What Diet Does Your Family Follow?
Now that I am out talking to lots of mum’s about children’s health, I seem to get asked this question a couple of times a week. My response is this:
We do not prescribe to any one recognised dietary theory. We are not sugar free, dairy free, gluten free, paleo, vegetarian, vegan, GAP’s, FODMAP etc.
Does my response shock you?
Would you expect that I’d be following some recognised dietary theory given I am a Health & Wellness Coach?
Let me explain the approach to diet we take – it’s as simple as this:
Preparing 90% of our meals from scratch at home from wholefoods, and everything else is in moderation.
It is true, we have significantly reduced sugar, dairy and gluten in our diet. Why? Because there is loads of research to indicate we have too much of these in our diets. More importantly, I found all of these were having negative impact on our health. Sugar is in almost everything you buy off the shelf from breakfast cereals, to sauces, to bread. It’s so addictive, that you want more of it and when you start to reduce it, you do actually get forms of withdrawal symptoms. We found dairy contributed to our chest and sinus conditions – by reducing it, we have less colds and mucous formation. Gluten, well it really has a terrible impact on my husband and daughters mood and behaviour. We are almost 100% gluten free – no breads, no pastas, no sauces but we do use oats which have there own form of gluten but can be contaminated by wheat gluten.
If I know these things affect our health, why are we NOT sugar free, dairy free, and gluten free?
Now that is a very good question. I did try to change our diets overnight by removing foods entirely. It was met with much angst and it was a pleasant household. Instead, I have chosen to adopt the approach of everything in moderation because none of these foods are imminently life threatening. If you tell someone they can’t have something, then they want it more. It becomes a challenge, a tussle to say you can’t have it. BUT
If you allow people to learn how their body feels when they eat certain foods, they then make a conscious choice if they want to eat it and feel a certain way. They start to self regulate how they eat and it becomes a lifestyle change rather than a diet which is often hardwork and difficult to stay on.
This is approach I used to transition my family to a more healthful way of eating.
It is also the approach I use when coaching people, particularly children (unless of course, I see something which is potentially life threatening). When you start to associate feeling sick, bloated, stomach pains, fluey etc with the food you eat, you really do think twice about having it again. You self regulate and stop yourself or have significantly less of it. Believe it or not, children are so much better at this than us adults. They have had less years of bad habits and recognise quite quickly how much better they feel when they stop having something or reduce it.
To give you a child’s example of this self regulation, here’s what happened at a recent birthday party my then 7 year old daughter went to. I stood back and observed her going around and around the beautifully laid out table full of colourful lollies, fairy bread, cakes and more. She was like a shark prowling. Eating all the things we do not have in our house. After a while, I saw her retreat and go and sit on the lawn. I went over and asked if she was ok. She told me she had eaten too much sugar and felt sick. I got her a glass of water and let her be. When it came to cake time, she apologised and politely told the mum that she didn’t want any because she had already had too much sugar. Now if I had of told her to stop eating all the ‘colourful food’ on that table, can you imagine the dramas that would have caused.
When we got out with friends or to their houses, we do not make a big fuss of the foods we normally wouldn’t eat. Instead we graciously enjoy the food with friends, but choose more of the other foods on offer. Just like this week when my daughter asked if she could have a sandwich in her lunch box, rather than say no, I said sure let’s bake some bread. I know one sandwich isn’t going to turn her into a crying heap and so no point in making a fuss out of it. I would prefer she ate the preservative free wholegrain bread I make than to share a sandwich at school which is likely to be white bread or at best multi-grain. A rather peaceful approach to our family’s diet I think.
What Diet Should You Follow For Your Family?
My recommendation would be just to start making a stand for your family’s health.
Here’s 3 tips how you can do this:
- Use less packaged food
- Cook more yourself from scratch using wholefoods
- Teach your children to tune in to their bodies and think about how food makes them feel
If you need help with any of these, especially 3, this is my specialty and I’d love to help. You can call me on +61 0401 649 289 or email belinda@therootcause.com.au