Binge
There was a classic study carried out a number of years ago on the eating habits of three- and four- year olds. In the study, children were given the choice of a whole range of food at each meal every day for a period of six months.
Within the six-month period, the children tended to “binge” on one food or another, be it bread, rice, meat or sweets, for periods of a few days or a week or two. However, when the scientists reviewed all the food that each child had consumed over the entire six-month period, they found that most children had a fairly balanced diet overall.
Back in France, the Bambina’s pediatrician used to refer to this study periodically to remind us that our job as parents was simply to offer the Bambina a range of healthy choices of food to eat at each meal. We should then leave it to her to decide what and how much to eat.
With this advice in mind, was I wrong not to stop her from finishing off a whole jar of (organic, no-sugar added) strawberry jam (without bread) in one sitting?
7 comments:
LOL.
It could have been Nutella, right??
Mmmm, that's fruit, don't you know??
Good to know it's a phenomenon and not just my three year old!
Well, yes, it's fruit but it's also quite a lot of sugar, no? (albeit the fructose kind, mostly). Hmmm. We don't buy Nutella and funnily enough, the one time the Bambina tried some last year at the nido, she didn't like it, which is strange because she loves chocolate.
I guess you just have to trust your instincts and if she came to no harm, then that's ok. So long as she doesn't get the idea she ALWAYS has to finish the whole jar!
That's a riot! I love it!
Oh God, no - awful! The sugar content; her teeth, her poor liver! Fruit is only nutritious when it's eaten as fruit - even fruit smoothies are like drinking a can of coke.
Anna, I was kind of hoping that jam was a little closer to fruit than to juice. After all, the whole fruit gets put in it, not just the juice (although this particular jam also contained some apple juice as sweetener). But yes, I am aware that fructose in concentrated doses is not good for the liver. Sigh.
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