Episode 8: Kids who "over-eat" and loooove food - sometimes a bit too much!

Episode 8: Kids who "over-eat" and loooove food - sometimes a bit too much!

In this episode, I explore how human eating habits have evolved, and dive into the delicate hormonal signalling between the gut and the brain which orchestrates feelings of hunger and fullness.

Discover the reasons behind childhood overeating, from emotional eating to the irresistible allure of high-sugar and high-fat foods. I emphasise the pivotal role parents play in modelling healthy eating behaviours and fostering positive attitudes towards food and body image for their kids.

But it's not just about identifying the issues; I provide practical strategies to curb overeating and set your child up for a healthy future. Here's a sneak peek into the conversation:

Follow me on Instagram and Facebook

Links
https://nourishwithkarina.com/feedingbabies
https://nourishwithkarina.com/3-week-feeding-kids-reset

Highlights:

Introduction (00:00.078)
Food and Our Body's Inbuilt System (00:32.142)
Understanding Hunger and Fullness Mechanisms (02:59.182)
Eating Routine and Overeating in Children (05:21.23)
Overeating in Children: A Review (07:42.702)
Overeating in Children: Causes and Strategies (10:10.222)
Setting Children Up for Success: A Parental Perspective (12:35.214)
Reducing Body Image Misconceptions and Promoting Healthy Eating (15:00.142)
Parental Perspective on Child's Eating Habits (17:15.086)
Setting Up Children for Success (19:34.51)
Setting Food Boundaries for Children (21:54.638)
Overeating in Children (24:16.43)
Overeating and Weekend Impact on Overeating (26:43.086)
Improving Child's Health through Nutritional Changes (29:04.142)
Nutritional Guidelines for Children (31:25.006)
Promoting Healthy Eating Habits in Children (33:46.382)
Parental Guidance on Child's Eating Habits (36:10.83)
Understanding the Impact of Carbohydrate Consumption on Children (38:38.254)
Child Nutrition and Overeating (41:02.062)
Understanding Children's Eating Habits (43:19.854)
Teaching Eating to Your Child's Needs (45:30.062)
Promoting Healthy Eating in Children (47:51.726)
Podcast Promotion (50:07.95)

Show notes

READ TRANSCRIPT

Show Notes

In this episode, I explore how human eating habits have evolved, and dive into the delicate hormonal signalling between the gut and the brain which orchestrates feelings of hunger and fullness.

But it's not just about identifying the issues; I provide practical strategies to curb overeating and set your child up for a healthy future. Here's a sneak peek into the conversation:

1. Exploring Our Connection with Food: Examining its emotional, social, and physiological dimensions.

2. Hormonal Harmony: Understand the intricate balance between the hormones ( ghrelin and leptin) that regulate hunger and fullness, influencing our eating behaviours.

4. Challenges of Childhood Overeating: Explore children's unique hurdles in today's food environment, addressing common reasons for overindulgence and the impact of high-sugar and high-fat temptations.

5. Parental Guidance and Practical Solutions: Recognising that parents play a pivotal role in modelling healthy eating behaviours, we explore the practical strategies to manage childhood overeating. From instilling mindful eating habits to ensuring a nutritional balance, empower yourself with hands-on techniques for fostering a positive relationship between children and food.

Join me as we unravel the layers of childhood overeating and discuss practical tools to foster a healthy relationship between our children and the food they consume. Tune in to 'The Easy Feed' for key takeaways and empowering insights.

Learn more about my membership program, head over to: https://nourishwithkarina.com/membership

Introduction (00:00.078)
You're listening to the Easy Feed Podcast, episode number eight. Kids who love food, sometimes a little too much. Hi there, I'm Karina Savage and with over 20 years experience feeding children, including my own, I've learned 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.

Food and Our Body's Inbuilt System (00:32.142)
Welcome back everybody, it's great to have you here. I want to start this episode by saying food is there to be enjoyed. It's on this earth for a reason, just like we are. We exist on this earth with food and our body needs it to survive. So we were meant to eat it and enjoy it. The thing is, when we were cavemen and women, we didn't have unlimited access to food.

like we do these days. It was a case of, you know, when you were able to forage and find wild fruits and berries or plants or hunt down an animal, that's when you got to eat. It wasn't there, unlimited, on tap. And it wasn't highly processed back then. It wasn't processed at all. It was straight off the plant or, you know, it was just pure animal. So our bodies were designed to eat, then fast.

