Synopses & Reviews
Stop thinking about nutrition and start thinking about your childs eating habits instead. You already know how to give your kids healthy food. But the hard part is getting them to eat it. After years of research and working with parents, Dina Rose, discovered a powerful truth: When parents focus solely on nutrition, their kidssurprisinglyeat poorly. But when families shift their emphasis to behaviors the skills and habits kids are taughtthey learn to eat right.
Every child can learn to eat wellbut only if you show them how to do it. Dr. Rose describes the three habitsproportion, variety, and moderationall kids need to learn, and gives you clever, practical ways to teach these food skills. All children can learn:
How to confidently explore strange, new foods
How to know when theyre hungry and when theyre full
What to do when they say theyre starving”and about to attend a birthday party
How to branch out from easy-to-like prepackaged kid fare to more mature tastes and textures: savory, tangy, runny, crunchy.
How to engage in open and honest talk about food without yelling I dont like it!”
With It's Not About the Broccoli, you can teach your children how to eat, and give them the skills they need for a lifetime of health and vitality.
Review
“Humorous as well as instructive, this culinary adventure will change the lives of parents and children alike. . . . Karen Le Billon and her children learn that its okay to feel hungry between meals, turn to mindful eating, and learn the importance of enjoying ones food.” Patricia Wells, author of The Provence Cookbook
Review
“This book is not only about how to teach children (and yourself) to eat well and happily for life, its a book about how to help build and maintain the foundations of any civilized society. I loved it. Essential reading, whether you have children or not.” Laura Calder, author of Dinner Chez Moi and host of French Food at Home
Review
“A wonderfuland importantbook. One familys topsy-turvy culinary transformation becomes an in-depth exploration of the habits that have kept French kids loving food (and eating spinach) for centuries.” Elizabeth Bard, author of Lunch in Paris
Review
“It takes a brave couple to move two pickyeater kids into a French small town and convert them to foodie omnivores. We have much to learn from European food traditions, and the contrast between French and North American school lunches is a striking example. A mustread for teachers and parents.” Marion Nestle, Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University and author of What to Eat
Review
“A fascinating and valuable read.” Lynne Rossetto Kasper
Review
“A breezy but practical volume for hurried parents looking to keep their kids well-fed. . . . [The] tone is straightforward, generous, and gentle. That Le Billon concludes with a small collection of kid-friendly recipes makes this foodie manifesto all the more accessible.” Publishers Weekly
Review
“Le Billon . . . strategically identified questions she faced while living abroad: Why were French kids tidier eaters? Why did they sit quietly at restaurants? Why did her daughters teacher suggest she see a therapist when she wanted to pack her school lunch?” BonAppetit.com
Review
“I am constantly hearing from parents that they have no idea what their kids are supposed to eat or whether their kids are eating ‘right. [
It's Not About the Broccoli] provides just what parents need to feed kids properly, stop worrying, and start enjoying mealtimes with kids. Dina Rose looks at feeding kids from a sociologists perspective. When the feeding behavior goes well, kids will get all the nutrients they need. This book ought to reassure parents that following a few simple principles will get their kids fed just fine.”
--Marion Nestle, Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health and Professor of Sociology at New York University, and author of What to Eat
“Few things are as important to parents as feeding their kids healthy foods. Dina Rose offers parents a whole new way to think about feeding kids. Her suggestions are completely practical, completely effective, and often a lot of fun. Two thumbs up from this Sneaky Chef!”
--Missy Chase Lapine, author of The Sneaky Chef cookbook series
“Dr. Dina Rose is one of my ‘go-to people on kids food issues. She provides practical, accessible, and science-based advice that should be of interest to all parents. Her approach, with its emphasis on behavioral strategies (and on the ‘whole family approach to childrens eating habits) is novel and important. Her ideas will spark useful debate on our approach to kids food, and she deserves the widest possible audience.”
