French Kids Eat Everything

Chances are, my children are not going to grow up to go to Harvard, or to be major league sports stars, concert musicians, or NASA astronauts.  But no matter who they grow up to be, how and what my children eat will be of great importance to their health, happiness, success, and longevity.

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 by Karen Le Billon

Last year I picked up the audio version of Bringing Up Bebe and went back and forth between being entirely intrigued by it and being sort of bored with it.  Overall, though, I enjoyed it and picked up some insights along the way.  One of the most captivating themes of Bringing Up Bebe, for me, w
as the way that French families, and children in particular, eat.  So when Janssen said that French Kids Eat Everything was one of the best books she's read this year, I went and snagged it from the library.

This is such an interesting book.  I really enjoyed it.  The foundation of the book is that the narrator, Karen Le Billon, married a man (Philippe) from France.  When their children were 2 and 4 they decided to move from Vancouver, Canada back to France for a year.  Both she and her husband were given a one year leave from the university where they taught and they moved to the same village as his parents, in Brittany, France.

And so the adventure begins, with all sorts of cultural mishaps, misunderstandings and mistakes.  Children, and adults!, in France eat so differently from those in North America.  Karen is quite floored to see children at the age of two eating a four course lunch in day care everyday with utensils.  There is no whining or crying or complaining.  The kids eat things like fish, leeks, beets, and Roquefort cheese on a daily basis (I showed TJ the menu for one week of preschool lunches and we truly did not recognize 70% of the foods on it).  It is so fascinating. 

Over twelve months Karen, with the help of her husband, his family, friends and other locals, starts figuring out what the French do differently that make their kids like all sorts of things that her kids won't touch (and neither will any other child in North America) and why they are so well behaved at every meal.  Eventually she compiles a list of ten rules, each of which is explained in the book. 

Many/most of these rules is pretty contrary to the norm for North American parents so it was refreshing to see a new perspective.  That said, I don't think the typical person in North America could follow these to a T, which she discusses in the last chapter (after they've had to make adjustments in Vancouver themselves).  However, as TJ and I discuss someday having children, some of these ideas take on greater weight for me.  My biggest takeaways:

1. Food should be used for nutritive purposes only.  This does not mean one should eat only to meet dietary guidelines (in fact, the number one purpose of food in France is pleasure, which I think is delightful), but rather that food should not be a pacifier, a distraction, a soother, or a threat.  The French would simply never think to say, "Stop hitting your sister or you don't get dinner."  They (including kids) would also never wander to the cupboards when bored.  It is just engrained in them that meal times are 7:30, 12:30, 4:30 (for the kids) and 8:00 that they don't do differently.  Already I sneak candy to the kids all around me and realize now I am encouraging food as a comfort or distraction, which only breeds problems in the long run.

2. Kids can like all foods.  Research shows that it takes 12-15 instances of exposure to like a food (taste is learned).  The French master this by beginning to introduce everything they can think of (really) before the child is 2 years old (at which point a fear of new things sets in: irrelevant when everything is already familiar).  This concept is practiced both at home and at school, as vegetables, especially, are served as purees, sauteed, raw, in salads, as side dishes, and in casseroles.  Parents are gentle but firm in insisting that the children try them and peer pressure often helps the situation.  In the end, the children do truly learn to leave all different things, which I just don't see where I live.  My goal, which I know is aggressive, will be to introduce many vegetables between the ages of 1-2 (the French typically feed their child a leek puree [I've never had leeks] before anything else, including cereal).  The plan is to start making these with TJ now!

3. Food should be enjoyable, not guilty.  This goes against everything I've been taught growing up: I love it.  I really appreciated that the French believe that food is meant to be enjoyed: it should not be a source of guilt or anxiety.  The quote at the beginning of this post sums it up for me: eating is a part of life and should be healthy, happy and enjoyable.  For too many people that is not the case and I think we can do better training our children!

And on that note, go read the book.  It's fascinating.  And it taught me that maybe if I just give olives a few more tries I'll like them.