eat, then fast, and that's metabolically how we are supposed to operate. That's what's best for our body. And our body has an incredible inbuilt system, an inbuilt way, a mechanism of telling us when it needs more food or when it's full. And I believe it also has the ability, if we listen closely enough, to tell us what types of foods it needs.

based on what we've already been eating lots of. And that's if we are really listening closely enough. The body is truly amazing and we all need to really try to dial in a little more to our body daily. And that goes for many parts of our body, not just our tummies. I tell you though, it would save a whole lot of weight loss programs, pills and diets if we simply listened to our

cues of hunger and fullness a little more during the day. So what is this inbuilt system that tells us when we need more food or when our body's had enough? Well, this system is a complex conversation between our gut and our brain. So our gut sends signals to the brain when we are hungry, and it does this by producing a hormone called ghrelin.

Understanding Hunger and Fullness Mechanisms (02:59.182)
The brain picks this up and says, right, it's time to eat. Let's get hungry. When we are full, we have a different message to the brain. This is to say, thanks, I've had enough. I'm full now. Don't feed me anymore. And this hormone is called leptin. So this hormone tells us we are full and we've had enough. It tells the brain that we don't need to eat anymore.

I told you I'd get a bit geeky and nerdy in this podcast, so apologies for that, but I'm just trying to explain, you know, the mechanism of hunger and fullness and how, you know, it all works in our bodies. So yes, I won't get too more scientific than that, but yeah, you just have to forgive me for that little geeky paragraph or two. But I think it's really good to know. So you've got the...

The ghrelin, which is the hunger hormone. So again, produced in the gut, picked up by the brain, says eat more. And then you've got the leptin hormone, which again, was actually produced by the fatty tissues, but you know, that's, that's going into even more detail. So it's basically picked up by the brain and the brain's like, right, I had enough. Let's stop eating now. So they're the two, to keep it relatively simple, they're the two.

main hormones, the hunger and fullness hormones that our body really chins into to understand whether it needs to eat more or whether it needs to stop eating. And in most of us, unless there are significant hormone imbalances or issues, for the majority of us, if we simply listened, we truly listened to our body's signals from the gut to the brain about

when we needed to start eating or stop eating, then we would pretty much always eat to what we need. But I think for many of us, adults especially, we've experienced times when we don't listen to our bodies and we just eat what we want, when we want. Or some could even say, many of us, we eat when we think we should eat or when it's

Eating Routine and Overeating in Children (05:21.23)
time to eat, especially if you're a routine person or you're working, you've got your lunch break, so you eat. And look, I get that because you may not get another chance to eat for five or six hours and so you want to eat then so that you're not hungry in the afternoon so that you can concentrate and perform in your work. So, you know, that is important, but then sometimes we just eat out of routine or habit when we're not actually hungry and perhaps we don't actually need to eat.

So we just need to be mindful of why we're eating and make sure that we're not eating just because it's time to eat, because you may not be hungry then. But then obviously, as I said, you've got to factor other things into account in terms of whether you're going to be able to eat again in the next five hours. But sometimes we may not be hungry and we eat. We can also disregard.

listening to our bodies true signals of hunger and fullness when we are bored or procrastinating or are upset or anxious. And another terminology for that is emotional eating. With kids, I find that they tend to overeat mainly because they just love food and they love the yummy stuff a little too much.

Having said that, in the thousands of families that I've worked with over the years, there are all types of reasons why kids may be what I call overeaters. So here are just a few. Firstly, kids that have unlimited access to high -fat, high -sugar, high -salt foods can sometimes then become addicted to these foods. And that just creates this vicious cycle.

And this path that they go down where they're consuming a lot of these highly processed, obesogenic type foods. Some children are heavy juice drinkers or milk drinkers or soft drinkers. In fact, a little patient that I saw the other day, the mum, you know, rode out a food diar and we were going through it. And this...

Overeating in Children: A Review (07:42.702)
seven -year -old boy was having like a big smoothie with his main meal, which was already a big main meal. And so he was really doubling up and these drinks were just adding to his meal, which really could have almost been a separate meal or at least a snack. So juice and milk and soft drink will add a lot extra to the day, especially if they're consuming multiple glasses of this daily.

Children that eat a lot of sugar or fast sugars, I should say, so biscuits, lollies, chocolate, again, soft drinks. These foods are what I call obesogenic foods. So they're very fast, release sugar, they stimulate an insulin spike, which then again can create this sort of almost like sugar addiction and then they crave it more and then they eat more of it. And again, it's just this vicious cycle.

