economicmultipliers_138

Economic Multipliers (138)

Do you know what these are?

They help CREATE wealth in systems.

A ‘no snacking’ policy could be an economic multiplier for everyone.

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Recently I read the book French Kids Eat Everything by Karen Le Billon (2012).

Of course, French kids don’t really eat everything.

It does appear though that the greater percentage of them eat a LOT more fruits and vegetables than ordinary Americans AND their kids have a LOT less problems with weight.

Many things stood out in the book as Karen explained how a difference in culture significantly affects HOW children learn to eat and what they are willing to eat.

Imagine encouraging a fixed meal schedule with (almost) NO snacking in between (kids eat around 7:00 a.m. (breakfast), 12:00 p.m.(filling lunch), 4:30 p.m.(a substantive ‘snack’) and 7:00 p.m.(dinner with parents)).

Imagine vegetable broths being blended with milk after babies are about 6-months-old so kids are introduced to an array of vegetable flavors and colors (and then textures).

She noted that one of the greatest advantages of a NO SNACKING policy is that French parents who adhere to this rule have cleaner cars, cleaner strollers and cleaner kids (or a lot less cleaning to do than other parents).

Food is NEVER supposed to be used as a punishment or a reward. If you want to know how the French work to accomplish this, you’ll need to read the book. It’s particularly worth reading if you yourself ‘binge’ eat or drink when life gets more hurried or stressful.

As an American who will always battle ‘less fortunate’ eating habits that I picked up when I was young, I am now in a ‘testing’ phase.

Most ‘snacks’ that I would traditionally grab between meals are starting to find their way onto my meal plates.

Temporarily, I’m still eating pretty much the same foods. I’m just much more conscious of things that perhaps shouldn’t be there (or at least be there in smaller quantities).

Although I never thought much about it before, ‘loving to eat’ is not the same as ‘thoroughly enjoying food.’

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P.S. Karen Le Billon has a website where she expounds on the concepts in the book and shares expanded thoughts.

Most importantly, she has been compiling a list of menus of foods served to children in their school cantines (search on Karen Le Billon French School Lunch Menus)