Gracious Mealtimes with Alison Mountford
Podcast Guest:
Alison Mountford
Chef, Food Waste Expert and Mom
Alison and I chatted recently on the Podcast about family mealtimes, food waste, and what its like to parent differently than our mothers.
Every few episodes, I invite a guest to answer a reader’s question - do you have one? Fill out the form below, and I will bring in an expert to answer it.
OUR QUESTION TODAY WAS THE FOLLOWING:
What’s the difference between a picky eater and a child who knows what they like and don’t like? And where do you draw the line and say forget it when it comes to offering the same foods repeatedly?
Here are some takeaways from our conversation and Alison’s advice.
Alison: So to me, the clear difference between a picky eater and an opinionated one is their attitude and willingness to taste it.
If you gave my kid pasta with a marinara sauce he's going to go “I don't like that” but has he tasted it? No, so he is solidly in the category of Picky Eater. Or if you give a kid of food and they don't comment on it, they taste it, they give it a fair chance — and they have a good attitude and some curiosity about trying a new thing even if they're a little hesitant but they try it and they can intelligently talk about why, like “this was a little too spicy for me” or “it was really tangy” or “I don't love the texture of this” then that is the point where you can say “Okay well just like Grandma doesn't eat brussels sprouts. You are allowed to have an opinion and say you don't like this food or you did not enjoy it prepared this way.”
But the pickiness really comes in when they have no willingness or when they're clearly with their attitude and their demeanor demonstrating that they're unwilling to try something because it's not familiar to them — or because they actively think they will dislike it but without ever having tried it. So that's a big difference.
I would give a shout-out to all the toddler moms out there who can't really figure out if it's picky or an opinion because there isn't the language around that and that opens up another conversation around teaching language and really talking about your own food.
Alison: So I would I would default till like pre six years old and just assume it's pickiness. But maybe even give them more of the benefit of the doubt than just pickiness which I think has an icky kind of connotation. It's like as soon as you say picky eating everyone gets all ratcheted up about it. I would not say maybe let's not call them picky eaters but let's say if they're younger than 6 or seven years old they're just not experienced. So don't ever write anything off unless it's an allergy and then again, that's not picky. But younger than 6 or 7 I would not allow them to fall into any category quite yet.
What about offering the same food again and again and again?
Alison: You have to serve food in a variety of ways. Maybe one day you have spinach as part of a saute, maybe another time you have it with a lot of garlic. Maybe you try it with balsamic. Maybe you put it chopped up with cheese in a stuffed shell — and just sort of over the course of many years they will be able to experience this one food in a lot of different ways and then maybe they'll find one way that they like it. I would truly say that everybody doesn't stop experiencing foods in different ways. You can always learn to like new foods. So I don't think it's too late for anybody.
Talk about these things openly, learning to like new foods, changing your mind about things, trying things in different ways, trying things at your friend's house or at a restaurant or cooked by somebody else. But what I wouldn't want to do is put the same piece of spinach in front of a kid for 17 years and say no dessert until you eat that spinach. or “I know you didn't like it for the last eleven years, but we're still gonna keep trying this” but I would never allow myself to write off a food without really good reason that they will never like it.
Some other takeaways from our conversation:
The pressure to meal prep on the weekends is just that, pressure. If you enjoy cooking, then great meal prep on the weekends, but if you would rather be hiking or shopping, then you can easily get by with 30-minute meals on the weeknights.
Restaurants are much better when it comes to food waste than our own homes. We tend to overbuy and then throw away lots of unused food. At a restaurant, the only person throwing away food is the consumer if they order too much.
Picking hobbies like cooking and gardening can help to teach our children the valuable skill of waiting - which is essential to combating entitlement in our on-demand society.
You can learn more about Ends & Stems and Alison’s awesome 30-minute recipes that reduce food waste at EndsandStems.com and make sure to listen to the episode for a whole lot more information! - Stef