And it's not healthy from the metabolic perspective because you're always getting these blood sugar level spikes, these insulin spikes. And this type of eating over the longer terms really going to impact their metabolic health, which is not going to set them up to be a healthy adult. Another reason why a child may be what I call an overeater is that they are used to eating very large serve sizes of food.

And again, I saw a little boy, well, I saw his mom the other day, seven year old boy, and he was having like a 300 gram steak for lunch and wanting seconds. So sometimes huge serve sizes, even of the right foods, is going to be too much for a child. So we just need to be mindful of what's appropriate for a serve size for the child for their particular age.

Perhaps children are emotional eaters, perhaps they're going through a rough trough. You know, they may be using food for comfort. So that's another reason why we may have an overeater. Sometimes children that have been heavily restricted with treat foods in the past have a rebound behaviour where they really can't control themselves when they're at a party and they're by the...

Overeating in Children: Causes and Strategies (10:10.222)
you know, the table of cakes and lollies, and they just can't control themselves because they've always been effectively forbidden and restricted from these foods. So they haven't learned how to develop a healthy relationship with these foods. So they're the child that will stand next to the cake lolly chip table and just devour it and have very little control over how much they're consuming because they haven't learned how to do that.

One other reason why children may become overeaters is because they've seen their parents, especially, well, it could be mum or dad, have their own disordered eating behaviors or their own poor eating behaviors. So I've certainly had a little, again, I was waging with the mum, but she said, you know, my little son, the only thing that he really, really wants to eat is like hot chips and Pepsi. And I think we were about, you know, the 55 minute mark of our consultation.

And then I found out that dad loves and eats daily almost hot chips and Pepsi. And I'm like, wow, monkey see, monkey do. So parents' behaviours, and you know, this I'll talk about a lot more and I have already talked about in terms of role modelling healthy eating behaviours and getting kids to eat more plant foods and whatnot when we eat them. Conversely, you know, if parents are eating a lot more junk food, then children are going to want to do that too. So it's monkey see, monkey do. So.

There's some of the main reasons why I see children, well, the families who have children who are overeaters. So how do we help kids that love food so much that they may overeat and they may sometimes be on the heavy side because yes, sometimes we do have children that are overweight or obese and it is important to, in that situation, really try to make some positive changes that sets them up.

to be healthy metabolically, you know, growing into their teens and adulthood. So I've talked about some of the reasons. Before I go into some practical strategies about managing over -eaters and supporting them to develop a healthy relationship with food, I think we also just need to first take the time to hold the mirror up to our face as parents.

Setting Children Up for Success: A Parental Perspective (12:35.214)
and ask ourselves a few questions around whether we're setting our child up for success. So I would consider these types of questions. Firstly, am I role modeling healthy eating behaviors myself? You know, what am I eating in front of the children? Point in case the chips and Pepsi dad. Sorry dad, but it was a real story. Secondly,

Do I fat shame myself or call myself bad or naughty for eating treat foods? So do the kids pick up on that? Well, they probably do. So do you say that? Or do you say, I really shouldn't eat this. You know, I'm trying to, trying hard to lose weight. You know, all of that talk in front of kids without realising plants their own, I guess, questions and though they absorb these

eating behaviors and they absorb everything from us. So if we are talking about ourselves that way, there's a much higher chance that they will start to talk about themselves that way at some point in the future. So you've just got to be really careful about even those little cues that you may not think are at all significant, but just be really mindful about how you talk about yourself, your body, or about

the foods that you eat because it all counts and they absorb it all. Another thing I would ask yourself is, do you over restrict your intake of treat foods or do you allow yourself to have a bit of chocolate or cake and enjoy it in front of them and show them that eating these foods in moderation is healthy? Or do you only tend to eat the chocolate late at night when they're in bed? And look, I think if the children are really young, then that's totally fine, but...

I think it's important for them to understand how these foods fit in, in small amounts, you know, as part of a healthy balanced diet. Another one is do you bribe them with treat foods or dessert? Because again, it's putting those foods up on a pedestal and really detracting from the everyday healthy foods. Do you talk about other people in the street? Like point someone out, gee, they're fat or wow, she's so skinny.

Reducing Body Image Misconceptions and Promoting Healthy Eating (15:00.142)
Cause all those terms, all those ways of talking about people again, aren't going to be for the better. We really want to try and reduce that kind of talk. You know, we talk about people being in larger bodies and you know, that it will make laugh at that. But at the same time, I think it has a very different message for children and there's no shaming involved in that.