--Karen Le Billon, author of French Kids Eat Everything: How Our Family Moved to France, Cured Picky Eating, Banned Snacking, and Discovered 10 Simple Rules for Raising Happy, Healthy Eaters
“Dina works hard to show parents how to get out of the nutrition trap in order to teach their kids to eat right, and her book provides parents with the “aha” moment they need to help their kids eat the real food that will help keep them both happy and healthy.”
--Kate Adamick, co-founder of Cook for America and author of Lunch Money: Serving Healthy School Food in a Sick Economy
“In fifteen years of writing about nutrition and health for magazines such as Parents, Family Circle, and Prevention, I have interviewed hundreds of experts. Dr. Dina Rose has some of the freshest, most interesting advice I've heard on the topic of feeding kids. She challenges long-held beliefs and goes much deeper than many leading nutrition authorities. Dina has helped me on a personal level (she coached me through my toddler's dinner strike) and caused me to reevaluate some of my own beliefs about children's eating habits. Her focus on habits is perfect for our time, when so many parents know exactly what they should be feeding their kids--but just can't figure out how to do it.”
--Sally Kuzemchak, MS, RD, Freelance Writer and Registered Dietitian
“Dina Rose will change how parents teach their children healthy eating habits. Her warmth and empathy shine through as she presents step-by-step practical solutions to worrisome issues such as picky eaters and kids with limited appetites. Combining scholarship with hands-on experience as a mother, Dina methodically analyzes what sabotages parents' best efforts to cope with challenging food issues. Dismissing the misplaced reliance on fuzzy nutritional data - as well as gimmicks and food fads - Dina highlights often ignored factors that significantly influence how our children view healthy eating.”
--Leah Klungness, Ph.D., psychologist and co-author of The Complete Single Mother and co-founder of Singlemommyhood.com
“As the managing editor at New Jersey Family magazine I'm exposed to a steady stream of tips for feeding picky eaters, but Dina's approach is different from the advice that typically comes my way. Dina's perspective is fresh, insightful, and thought-provoking. She makes me rethink the way I view children and their eating habits. I am always eager to share her posts with our readers and followers.”
--Lucy Banta, Managing Editor and Director of Social Media, New Jersey Family
Synopsis
French Kids Eat Everything is a wonderfully wry account of how Karen Le Billon was able to alter her childrens deep-rooted, decidedly unhealthy North American eating habits while they were all living in France.
At once a memoir, a cookbook, a how-to handbook, and a delightful exploration of how the French manage to feed children without endless battles and struggles with pickiness, French Kids Eat Everything features recipes, practical tips, and ten easy-to-follow rules for raising happy and healthy young eaters—a sort of French Women Dont Get Fat meets
Food Rules.
Synopsis
Moving her young family to her husband's hometown in northern France, Karen Le Billon is prepared for some cultural adjustment but is surprised by the food education she and her family (at first unwillingly) receive. In contrast to her daughters, French children feed themselves neatly and happily—eating everything from beets to broccoli, salad to spinach, mussels to muesli. The family's food habits soon come under scrutiny, as Karen is lectured for slipping her fussing toddler a snack—"a recipe for obesity!"—and forbidden from packing her older daughter a lunch in lieu of the elaborate school meal.
The family soon begins to see the wisdom in the "food rules" that help the French foster healthy eating habits and good manners—from the rigid "no snacking" rule to commonsense food routines that we used to share but have somehow forgotten. Soon, the family cures picky eating and learns to love trying new foods. But the real challenge comes when they move back to North America—where their commitment to "eating French" is put to the test. The result is a family food revolution with surprising but happy results—which suggest we need to dramatically rethink the way we feed children, at home and at school.
About the Author
KAREN LE BILLON is the author of
French Kids Eat Everything, a memoir about her familys move to France that offers inspirational lessons for North American parents desperate to end mealtime battles. It has been translated into eight languages and published in eleven countries. Le Billon is a professor at the University of British Columbia and wasnamed one of Canadas Top 40 Under 40 in 2011. A Rhodes Scholar with a PhD from Oxford University, she is married to a Frenchman and is the mother of two young girls. Her family divides its time between Canada and France.
WEB: karenlebillon.com
TWITTER: @karenlebillon