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
“An innovative approach to childrens eating…Rose presents a thoughtfully crafted plan (the Teaching Approach) to form basic habits that focus on proportion, variety, and moderation. She helps parents identify their own eating hang ups when it comes to feeding their children (i.e. nurturer, food police, nutritionista) and then provides methods of helping children establish habits they can carry into adulthood…Rose walks readers through her Teaching Approach step-by-step, using scenarios that illustrate issues and hands-on solutions. Creative and clever, Rose comes to the table with a fresh perspective and a practical plan for teaching kids lifelong healthy eating habits.”—
Publishers Weekly “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
“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
You already know how to give your children 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 kids - surprisingly - eat poorly. But when families shift their emphasis to behaviors - the skills and habits kids are taught - they learn to eat right.
Every child can learn to eat well, but only if you show them how to do it. Dr. Rose describes the three habits - proportion, variety, and moderation - all kids need to learn, and gives you clever, practical ways to teach these food skills.
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.
Synopsis
Improve your childs diet with unexpected advice: Stop thinking about nutrition and start thinking about behavior instead. Successful parents teach their children
how to eat. Behaviorattitudes and reactions at mealtimes, snack times, and in the presence of foodis more important than broccoli. As a result of this teaching families have more enjoyable, less stressful mealtimes, and kids eat a wide variety of healthy foods. Dina Rose, a food sociologist and mother, presents the three habits that translate good nutrition into behavior: proportion, variety, and moderation.
Rose describes the mistakes parents should avoid, including:
- Using nutrition to justify poor choices
- Unintentionally teaching bad habits, including overeating and hating certain foods
- Being held hostage to common parental food issues, such as fear of hunger or conflict
Then she shows parents how to teach children behaviors that encourage good habits:
- Eat foods in proportion to their healthy benefits
- Approach a variety of new foods
- Eat in moderation
It's Not About the Broccoli will show you that consciously teaching the skills that support good eating habits will give your children strong, loving, healthy starts in life.
About the Author
Dina Rose, PhD, is a sociologist, parent educator and feeding expert with more than 15 years experience in teaching, research and public speaking. She has helped thousands of parents teach their kids to eat right with her innovative approach to parenting. Dina has written for
Huffington Post and
Psychology Today, and maintains an active blog on her website. She lives with her husband and daughter in Hoboken, New Jersey.