Another one I would ask was, do I show my kids, and this is especially important for daughters and mums, or I should say mums and their daughters, because how the mum loves her body will significantly influence how much the daughter loves her body and has a positive relationship with her body. So a good question, especially for the mums is, and dads, I think too, absolutely. Is.

Do I show my kids that I love my body and I accept my body and I embrace my body however it is, however many bumps or lumps or whatever my body looks like, do I embrace and love my body as it is unconditionally because that's really powerful and really important as well. I know sometimes hard, but we really need to try and even put on the front to show that we love our body because that has a really positive impact on our children, especially our daughters. Because if we don't know how to...

Or I should say, if we don't role model healthy eating or positive body image to our children, how are the kids going to learn it or know how to do it themselves? Because remember, we're their teachers for everything in life, and we really need to make sure that we are role modeling these healthy eating behaviors and this positive body image because it's so crucial. Okay.

So I've ticked the box with the role modeling side of things and holding the mirror up to our face. So let's now talk about some practical strategy. So we'll put the mirror away now. And look, I totally understand why parents want to get on top of it. They want to make sure that their child doesn't continue to overeat or become overweight or obese. And look, I think it's this fine line because, you know, often the 10 year old...

Parental Perspective on Child's Eating Habits (17:15.086)
that we're talking about, because I see a lot of mums of say 10 or 11 year olds and often they've just got a bit extra around their abdominal region. So yes, they've got a bit of a roll in. Most of the time, they're just going to grow up and stretch out and that will go. So I think most of the time it's better to not make a fuss and not even talk about it.

because the damage that you could do from one simple comment far outweighs any health risk. In fact, I don't believe there is a health risk if the child's eating pretty well. If they're just a little bit chubby around the middle, they'll have a growth spurt. They'll be fine. The most important thing you can do as a parent is to set your child up to have a healthy relationship with food and love food and love their bodies and love life. That is by far...

more important than them having a little muffin top at the age of 10. The damage you could do by focusing on that too much far, you know, exceeds any. The damage you could do by focusing on that is phenomenal. So we really want to be mindful and look, I think parents are aware and, and that's why they come to me because they're like, right, we see this.

potentially emerging issue. We don't want to do the wrong thing. We're very mindful. You know, we don't want to set up a spiraled path towards disordered eating. So what do we do? How do we talk about this? How do we set our child up for success and to just be, you know, growing, being healthy and have a healthy weight behind and have a healthy relationship with food. From my perspective as well, it's important to teach.

children how to have a healthy relationship with food and how to eat well because they take these habits, these taste preferences, whether it's salty, fatty, sugary or healthy, into adulthood. We know that they take them into adulthood. So the foods that kids learn to like and are familiar with and that are part of their regular intake are the foods that they're more likely to eat as an adult.

Setting Up Children for Success (19:34.51)
So we want to set them up for success. And I agree with parents who, you know, generally I see a lot of health conscious parents who want to set their kids up well. And often they're feeding their kids the right thing. It's just too much. The kids are just big eaters and sometimes they're a little compulsive with foods as well. I have distinct memories of one mum that I worked with only a few years ago and her daughter was around two and a half, three.

So she was doing the playground, you know, playground round. Most, I don't know, most weeks she would be at the playground, sometimes probably a couple of times a week, you know, you just need to get out of the house and get to the playground. And I remember those days, I used to pack like a big bento lunch box full of different snacks and just basically food to get through the morning. And this mum was saying that every time they got to the playground, her little girl.

She'd had breakfast and they got to the playground, but she wouldn't want to go off and play with the other kids. She would want to eat first. So it was more important that she sat down and ate and she was so obsessed with eating that even though she'd had breakfast and you know, this was morning tea time, probably not even morning tea time, you know, the mum expected to get to the playground and that the daughter would just want to go off and play and she'd have some, you know, morning tea.

later with all the kids when they stopped to eat, but her daughter never wanted to. She was so food obsessed that as soon as they got to the playground, she wanted to eat all of her food. So the mum's like, right, okay. So she did that. She gave her daughter the food. Then she's like, right, now it's time to play. But then what happened was then the other kids would stop, then they'd have their morning tea. And so the little three -year -old girl,

would then go and eat with them as well. And then they'd be sharing their food with her. And so then she'd have another second morning tea and more of their food. And you know, it was sweet of the kids to share it with her, but it just meant that this little girl was eating again. And so she was just really obsessed with eating and the mum was like, what do I do? So firstly, I want to say that I would never deprive a child of food or treats.

