Andrea Garen, Registered Dietitian
Andrea Garen
About me:
Andrea Garen is a registered dietitian and project manager for Dairy Council of California. She manages the marketing and editorial strategies for Meals Matter.org, which includes social media efforts and online tool development. She is a contributing writer to the Meals Matter.org blog and has also written and edited numerous nutrition education materials for parents and children.
As a spokesperson for Dairy Council, she speaks widely on consumer health and nutrition issues for radio, television, print and online outlets. With a Master's degree in dietetics from San Francisco State University, Garen has been invited to speak at University of California, Berkeley; University of California, San Francisco; San Francisco State University and California State University, Hayward.
As a mother of two young children, she is passionate about nutritious food and reality-based eating, which means choosing nutritious foods and preparing them in a way that makes them taste great. Sometimes that means minimal preparation and other times it means following a more detailed recipe. She believes that no foods are off limits!
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Eat, Play, Love: Raising Healthy Eaters is a blog series by parents and dietitians whose stories and advice reminds us that we can overcome the challenges of feeding children. Subscribe to find ways to build lifelong healthy eating habits for your children.
At our house, we work hard to create a positive dynamic at the dinner table for my five year old. I know that one of the best ways to encourage healthy eating behaviors for children is to provide structured family meals and make mealtime pleasant. But what happens when he’s at school or with his friends?
The other day my son didn’t eat the sandwich I sent with him to school for lunch and I asked him why. Did he want another type of sandwich? He said, no and that he didn’t eat his sandwich because it was made with white bread, which his teacher told him was “just sugar”.
My son’s teacher was trying to make a positive point about whole-wheat bread without realizing the unintended consequences.
As parents or school staff, our well-intended attempts to improve the eating habits of children can sometimes backfire. Labeling foods as “good” or “bad” can disrupt their natural curiosity about food and appetite, which can cause them to eat less well, not better.
My son used to like whole-wheat bread and then started to reject it. So I switched to white bread. But, now he eats NO bread! After all, food only has nutritional value if it is actually eaten.
Parents and caregivers can promote healthy eating by providing a variety of foods, without labeling them as "good" or "bad," and by giving children the freedom to turn down what they don’t want without coaxing or bribing them to eat.
Giving children the freedom to say no thank you, rather than restricting certain foods and pushing others, is the best way to get children to learn to accept new foods and build a positive relationship with food.
Do you find yourself labeling foods as “good” or “bad”?
Andrea Garen, Registered Dietitian
Subscribe to our Eat, Play, Love: Raising Healthy Eaters blog series to find ways to build lifelong healthy eating habits for your children.
For more tips and information on raising healthy eaters, follow @MealsMatter and the #eatplaylove hashtag on Twitter.