Cat Cora On How to Get Kids to Eat Well

Salad plateKarman at After Ellen has just published a long interview with Iron Chef and lesbian mom Cat Cora. Cora has just launched a new restaurant, Kouzzina, at Disney World in Florida, and is about to start another season of Iron Chef America. Karman asks her the obvious question: “How are you juggling having two new babies [and two other young children] in the house, competing on Iron Chef, and launching a very high profile new restaurant?”

Go read the interview for her answer. I will, however, quote her response to Karman’s question about how to teach kids good eating habits:

My theory is that you have to start with the parents and kids TOGETHER. The parents are the ones who shop for food, cook the food and feed the kids. They are the ones who decide whether or not to drive through that drive thru for fast food. So, educating them along with teaching the kids is key.

Hear, hear.

We’ve been blessed with a non-picky eater, but I admit it’s hard at times, especially when traveling, to stick with healthy food. I commend any restaurant that takes the audacious step of putting vegetables on a kids’ menu. And don’t even get me started on our local school cafeteria. Endless cycles of chicken nuggets, hamburgers, and Domino’s pizza, with an occasional “breakfast for lunch” of French toast. Our son gets lunch there once in a while, but I usually pack his food. (Not that we don’t have some of the above at home every so often, too; we just don’t do perpetual loops of it.)

Where/when do you find it hardest to eat healthy with your kids?

2 thoughts on “Cat Cora On How to Get Kids to Eat Well”

  1. Eating out is tough, but even at home, it’s not that easy to stock and cook all the different types of veggies and fruits that we should be eating. Nevertheless, taking care of a pregnant partner and then having kids has resulted in healthier eating for all of us. I had a crummy diet through much of grad school, but taking responsibility for my health and that of my family made me shape up.

    I don’t sweat “situational” unhealthy meals, like when we eat fast food while driving all day on the interstate, although we like to pack a few grapes or cherry tomatoes just to break the fat/salt monotony.

    It will be more difficult when we reach the age of peer pressure and susceptibility to advertising. Both my partner and I have childhood memories of disdaining our mothers’ homemade whole-wheat bread, and drooling over the forbidden Cap’n Crunch and Ho-Hos. I am sure our kids will feel just as personally deprived.

  2. eating out is the hardest, and i’m not talking fast food, i’m talking sit-down restaurants. it’s frustrates me to no end that they don’t just scale down their dinners to kid size. seems it would be much easier than keeping all that frozen breaded crap on hand for the totally not healthy kids menu! there is one restaurant in town that does the scaled down version for the kids and we love going there (it’s a bbq joint).

    servers are surprised when we order off the main menu for our daughter, but seriously, why would i pay $5 for mac n cheese or chicken nuggets? I’d rather pay twice as much for a real meal, something i’m not going to be cooking at home (which is the point of eating out the in first place!). It’s not like the larger portion is a problem, as we’re all taking home leftovers anyway.

    i totally agree with cat that the problem with kids’ eating habits is about the parents first and foremost. sure, my kid likes the nuggets, but she’d rather have “flat crispy chicken” (chicken parmesan) that i’ve made, along with a heaping pile of “grandma’s green beans” (grown and canned by her grandma). *Real* food really does taste better!

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