My friend Drew shared this article by Molly Watson, a contributing writer of Sunset Magazine and About.com.  Even though I don’t have kids, I whole-heartedly agree with her, and feel this should be read by everyone, whether you have children or not - this is applicable for adults too. Basic, yet often forgotten wisdom of how to eat healthy, and enjoy what’s been served.

Out of a dozen reason why her son is such a good eater listed in the article, I find the following four the most important…  This is how I (and other kids) was raised in Japan. Japanese eat far more variety of food, less dessert and fast food.  As a result, we have only 3% obesity rate in Japan, compared with well over 30% in the US.

Here’s the excerpt from her article.

2. He hasn’t been given a whole lot of choice. The meals he is served are the meals he is served, and the variance from eating what my dashing husband and I eat gets slimmer with each passing month. When he was younger I would more frequently pull out some plain noodles if a pasta dish had something in it I knew he didn’t like or scramble some eggs if dinner seemed particularly “challenging” (in particular, I remember understanding his lack of enthusiasm for a giant bowl of bright pink steaming borscht). I don’t do that anymore. I am not, as he has heard me say many a time, a short order cook. That said, I do take the whole family into account when making dinner. If I’m making a dish I know someone isn’t that into, I try to also make something I know they love.

3. He eats at fairly set times. There are the three meals a day and usually a morning snack and an afternoon snack. There is not much random snacking in between. When meal times come, he’s hungry and ready to eat.

4. He also eats at a set place. It’s called the dining table. I highly recommend it.

6. No one – at least not his parents – ever assumed he wouldn’t like something. Quite the opposite, my assumption is that if a foodstuff is tasty, he will like it. Hence, his experience of food has, since he was in utero, been a broad one. He had his first raw oyster at age two because all the grown-ups were so excited about them that he wanted to try one. Without someone telling him anything except “here you go,” he didn’t know it was an odd thing for a toddler to like. Of course, he then received a lot of very positive attention from everyone as he asked for a second and third and fourth oyster.

To read her entire article, click here.

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