

Independent Author & Family Nutrition Expert

  • Home
  • Start Here!
    • Subscribe
    • Topics
    • Top Tips!
  • About
    • Services
    • Contact Us!
    • Media
    • Disclaimer
  • Blog
    • Popular Posts
    • Recipe Index
  • Books
    • RD Book Coaching Services
  • Podcast
  • Privacy Policy

The Only 6 Pieces of Nutrition Advice Your Family Will Ever Need

March 27, 2017

Tweet
Pin1
Share25
Yum
Email
Share
26 Shares

March is National Nutrition Month with the theme Put Your Best Fork Forward. When I go to write about eating a quality diet I always come back to mindset. Why not choose a mindset that makes eating well not only easier but more rewarding and effective? The good news is research gives us many clues of optimal ways to perceive food that makes our families healthier and happier.

So here are my top 6 pieces of nutrition advice that will help you and your family Put Your Best Fork Forward.

Jump Ahead

  • 1. Choose a Food Regulation Focus
  • 2. Keep Nutrition Simple
  • 3. Watch Where Your Attention Goes
  • 4. Make Cooking Fit You
  • 5. Kids are Not Little Adults
  • 6. Choose Feeling Good over Guilt

1. Choose a Food Regulation Focus

The narrow goal of reaching an ideal weight causes many people to feel like failures if they can’t reach it and ultimately eat worse than they would have otherwise. In How to Raise a Mindful Eater I make this important point that’s often missing in discussions about weight:

…the key to avoiding unnecessary weight gain has more to do with how people eat than what they eat. It makes more sense to create circumstances that encourage optimal food regulation. People who don’t regulate their food intake are more likely to eat more or less than their bodies need.

I go onto define the five factors that research shows can negatively affect food regulation, which include insufficient sleep, poor handling of stress, physical inactivity, eating in the absence of hunger (AKA mindless eating) and dieting/restriction. When we have a good handle on these factors — which also encourage healthier eating and overall feelings of well being — the weight that is right for us (and our growing children) reveals itself.

2. Keep Nutrition Simple

There’s a myth that science keeps flip-flopping in terms of nutrition advice. This belief has more to do with ever-changing diets and trends that make things seem like they flip flop. While there have been changes in science, Dr. David Katz writes about how research over the last 20 plus years has consistently revealed three simple ways to decrease chronic disease by 80% (related to tobacco use, diet, and activity). Here’s how he puts it in this Linkedin article:

So, even if every beguiling diet to come along since has been absolutely, spot-on right (challenging, since most of them refute what all the others contend, but we’ll look past that for now)- all they could possibly do is help us wrestle under control the remaining 20%…What we have known all this time is that a diet of mostly real foods, mostly direct from nature, mostly plants- would do the trick. By placing an emphasis on wholesome foods- vegetables, fruits, beans, lentils, nuts, seeds, whole grains, water, with or without eggs, dairy, meat, fish, poultry, and seafood- we would be getting lots of good stuff, and little bad. By getting the pattern just basically right, carbs and fats and sugar and calories and glycemic index and pH would just tend to take care of themselves.

3. Watch Where Your Attention Goes

Research shows certain people (especially restrained eaters) have an “attentional bias” to palatable food in the environment meaning they hyper-focus in on environmental food cues and have increased consumption. In one study three groups of people watched a picture presentation of food but were instructed differently beforehand. One group was told to try and suppress cravings, the other group was asked to engage in reappraisal (notice emotions and reinterpret their meaning), and the third group was simply told to watch the presentation. The group that practiced reappraisal reported the least cravings.

Like any mindset we have, being aware of it and changing it in the moment can be incredibly powerful. Try viewing tasty, less-than nutritious food as an enjoyable part of balanced eating — and teaching the same to our children — to bring less attention to it than something we do mindlessly or constantly work to avoid.

Bestforkforward

4. Make Cooking Fit You

When I started cooking I began questioning the advice I gave people as an RD like: “Use chicken breasts instead of thighs or legs, whole grains instead of refined grains and a little salt.” Now I realize that it’s much better to give yourself permission to utilize all food and ingredients to make food satisfying. And you don’t have to sacrifice nutrition when you focus on balance over the long haul. This just happens to be the subject in my recent podcast episode with Katie Morford.

