Episode 91: Bread School: How to Choose Better Breads for Our Family.

Episode 91: Bread School: How to Choose Better Breads for Our Family.

In this episode . I'm taking you through Bread School and breaking down the different types of bread available, what to look for on the label, and how to make confident choices without feeling overwhelmed. Whether you have a picky eater, a fussy eater, or a child who will only eat white bread, this episode will help you understand where bread fits into childrens nutrition and how to choose the most nutritious option your child will actually eat.

Remember, feeding your child isn't about perfection. It's about making small, realistic improvements that support a healthy diet for fussy eaters and the whole family.

In This Episode

Wholegrain vs Wholemeal Bread
The Truth About Sourdough
How to Read Bread Labels
Low GI and High Fibre Breads Explained
My Bread Ranking for Families

Links:
https://nourishwithkarina.com/feedingbabies
https://nourishwithkarina.com/membership

Highlights:Introduction – Bread School: How to Choose Better Breads for Your Family - 00:00

Personal Story: Childhood Memories of Bread and Brioche - 02:21
Why Bread Matters and Choosing Better Everyday Bread - 04:39
Wholemeal vs. Fortified Bread: Which Is Better? - 06:57
Understanding Bread Types and How to Choose - 09:08
What to Look for on a Bread Label - 11:31
Whole Grain Bread: Benefits and Why It's a Top Choice - 13:48
Sourdough Bread: Fermentation, Nutrition, and GI Benefits - 16:12
Wholemeal Bread: Benefits and Buying Tips - 20:55
Low-GI and High-Fiber White Bread Explained - 23:18
Rye, Oat, Low-Carb, High-Protein, and Gluten-Free Breads - 25:37
Bread Rankings and Final Recommendations - 27:49

Show notes

READ TRANSCRIPT

Show Notes

Healthy Recipes for Kids: https://nourishwithkarina.com/healthy-recipes-for-kids

Free Kids Nutrition Library: https://nourishwithkarina.com/freeinfo

Nutrition Consultation: https://nourishwithkarina.com/nutrition-consultation

Bread Guide & Blog: https://nourishwithkarina.com/blog/bread

Introduction: Why Children Refuse New Foods - 00:00
You're listening to the Easy Feed Podcast, episode number 92. Why your child will not try that new food. Hi there, I'm Karina Savage, and with over 20 years experience feeding children, including my own, I've learnt all the secrets that busy mums need to get their children eating better and actually enjoying healthy foods. So a huge welcome to the Easy Feed Podcast.

Well, welcome back everybody and welcome to my new listeners. It's always wonderful to hear from you. Whatever part of the globe you are listening from, it's really nice that you reach out to me, whether it's online, whether it's by email, I'm leaving me a review on the podcast. Yeah. So thank you for being a part of my community. Today I want to talk about why kids won't try new foods. And this is a really, really, really super common issue for.

Or I would say at least 30% of families, if not more. The research shows up to about 50% of children are fussy and don't want to try new foods. And look, that's what I spend half of my week doing with families is talking to them about why their child will or will not like to try a food. Case in point, I had an online consultation just before for my Fuss Eita package where we talked about why this child may not like to try particular foods.

And strategies to move her closer to wanting to try that food and to liking that food and developing that familiarity and trust and long-term acceptance of that food. Because at the end of the day, that's what we want as parents, don't we? We want our children to eat good food and be healthy. That's as simple as that, but it's so more complex than that when you are actually sitting at the table trying to get your five-year-old to eat.

Balanced healthy meal, it can feel like mission impossible. So today I want to talk a little bit more about why your child might be refusing that food and what you can do about it. So this is the perfect podcast to listen to if you have been trying to get your child to try new food for the last three months at least with no success. Or you might be just feeling really frustrated.

The Reality of Fussy Eating and Family Frustration - 02:16
Every mealtime because you are presenting a healthy food to your child, they're taking one little bite and then going, that's disgusting, or they're not even trying it, and they're hurling it across the room, dropping it on the floor, trying to get their little brother or sister to say, That's disgusting as well. That was one of my consults yesterday. You know, and mealtimes are just a battlefield. So if you are feeling this way, then you are not alone, I promise you. There are millions and millions of parents out there like you.

And if you are feeling this way, then chances are you have been offering your child the same foods that they will eat more often than not, because trying to get them to try new foods is just a I'm not even gonna say the word. It would probably be bleeped out, but it it's just disastrous. It's just too much of a pain in the butt. So if you are feeling that way, you are likely giving your child

what they're gonna eat most of the time because trying to get them to eat anything different is just too challenging. Life is too busy and and despite you really wanting them to eat better, you've probably tried so hard you've just given up. And that's very normal. It's very normal because A, you're sick of wasting food. And B, you're just so tired and exhausted. It's like you're at you're just gonna eat this food. Great. I'm gonna serve it up to you. So if that's you, you are not alone, I promise.

Chances are you might be without realizing exerting a little bit of pressure at the table. And look, it's so easy to do without even realizing. So there's every chance that that could be happening because even some of the words that we use that we think are not pressure are actually pressure. Some of our body languages that we think that are not pressure are pressure. So we need to be really mindful of that. So there's every chance that you might be

bribing your child or just saying, you know, look, if you eat all of your feet food or if you have a good go, then you can have your yogurt or your dessert afterwards. So all these things are normal behaviors that we try to use as parents to just get that child to eat something healthy. It's nothing that, you know, you're not doing anything super sinister. You're just trying to get them to eat because you love them. But at the end of the day, a lot of these behaviors from parents

How Pressure and Mealtime Strategies Can Backfire - 04:35
Can actually be reinforcing fussy eating and reinforcing the child's limited variety. So we're actually going against what we're trying to achieve without realizing subconsciously, we're actually sabotaging our long-term game plan. And we need to come up with a better plan that actually supports your child to expand their variety and start to tolerate and accept.

And enjoy new foods. And that's really the long-term game plan here. And that's really what parents want. But it's like, well, how do we actually make that happen? And what am I doing at the moment that's actually sabotaging that plan? Because parents don't even realize they're doing it half the time. Because what we're doing is out of just struggle. We're in struggle town. We just want our child to eat good food. And so we often will maybe sometimes, often sometimes use the strategies that we've learned as we were growing up.

Sometimes not. Parents often say to me, we were pressured. Even today parents saying to me, we were both pressured to eat everything on our plate. And they don't want to do that for their child because they don't want their child to feel like they have to force feed themselves. But sometimes parents will use the tools that they they've learned growing up themselves, others not so much. You kind of just grasp it whatever you feel might work to try to get your child to have that damn barter broccoli.

Because you're just so desperate for it to happen because you're worried that they're just not getting enough nutrition to thrive. Well, a lot of parents are worried about that. In fact, of the parents that I surveyed, surveyed almost a thousand parents and over 70% of them were worried about their child's nutrient intake. So it's a real thing. It's a worry. And I understand it and I understand why. Because when you sit on the couch at night and you doom scrolling, you know that we scroll roughly the height of the Eiffel Tower every month on our phones? It's

Crazy. I was listening to a podcast where Daniel Priestley was saying that statistic. That's wow. That's that's huge. but what I was trying to say is that when we're scrolling on our phone, we without realizing, probably based on the the algorithm, we get exposed to all of these sort of subliminal healthy eating images and tips and ideas. And look, that's possibly how I end up in social media sometimes. But what it also does.

Parental Worry, Social Media, and Nutrition Concerns - 06:56
is if you're following certain channels that really raise the bar, it can make you feel really inadequate as a parent when your child is not eating the way that you see online and how these kids are eating and your child's just eating a bowl of plain rice. You're like, wow, makes me feel like a failure. And certainly I've had hundreds of parents say that to me and had a mum in tears yesterday on one of our online consults because she just felt powerless. She felt

Like she just didn't know what to do. She didn't know how to get her son to eat any better. And she she was just really feeling deflated about the whole situation because she felt like she'd just lost the battle. So the ripple effect of a child who doesn't want to try new foods and is quite limited with their intake can extend to the child, the family, other siblings, and can cause a lot of worry.

So if we start with the effect on the child, the child who is limited in their intake may be okay from a nutritional perspective, but often they do have increased risk of nutritional deficiencies. So there was a study recently published in relation to dietary iron intake in young children. It was called the Origins Project. It was a Western Australian study.

And they found that 15% of one-year-olds and nearly 20% of three-year-olds were clinically iron deficient. And then they found that over 40% of one-year-olds and that nearly 57% of three-year-olds had low iron levels. So it was that was using a slightly higher clinical threshold. That's huge. That's saying that over 40% of one-year-olds and nearly 57% of three-year-olds had low iron levels.

And that really does fit with what I see a lot in clinical practice. And it does fit with fussy eaters and it does fit with kids who love the white diet and eat too much or drink too much dairy. So definitely fussy eating can cause nutrient deficiency. And there's similar data with zinc as well. I think it was 37% of fussy eaters have low zinc. And iron and zinc are important nutrients that impact appetite, they impact immune function, they impact a whole lot of things. And so

The Ripple Effects of Fussy Eating on Health and Family Life - 09:12
Energy levels, metabolism, immunity. So it's it's really important that we pay attention to children who are fussy. It's not something that they just grow out of and they, I mean, they may grow out of it, but they may not. And it's not something that you just brush to the side because a lot of parents are told that, they'll be all right, they'll be right, they'll grow out of it, just get on with it. But sometimes often it's so important just to trust your gut instinct as a parent. And if you're worried about them, then get help. See a pediatric dietitian.

Get some support around trying to improve your child's nutrient intake. And gummies and things like that can have their place. Talk a lot about nutritional supplements inside my membership because it's a constant worry for parents with children who are fussy, who have a limited intake, who love all those white foods. So the ripple effect of fussy eating is huge. Certainly it's nutrient deficiency. Also, fiber. 40% of children don't reach their daily fiber needs and

A lot of the fussy eaters would fit into that category. And if you've heard any of my previous podcast episodes around fiber and gut health, fiber is just crucial for our gut health. It feeds the microbiome. Another sexy name for fiber is prebiotics. And that feeds the bugs in our gut and it populates the healthy bugs and keeps them in good population so that our immune system works really well. So fiber is crucial for that. And if

If I see it as they're not getting enough fiber, then that impacts their gut health. I think you if you've heard me talk about it before, if we're not feeding our gut microbes fiber, the gut microbes eat the fiber in our intestinal wall. It sounds disgusting, but it makes it more patchy and leaky and then we're more prone to get sick, which is why children with poorer fiber intakes go to daycare a lot, might be at an increased risk of getting sick more often and they just pick up one thing after another after another.

Those little petri dishes of illness and bugs that daycare centers can be lucky, you know, they certainly are important and they, you know, they're then they're a necessity for a lot of working families, but at the same time, they do have more bugs in them. So it's yeah, it's a bit of a double-edged sword there. So nutrient deficiency is one that is a valid concern for parents who have children that won't try new foods. Then we have the effect.

Family Stress, Siblings, and Social Challenges - 11:37
On us as parents. The worry, the mental load keeps us up at night, keeps us, you know, making three different dinners at nighttime just so that our child will eat something healthy. It makes us go and get those supplements, trying to get some goodness into them. There's a lot of mental space and mental load that comes with parenting anyway. But especially with children that don't eat well, there's a lot of worry that goes on there. And I get it.

But it's a ripple effect, right? And so if we can try and fix the child's eating, then it helps us as parents big time. The extended family unit as well, siblings. Siblings who see this their older brother or sister as their hero. If they see them being fussy and calling things disgusting, then they're gonna start doing it as well. And that's not fun for mom and dad if the fuzzy eaters then now bringing in, you know, as a ringleader, bringing in the other kids to go, that's disgusting.

Now she's starting to say that's disgusting too when he, you know, tells her to say that's disgusting. So yeah, it the ripple effect can be huge. Also, parents can often argue if they've got a different approach. So one parent's really worried that the child's not eating and will be like, Come on, you got gotta eat, just have one bite, you know, kind about applying a bit of pressure. And the other parents like, That'll be fine, don't worry about it. And so that can actually cause

A little bit of angst between parents when they're on a different page in relation to how concerned they are with their child's feeding. Also, grandparents, in-laws, you know, the ribble effect is huge. It can also impact how much you actually want to go out and eat with other family members or friends, especially when you're really self-conscious about how your child is eating and that they won't try any new foods. Some families I work with don't even want to go out for dinner because there's

absolutely nothing on the menu that the child would eat. And they actually have to bring their own sandwich for the child. So it's it can be really socially isolating for some that don't even want to go out and socialize because of the way their child eats. So what do we do? What do we do with our children that don't want to try new foods, driving us nuts, making us feel like failures, making us cook three different meals.

What Can Parents Do? Moving Beyond Power Struggles - 13:55
Dragging us into this power struggle around try this, try this, you don't want this, I'll make you this, chasing them around the house, you know, all of these things that we do that we don't want to do, but we do because we love our kids and we want them to be healthy and thrive. What do we do? How do we get our children to start new food? Well, after having my own children and experiencing fussy eating firsthand, I had to really dig deep and look at a system that was going to work because.

Everything that I'd learnt in uni and I'd practiced for the first twelve years as a pediatric dietitian, teaching other families this system, help their children expand their variety of foods, that didn't work for me. So anything that I'd told other families to do, I tried for myself, it didn't work. I'd looked online, I'd tried different things, it didn't work. Here I am, a pediatric dietitian, and I have a toddler.

Who's on division? It kind of made me feel better when a doctor I worked with also had a child who was on division and pussy. But I mean, look there everywhere. But it's just the fact that anything that I'd tried hadn't worked. So I was like, well, this is rubbish. Like, why is this not working? Why is all of the best practice guidelines not working for me? And then if they're not working for me, then chances are they're not working for anybody else. So I had to really take a step back.

And come up with a new plan for for me, for my family, for my child to try to get her eating better. And I really had to think about things differently because you can't just keep putting vegetables on the plate. It doesn't work. And if it had worked by now, you probably wouldn't be listening to this episode. And there would be a much lower percentage of fuzzy eaters in the world.

Because it just doesn't work. Just repeated exposure does not work. And online today, you will still see you've just got to give them fifteen to twenty exposures and then they'll accept it. Or you've just got to cut it up into funny faces on the plate and then they'll accept it. Well, here's the deal. No, they won't if the underlying cause of their fussy eating is not a match for that fix. If you have a car that's broken down, let's say for example.

Why Common Fussy Eating Advice Often Fails - 16:18
First, actually, I'll give you a real life example. My starter motor of my engine had failed. Okay, so my car would not start. The guy came out, he tried to fix my car. He was checking the battery. He's like, maybe we need to change the battery. Changing the battery did not work. You know why? Because it was not a battery problem, it was a starter motor problem. So the underlying cause was different to what he was trying to fix. And this is exactly the problem parents face.

They see all these strategies online and they're like, I'll try that, I'll try that, I'll try that. But it's not necessarily going to work because it's not necessarily the right fix for their child's underlying cause. And that's really what you've got to get to the bottom of. And that's exactly why I've created my own framework. It's called the feeding ecosystem framework. It's something I've come up with because that's really going to help how.

To better understand why your child is fussy. The feeding ecosystem framework. It is the framework, it is the basis of my fussy eating program, which sits in my membership. And it is exactly how I teach parents to understand why their child is fussy and therefore fix their child's fussy eating and expand their variety of foods. Because once you understand what's going on, then you can put a fix in place.

That matches the underlying cause. Okay, so what is this feeding ecosystem framework, you may ask me? Well, my feeding ecosystem framework comprises of three key areas. Number one, we have the child. I mean everything to do with the child that may influence their desire to try a food or eat a food. And there are at least 10 different causes.

Of why a child may or may not want to try or eat a food. So, just to give you a few, it might be teething, it might be nutrient deficiency impacting appetite, it might be constipation, it might be sensory issues. So there are over 10 reasons why a child themselves may struggle to try new foods or bring new foods and variety.

The Feeding Ecosystem Framework: Child, Parent, and Environment - 18:42
Into their repertoire, into their eating. So understanding that is a key factor. The second component is the parent. Okay, as parents, we influence everything to do with meal times and how our child eats, how our child views the world, the words we use, our body language. Again, there are more than 10 factors that influence us and how we parent and the

energy and the vibe and everything we bring to the mealtimes, even before the meal time started, the conversations, the words. There's so much to do with how we are as parents around feeding that will influence our children's desire, want, need to try new foods. So we really need to be dialed in. We really need to hold the mirror up to our face. And that's sometimes where most of the work needs to be done with parents.

So mindset, approach, they all play a role. And this is something that I'd never been taught before. This is something that I've come up with, I've learned because it is so powerful and it makes or breaks mealtimes. So we have the child, we have the parent, and then we have the environment. And the environment is the third crucial component to your child's feeding ecosystem. Let me give you an example. If you plant

A beautiful seed in rubbish soil, don't water it properly, don't give it enough sun, that seed is not going to grow well at all. Now, if your child's feeding environment is poor, same thing applies. They're not going to be in an environment conducive to expanding their variety, to be feeling comfortable and confident to bring new foods into their repertoire.

There are so many factors to do with your child's feeding environment that will influence their willingness to eat and it will absolutely make or break mealtimes. And again, there's more than 10 factors there too. So we have this beautiful ecosystem which overlaps. There is definitely overlap there. We've got the child, we've got the parent, we've got the environment. And those three components are crucial and need to be working well.

Applying the Right Fix to the Right Cause - 21:09
To enable your child to expand their variety of foods. And when you identify one or more of those components in that feeding ecosystem that are not working well, you can then address it. And then you can apply the right fix to the underlying cause. Now, my Fast Eating program, the Feeding Kids Reset, is centered around that feeding ecosystem framework. And you get to understand.

All of the components of the child and the parent and the environment that will influence your child's willingness to try new foods. You then get all the information to apply the appropriate fixes based on whether it's a child issue, a parent issue, an environment issue, or a mixture of the three. It's a simple approach that works once you understand the ecosystem. And I love teaching it to parents because it makes sense. It works.

And what it enables is all of those seeds that you're planting, it enables them to grow and it enables your children to start to try new foods, whether it's in days or weeks or months. It helps to plant all these seeds and support of these seeds to grow, which means that your children will expand their variety of foods and grow up to have a more varied diet, which is

at less risk of nutrient deficiency and lower fiber. So it's really going to set your child up to have a much healthier future. And it starts today with you trying to understand why they're eating the way they are a little more. Rather than just getting to dinner and trying to put the broccoli on the plate and then refusing it and you say, please just have one bite, then you can have your dessert or I'll give you 50 bucks or I'll give you a hundred bucks. Yes, I've had those two things told to me. I hope they'll give you a hundred bucks if you try some carrot. So

We don't have to do any of that if we get the system right first. And that's what I teach you. It's inside my membership, currently closed, but you can join the wait list. I'll pop the link in the show notes. And once you join my membership, you get to access that program and you get support from me. And it's a way to perfectly move forwards and start seeing your child try new foods. So I hope that's made sense about your child's feeding ecosystem.

Final Thoughts: Building a Better Feeding System - 23:29
It comprises those three key components. It's a framework that I've created based on my 25 years experience as a pediatric dietitian and 14 years experience as a mum who has experienced fussy eating firsthand. It's just, it makes sense and it works. And I'd love for you to learn more about it and get your head around it so it can help your family too. As I said, that fuss eating program is inside my membership. So

Head to the link, pop your name on the wait list. And then once you get in, then you can start the program and obviously have support from me as well. It's a perfect combination and it really helps to move things along for your family. So thanks very much for being here. I hope this has been a helpful podcast episode for you. Fussy eaters won't improve necessarily overnight, but they will improve much more quickly with the right feeding system in place. And I've certainly seen kids.

start to eat so much better within weeks. Certainly got these parents inside my membership who will tell you that very quickly their children started eating so much better once they changed their approach and had a better feeding system. So that's all for me for today. If you've got any questions from today, please email us hello at nourishwithcarina.com. You can head to my website, click on the membership link and join the waitlist that way. Otherwise as I said, we'll pop the link in the show notes to the wait list.

Have a beautiful week and I'll look forward to chatting with you soon. Bye for now.