Why am I writing it now?
I have been postponing nearly 7 years to write this post. Recently, a friend, a mother of 1.5 year old child casually said "she will not restrict her child in her food and will let her eat what she chooses" and I was flabbergasted. I knew my opinion may not be appropriate in that conversation. But it reminded me I should write about it. All the lifestyle changes I incorporated were based upon the advices and opinions that came from public sources where some chose to write about it. So I thought maybe this might help someone whom I might know or not, but would value it someday.
What triggered this question?
Way back in 2012, when I was pregnant I decided to be a responsible mother and that led me to choose what is best for me and my to-be child. That led me to discover varieties of millets, traditional rices, organic milk, organic food benefits and the ill effects of white polished rice, white sugar, etc. I knew before pregnancy about the ill effects of maida and sooji white rava and had already stopped consuming them.
How was my change accepted?
My own family started rolling their eyes saying my lifestyle choices were too much. Didn't you grow with all this? And my mind voice would say "yes, and I could have been healthier with healthier habits".
First, they called me eccentric, when I chose to be vegetarian. Called me difficult to put up with, when I said I won't cook with onion, garlic, green chilli, brinjal as they were negative pranic (i.e. foods which inhibit the life energy). As time went by, that became the norm. So I convinced these will take effect slowly.
Did my child acquire my choice?
When my child was around 1.5 years, my neighbour ridiculed me, "You are doing all this now. Let me see what you do when your daughter cries I want KFC chicken wings when she is 5 years old?" She is 7 years old and she still has not tasted egg too and she had been to every birthday party since 3 years old and sits silently without demanding for the cake when I say it is not eggless. Well, that helped me to discover jaggery whole wheat eggless cake with sourdough starter. And all the ridicule I face from all my friends, neighbours, acquaintances, family, relatives (It wouldn't be too much to say "Everyone I know") will be swept away from my memory when she childishly says "You are the best cooker in the whole world". I never corrected her because "You are the best cook in the whole world" was my words to my mother and I was glad to hear it from my child in her own words.
At this stage, if you think she is some God sent angel who listens to everything I say, you are highly mistaken. She is just like every other child with her whims and fancies. I just helped her, guided her with stories and reasoning at every step of her eating. I made it a conscious process that eating is for health and not just for taste and eating healthy can also be tasty. I used to show raisins, kadalai mittai, maavu laddu, murukku, kamarakattu, uppula potta maanga (salted mango), nellikai (honey amla), millet biscuits as treats. The jaggery cake, karupatti halwa were delicacies. So if you swing a doughnut in front of her, she will hardly notice it. Again it is a constant endeavour to keep up the discipline with so many temptations, questions, advices of people around her.
Exceptions?
All the evil foods she occasionally eats are the ones we consciously introduced just to make sure she isn't completely left out when we had to eat out (To tell the truth, constant compulsion of my better/worse half). She still prefers the sourdough whole wheat pizza I make at home compared to the store bought one. When she says let us not go to hotel we shall eat home cooked food, my family advised "Don't bring her up like this. She can't survive in the outside world". The truth is she is able to recognize that outside food lacks the nutrition that a home cooked meal has. And that comes with guidance and practice.
What was achieved?
Now what did I achieve by all this? An uncomfortable reputation, raised eyebrows, rolling eyes, a constant loneliness.
But then over the years, I was glad to see the slow trickling of forwarded messages as videos/text of the content I already had been practicing earlier.
Now I was able to practice all this because of the wonderful people around the world who had given such information. All I had was the intent and the world was so good to guide me. And I was able to return the favour to my child. I just wish that we pass on the torch so that the whole world is lit with the knowledge of healthy eating and our next generation collectively emerges out of the unhealthy habits our previous generation acquired.
Should children eat healthy or be choosy?
If I had left her unguided and left her palate to guide her, she may have chosen all the unhealthy choices and gotten addicted to most of them. A child has a parent/guardian to guide him/her. Only when we help choose, can they choose right. So I feel children should choose and eat healthy. And that is possible only if we as parents/elders facilitate and tell them what to choose. I yearn and hope this post changes a few minds to guide their child on a healthy lifestyle.
If you are one of those open minds to know more, read on. If not, just skip to the last paragraph.
Modifications I made in my cooking choices:
1. Laid out the different coloured vegetables and fruits and ensured all of them were included in the food in a cyclic order.
2. Must are carrots, keerai (greens), murungakkai (drumstick), ashgourd(vellai poosani), ladies finger (vendakkai), banana flower / stem.
3. Switched to organic milk.
4. Homemade curd, butter, ghee.
5. Used traditional rices for saadham, idli/dosa, puttu, appam such as kichadi samba, sonamasuri, kaala namak, mapillai samba, karunguruvai, jeeraga samba, kaatuyaanam, kullakar, poongar.
6. Used black urud dal instead of white skinned ulutham paruppu.
7. Green moong dal sprouts, horsegram sprouts regularly.
8. All sundals (Chickpeas (Konda kadalai), karuppu konda kadalai, karamani, groundnut, etc)
9. All millets with ragi, jowar, bhajra (kezhvaragu, cholam, kambu) as flours as well as whole form and varagu, samai, thinai, kuthiravali in whole form in all our dosas, adais, paayasam, rice varieties.
10. Wherever recipe calls for onion garlic will use cabbage and ginger. Wherever green chilli is called for, use capsicum.
11. Salad is a delicacy enjoyed often. (Will include children to make them too).
12. Only whole wheat pasta, not the durum wheat pasta
13. Only samba ravai or wheat ravai, not the white sooji rava
14. Wherever corn flour is called for in the recipe, used maize flour or rice flour or jowar flour or all mixed together.
15. Used sourdough starter to make whole wheat bread. No maida is required.
16. Sweets: Karupatti halwa, karupatti mysore pak, badam brown sugar cake, maavu laddus, kadalai mittai, kuzhi paniyaram (traditional rices and jaggery), jaggery laddu
17. Snacks: fruits, dried fruits, nuts, carrot, cucumber, coconut, curd, coriander leaves (kid's choice of raiding the fridge, don't ask me what? :-))
18. Norukku theeni (Crispy snacks?): Murukku, seedai, thattai, om podi, naada murukku, mixture, kaara boondhi, millet varieties of murukku, mixture, kaara sev.
19. Home made chocolate with jaggery, unsweetened natural cacao.
20. Pure vanilla extract (not chemical essence) or kumkuma poo (saffron) for colouring/taste.
21. Wheat idiyappam is called noodles in my household.
22. Use Himalayan pink rock salt and sea salt
23. Use banana/butter wherever egg is called for in the recipe
24. Cold pressed groundnut oil, coconut oil, sesame oil
I have been postponing nearly 7 years to write this post. Recently, a friend, a mother of 1.5 year old child casually said "she will not restrict her child in her food and will let her eat what she chooses" and I was flabbergasted. I knew my opinion may not be appropriate in that conversation. But it reminded me I should write about it. All the lifestyle changes I incorporated were based upon the advices and opinions that came from public sources where some chose to write about it. So I thought maybe this might help someone whom I might know or not, but would value it someday.
What triggered this question?
Way back in 2012, when I was pregnant I decided to be a responsible mother and that led me to choose what is best for me and my to-be child. That led me to discover varieties of millets, traditional rices, organic milk, organic food benefits and the ill effects of white polished rice, white sugar, etc. I knew before pregnancy about the ill effects of maida and sooji white rava and had already stopped consuming them.
How was my change accepted?
My own family started rolling their eyes saying my lifestyle choices were too much. Didn't you grow with all this? And my mind voice would say "yes, and I could have been healthier with healthier habits".
First, they called me eccentric, when I chose to be vegetarian. Called me difficult to put up with, when I said I won't cook with onion, garlic, green chilli, brinjal as they were negative pranic (i.e. foods which inhibit the life energy). As time went by, that became the norm. So I convinced these will take effect slowly.
Did my child acquire my choice?
When my child was around 1.5 years, my neighbour ridiculed me, "You are doing all this now. Let me see what you do when your daughter cries I want KFC chicken wings when she is 5 years old?" She is 7 years old and she still has not tasted egg too and she had been to every birthday party since 3 years old and sits silently without demanding for the cake when I say it is not eggless. Well, that helped me to discover jaggery whole wheat eggless cake with sourdough starter. And all the ridicule I face from all my friends, neighbours, acquaintances, family, relatives (It wouldn't be too much to say "Everyone I know") will be swept away from my memory when she childishly says "You are the best cooker in the whole world". I never corrected her because "You are the best cook in the whole world" was my words to my mother and I was glad to hear it from my child in her own words.
At this stage, if you think she is some God sent angel who listens to everything I say, you are highly mistaken. She is just like every other child with her whims and fancies. I just helped her, guided her with stories and reasoning at every step of her eating. I made it a conscious process that eating is for health and not just for taste and eating healthy can also be tasty. I used to show raisins, kadalai mittai, maavu laddu, murukku, kamarakattu, uppula potta maanga (salted mango), nellikai (honey amla), millet biscuits as treats. The jaggery cake, karupatti halwa were delicacies. So if you swing a doughnut in front of her, she will hardly notice it. Again it is a constant endeavour to keep up the discipline with so many temptations, questions, advices of people around her.
Exceptions?
All the evil foods she occasionally eats are the ones we consciously introduced just to make sure she isn't completely left out when we had to eat out (To tell the truth, constant compulsion of my better/worse half). She still prefers the sourdough whole wheat pizza I make at home compared to the store bought one. When she says let us not go to hotel we shall eat home cooked food, my family advised "Don't bring her up like this. She can't survive in the outside world". The truth is she is able to recognize that outside food lacks the nutrition that a home cooked meal has. And that comes with guidance and practice.
What was achieved?
Now what did I achieve by all this? An uncomfortable reputation, raised eyebrows, rolling eyes, a constant loneliness.
But then over the years, I was glad to see the slow trickling of forwarded messages as videos/text of the content I already had been practicing earlier.
Now I was able to practice all this because of the wonderful people around the world who had given such information. All I had was the intent and the world was so good to guide me. And I was able to return the favour to my child. I just wish that we pass on the torch so that the whole world is lit with the knowledge of healthy eating and our next generation collectively emerges out of the unhealthy habits our previous generation acquired.
Should children eat healthy or be choosy?
If I had left her unguided and left her palate to guide her, she may have chosen all the unhealthy choices and gotten addicted to most of them. A child has a parent/guardian to guide him/her. Only when we help choose, can they choose right. So I feel children should choose and eat healthy. And that is possible only if we as parents/elders facilitate and tell them what to choose. I yearn and hope this post changes a few minds to guide their child on a healthy lifestyle.
If you are one of those open minds to know more, read on. If not, just skip to the last paragraph.
Modifications I made in my cooking choices:
1. Laid out the different coloured vegetables and fruits and ensured all of them were included in the food in a cyclic order.
2. Must are carrots, keerai (greens), murungakkai (drumstick), ashgourd(vellai poosani), ladies finger (vendakkai), banana flower / stem.
3. Switched to organic milk.
4. Homemade curd, butter, ghee.
5. Used traditional rices for saadham, idli/dosa, puttu, appam such as kichadi samba, sonamasuri, kaala namak, mapillai samba, karunguruvai, jeeraga samba, kaatuyaanam, kullakar, poongar.
6. Used black urud dal instead of white skinned ulutham paruppu.
7. Green moong dal sprouts, horsegram sprouts regularly.
8. All sundals (Chickpeas (Konda kadalai), karuppu konda kadalai, karamani, groundnut, etc)
9. All millets with ragi, jowar, bhajra (kezhvaragu, cholam, kambu) as flours as well as whole form and varagu, samai, thinai, kuthiravali in whole form in all our dosas, adais, paayasam, rice varieties.
10. Wherever recipe calls for onion garlic will use cabbage and ginger. Wherever green chilli is called for, use capsicum.
11. Salad is a delicacy enjoyed often. (Will include children to make them too).
12. Only whole wheat pasta, not the durum wheat pasta
13. Only samba ravai or wheat ravai, not the white sooji rava
14. Wherever corn flour is called for in the recipe, used maize flour or rice flour or jowar flour or all mixed together.
15. Used sourdough starter to make whole wheat bread. No maida is required.
16. Sweets: Karupatti halwa, karupatti mysore pak, badam brown sugar cake, maavu laddus, kadalai mittai, kuzhi paniyaram (traditional rices and jaggery), jaggery laddu
17. Snacks: fruits, dried fruits, nuts, carrot, cucumber, coconut, curd, coriander leaves (kid's choice of raiding the fridge, don't ask me what? :-))
18. Norukku theeni (Crispy snacks?): Murukku, seedai, thattai, om podi, naada murukku, mixture, kaara boondhi, millet varieties of murukku, mixture, kaara sev.
19. Home made chocolate with jaggery, unsweetened natural cacao.
20. Pure vanilla extract (not chemical essence) or kumkuma poo (saffron) for colouring/taste.
21. Wheat idiyappam is called noodles in my household.
22. Use Himalayan pink rock salt and sea salt
23. Use banana/butter wherever egg is called for in the recipe
24. Cold pressed groundnut oil, coconut oil, sesame oil
25. Sukku malli milk with jaggery or karupatti
What I said above would mostly suit a South Indian cuisine, due to my limited knowledge. Since I am a vegetarian I could only provide those options. But I am sure there are similar ones for other cuisines too. Though I hold vegans with high regard, I can't give up on thayir saadham (curd rice) and paneer varieties. So that is my limitation. To add to my limitation, my family (my husband and my kids) wanted to go to ice ulagam i.e. Canada, drastically cutting down point 3, 5, 24 and some millets. (:-( The worst part is no karupatti (Palm jaggery). EKSI. Wiping my own tears, I started switching to quinoa, couscous. Ofcourse I didnt make murukku or idli with it.. Just rice varieties.
No cold pressed groundnut or sesame oil. Greatly missing the taste of karupatti cold pressed sesame oil...
Spinach is universal. Kale and aragula (Only two varieties of keerai here compared to the umpteen varieties in India). No ashgourd, snakegourd, ridgegourd, banana flower, banana stem :-(( ok the list goes on.. + here -> lots of berries, fresh avacado, lettuces, cleaned salad greens, snap peas..
What should I do with those chocolates?
All said, my second daughter was presented with chocolates on Valentine's day. That was the day I saw chocolates has cockroaches video. As soon as the kids entered, I told them to ask Google assistant "does chocolate have cockroaches?" and it answered it has 8 insect pieces. Immediately my first daughter said to my second "Cockroaches are disgusting. They will be in toilets and then will be in your chocolate. Oh how yucky. Don't have it". My 3 year old hesitantly handed over all to me and I immediately threw them to the top shelf before she has a change of heart. She then asked me "Now who will eat the chocolates? I mean.. cockroaches?" as I didn't throw them in trash.
I couldn't throw them in trash as we hold the value never to waste an edible food that has not gone bad. I just postponed it saying "Let's ask your father", thankfully, who was not at home.
What I said above would mostly suit a South Indian cuisine, due to my limited knowledge. Since I am a vegetarian I could only provide those options. But I am sure there are similar ones for other cuisines too. Though I hold vegans with high regard, I can't give up on thayir saadham (curd rice) and paneer varieties. So that is my limitation. To add to my limitation, my family (my husband and my kids) wanted to go to ice ulagam i.e. Canada, drastically cutting down point 3, 5, 24 and some millets. (:-( The worst part is no karupatti (Palm jaggery). EKSI. Wiping my own tears, I started switching to quinoa, couscous. Ofcourse I didnt make murukku or idli with it.. Just rice varieties.
No cold pressed groundnut or sesame oil. Greatly missing the taste of karupatti cold pressed sesame oil...
Spinach is universal. Kale and aragula (Only two varieties of keerai here compared to the umpteen varieties in India). No ashgourd, snakegourd, ridgegourd, banana flower, banana stem :-(( ok the list goes on.. + here -> lots of berries, fresh avacado, lettuces, cleaned salad greens, snap peas..
What should I do with those chocolates?
All said, my second daughter was presented with chocolates on Valentine's day. That was the day I saw chocolates has cockroaches video. As soon as the kids entered, I told them to ask Google assistant "does chocolate have cockroaches?" and it answered it has 8 insect pieces. Immediately my first daughter said to my second "Cockroaches are disgusting. They will be in toilets and then will be in your chocolate. Oh how yucky. Don't have it". My 3 year old hesitantly handed over all to me and I immediately threw them to the top shelf before she has a change of heart. She then asked me "Now who will eat the chocolates? I mean.. cockroaches?" as I didn't throw them in trash.
I couldn't throw them in trash as we hold the value never to waste an edible food that has not gone bad. I just postponed it saying "Let's ask your father", thankfully, who was not at home.
Comments
Post a Comment