And if you want to teach your kids to cook, forget the dream of them coming to you wanting to cook a new vegetable. Most kids like to start with baking, Morford explains, so start meeting your kids where they are. It will eventually lead to more cooking of all types of food.

5. Kids are Not Little Adults

Nothing is more frustrating than viewing kids eating from adult eyes. As I have written over and over, the way children develop — and how each individual is different — explains why kids eat the way they do. Whether it’s picky eating, a preference for carbs, or eating a lot or what seems like too little, please take the time to understand what’s behind the way children eat at different stages. It will make it easier to find ways to help kids Put Their Best Fork Forward now and when they are grown.

6. Choose Feeling Good over Guilt

Here’s what’s left out of most messages about nutritious eating: food should be a positive in your family’s life. You are on the wrong track if it is filled with guilt, conflict, and a sense of obligation. You are on the right track if it’s seen as a work in progress that everyone feels good about.

Maybe the latter means your family’s diet is less than perfect. But not only are those good feelings beneficial for health, but you’re also more likely to strive for small gains that eventually add up to big ones. And then one day you realize that Putting Your Best Fork Forward has become a rewarding and doable part of everyday life. Not because you did what the experts told you to do, but because you took that advice, challenged it, and then made it your own.

 

Want to raise a child with a healthy relationship with food? Check out Maryann’s book: How to Raise a Mindful Eater: 8 Powerful Principles for Transforming Your Child’s Relationship with Food 

ebook_cover_amazonnew

 

Related Posts

  • 5 Popular Pieces of Nutrition Advice that Fall Short

    Pick up a popular health magazine and you'll find the same nutrition advice recycled over…

  • blue sky showing three red flags
    7 Red Flags of Misleading Nutrition Advice

    Let's face it. There's more nutrition advice available online than ever. It's important for consumers…

  • nutrition family meals
    7 Nutrition Must-Do's for Family Meal Planning

    It takes time and brainpower to plan and prepare a weeks’ worth of family meals.…

  • 5 Mistakes Parents Make When Educating Kids About Nutrition

    "Information doesn't change behavior," was something an old boss of mine told me in my…

Tweet
Pin1
Share25
Yum
Email
Share
26 Shares

Categories: Feeding School-Age Kids, Feeding Toddlers & Preschoolers, Nutrition Reports 1 Comment

« The Cooking Mindset with Katie Morford
Intuitive Eating with Elyse Resch [Podcast] »

Comments

  1. Jane Schwinn says

    June 14, 2017 at 3:44 pm

    Big help!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Hi, I’m Maryann…

Hi, I’m a registered dietitian who focuses on developmental stages. Here, you won’t get one-size-fits-all advice. Instead, you’ll get information based on your (and your family’s) age and stage. Make your choice between family and midlife-focused newsletters below and subscribe. Find out more!

Recent Posts

  • Yes, Every Midlife Women Should Take a Multivitamin (And Here’s Why)
  • 10 Signs Intermittent Fasting Doesn’t Live Up to the Hype
  • What do the Latest Vitamin D Studies Really Tell Us?
  • 3 Breathing Exercises That Will Change Your Life with Nick Heath [Podcast]
  • 6 Dietary Supplements Most Teenagers Need

Random Posts

  • 5 Questions Every Parent Should Ask Before Giving Their Child Vitamins5 Questions Every Parent Should Ask Before Giving Their Child Vitamins
  • Weekly Meal Plan: Monday June 24thWeekly Meal Plan: Monday June 24th

Categories

Get the books!

The Alliance of Independent Authors - Author Member

Join the Newsletter

Sign up for Maryann’s E-mail Newsletter and get her ebook The Landmines of a Healthy Relationship with Food for FREE. Subscribe now!

Thank you!

You have successfully joined our subscriber list. You're not done. Check your email to confirm your address. After you do that, you'll receive a link for the free e-book.

.

Copyright © 2023 — Maryann Jacobsen • All rights reserved • Powered by Femme Flora. Designed & Developed by BinaryTurf Privacy Policy

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.OK Privacy Policy
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT