B00AFU6252 EBOK (10 page)

I
STARTED BOTH
my babies on an all-fruits-and-vegetables diet at about 6 months, per the advice of Jay Gordon, MD, a pediatric nutrition expert who is the author of
Good Food Today, Great Kids Tomorrow
, and a member of the teaching attending faculty of UCLA Medical Center.

Most weekends, I set aside a chunk of time to make all of Haven’s baby food for the week ahead. I get Honor to help, which makes it more fun and, again, is a great opportunity to talk to her about how healthy food makes babies grow. I always blend savory with sweet in a ratio of three-to-one. I think we work too hard to make food “kid friendly” with lots of sweet flavors—all that does is make them want sugary things later on when they start getting picky. I usually use what I have around the house, but Haven’s favorite combinations are squash, cauliflower, and banana; carrots, peas, and apples; green lentils and broccoli.

A
COUPLE OF MONTHS
into both of my girls’ transitions into solid foods, I began adding finely chopped lean animal protein like chicken, beef, or leftovers from a weekend barbecue to their veggie mixes. For example, I blend broccoli, sweet potato, chicken, and apple—or beef, broccoli, and cauliflower. Beans are another good source of protein, and they puree so well. We like chickpeas, black beans, or lentils in almost anything!

D
R.
G
ORDON SUGGESTS
holding off on introducing whole grains until your child is 7 or 8 months because they can be hard on babies’ digestion—and he recommends skipping the refined grains (all those baby cereals!) altogether. Once your baby is old enough, the doc’s all about an organic quinoa and/or organic oatmeal cereal. I soak the grains before boiling, and add a handful to whatever blend of veggies, legumes, and meats I’m making, with a bit of olive oil, salt, onion, and garlic for flavor.

WHAT TO DO:

1. Place 1 pound of any vegetable (peeled and chopped carrot, squash, cauliflower, broccoli) in a large pot with 3 to 4 cups of chicken stock and a clove of garlic, 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, and 1 teaspoon sea salt. Boil and then simmer until soft, up to 20 minutes. (I sometimes use frozen organic produce—a breeze!)
   
2. Remove veggies and place into a blender with 1 cup applesauce (see
   this page
   ) or banana, plus a drizzle of olive oil. Puree until smooth.
   
3. Let cool, then store in reusable glass jars so you’ve got a week’s worth of meals ready to go. These also freeze well.
   

Y
OU’LL NOTICE THAT
most of this chapter focuses on what you
can
and
should
eat, instead of what
not
to eat. That’s because the whole beauty of Honest Eating is that you don’t have to sit around memorizing lists of off-limits foods. You simply focus on enjoying whole, fresh foods (and educating yourself a bit on how to make the best choices) and you automatically avoid the junk. But since we’re so inundated with misleading food marketing and junk food pretty much everywhere we go, I thought it might help if I also explained a little more about what I don’t eat and don’t buy for my family—because I honestly don’t want these nonfoods in our lives. Period.

This is a hard one. I’m not going to lie and say,
Oh, I never even miss sugar.
I absolutely have a sweet tooth—if you put a plate of red velvet cupcakes with butter cream frosting in front of me, I’ll eat the entire thing. Because that’s how sugar works: The more you eat, the more you want. I find it easiest to minimize our intake as much as possible by saving baked goods for special occasions and skipping all the packaged foods that are loaded with extra sugar we just don’t need day to day.

This ingredient is in the same camp as sugar—because as far as your body is concerned, it
is
sugar. Refined flour (like the kind you find in white bread, regular pasta, muffins, pies, and so on) breaks down into glucose almost as soon as you eat it, which causes a quick spike of your blood sugar and then a terrible crash. When that happens, you feel like death, and then you’re hungry again in about 5 minutes anyway. Swapping all the refined flour foods in your diet for their whole grain equivalents is probably the easiest way to incorporate a little Honest Eating into your life—and reap huge rewards in terms of fewer mood swings, more sustained energy, and fewer crazy, overpowering food cravings, too.

These are bad news. Like regular sugar, they overdevelop our palate for sweet things and make us want more, more, more all the time. And kids’ foods are loaded with them, which I’ll never understand. Little kids’ taste buds are already way stronger than the average adult’s, so why do they need foods to be so sweet? Answer: They don’t. The worst part about these sweeteners is the slew of health problems associated with them. Check it out:

• ASPARTAME: May trigger migraines, increase your risk for diabetes, and break down into formaldehyde. Next!
  
• SPLENDA (SUCROALOSE): We don’t have adequate research to draw conclusions about how it impacts our health.
  
• HIGH-FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP: This sweetener is practically on America’s Most Wanted List at this point, so you don’t need me to rehash the discussion. But bottom line: It’s super caloric and a cheap way for food manufacturers to make things very sweet (and it’s linked to childhood obesity).
  
• AGAVE: Okay, technically, this one is a “natural” sweetener, which means it’s healthy, right? Not quite—many brands consist of 70 to 80 percent fructose—more than what’s found in high-fructose corn syrup! If you do use agave, at least hunt for types that contain no more than 30 to 40 percent fructose. And make sure it’s organic and 100 percent pure.
  

This fake food ingredient is found in lots of chips, crackers, icing, microwave popcorn, and other snack foods. Trans fats increase a product’s shelf life and do only bad things to your health. The good news is that a lot of companies have gotten the message about the dangers of this type of fat. So be sure to look for “no trans fats” on the label when you’re shopping and double-check ingredient labels; trans fats may be lurking as “partially hydrogenated oils.”

This one is kind of a no-brainer. If it can make yogurt blue, it’s probably not good for your kid. In particular, avoid FD&C Blue No. 1 and 2, Green No. 3, and Yellow No. 5 and 6.

These keep hot dogs and bacon looking tasty and red—and can trigger migraines, may be linked to cancer, and are bad news for pregnant women. Steer clear of cured and processed meats unless they are labeled “nitrate free.”

Monosodium glutamate is a flavor enhancer used in lots of canned soups, salad dressings, shake-on seasonings, and fast food. Some people are really sensitive to it, and it makes them sick; it’s probably not doing the rest of us much good either. If you’re eating clean, you’re already cutting a lot of MSG out, so it should be a nonissue. But double-check for “no MSG” and no hydrolyzed protein on ingredient lists.