Setting Food Boundaries for Children (21:54.638)
We just have to be smart about setting boundaries around food, padding out the foods with plenty of plant foods so they're, I guess, not as energy dense, especially if they like eating lots of food. We need to set boundaries around it, but still allow them to eat regularly and enjoy foods and enjoy some of their favourite foods, including treats.

But we just need to set up a plan. We just need to have some clear boundaries and probably try to pad it out more with what I would say lower calorie vegetables and some fruits so that, you know, the child, whether it's a three -year -old girl or a 10 -year -old girl or a seven -year -old boy, so that they still feel like they're getting a lot of food. They're not feeling deprived, but we are making better choices for them. And we also need to look at the types of foods that.

they're consuming as well and I'll talk a bit more about that in a sec. So when a parent comes to me and they say, look, my child just overeats, they're eating way too much food, they're actually in the overweight or obese category and I'm really worried about them, what do I do? Well, first of all, I need to look at, you know, what are the key problem areas? And so I get them to fill out a four -day food diary and they email that through to me.

And then we go through it and we, and I look for specific problem areas. So some of the key problem areas that I find in overeaters is firstly, some children have two breakfasts, not all the time, but sometimes children have a big breakfast and it might be that they have a bowl of cereal and some toast or eggs.

And I'm like, well, maybe one of those would be appropriate for your child for your age. Or as I said, it might be a massive bowl of what I call very high GI or refined processed cereal, such as mute de grain or fruit loops. And, you know, I don't like to name a shame, but those breakfasts are very high in sugar. They're very fast sugar. So they dissolve very quickly into the bloodstream and then you're hungry again pretty quickly. So that's not good for.

Overeating in Children (24:16.43)
for someone that loves food because it's not going to sustain them for very long. It's not going to keep them full for very long. So it might be that your child's having two different things at breakfast, which is too much, or it might be that they're having the wrong types of carbohydrates that's not filling them up enough. It might be that in their lunchbox, they're having a lot of these white processed, what I call, obesogenic type foods, again, which aren't filling them up or sustaining them through the day.

So then they're hungry when they get home, they're ravenous and they come home and then they just smash more white processed carbohydrates, which are again, obesogenic type foods. And again, we'll give them a quick sugar rush and hit, but it's not going to stay in their system for long. So then they're hungry again. So it's just this sort of vicious cycle. And we just need to be really mindful of where their problem area is. Look, sometimes the real damage does start after school and...

You know, the child will just keep going back to the pantry, back to the pantry, back to the fridge, especially if they've got free range. So we just need to be looking out for that as a potential area of overeating. It could be large serve sizes at dinner or the child having seconds. Sometimes the whole family is a really big eater. Sorry. Sometimes the whole family are big eaters. And so they are just used to serving up and they don't even think that, you know, their child is overeating because they're all eating like that.

So sometimes it is just excessive amounts of good food. That's just too much food. It could be, as I said, too much milk. It could be sneaking of food. It could be, you know, that they're having a big supper when they've just had a big dinner and they really don't need it. Maybe it's a big bowl of deutre grain or something for dessert. And I'm like, wow, maybe that's not the best thing to be running around their system just before they go to bed. So it could be supper.

Or it could be what they eat on the weekend because sometimes kids, again, if they're hanging around and they're bored and they're, I guess, or it could be what they do on the weekend because sometimes if kids are bored and again, they've got free rein to the pantry or the fridge and they just keep going back and back for more snacks, sometimes they can eat a lot more on the weekend or perhaps it's the types of foods, perhaps there's a lot more takeaway.

Overeating and Weekend Impact on Overeating (26:43.086)
It's really, it could be a very different style of eating on the weekend. And that's another thing just to be mindful of and think about, I guess, you know, if you've got an overeater, well, is the, is the weekend impacting in any way? So if you have an overeater or a child that loves food a little too much, and you're worried about them, then first I would take the time to try to understand what the main problem areas might be.

So what are the main factors that could be contributing to them eating too much based on what I just said? And at this point, I need to pause and say that if you're looking for help in this area, a perfect place to start would be to join my Nourishing Kids membership. On the inside, you'll get plenty of help in this department and from me, not only online, but also from me.

It's low cost and you can cancel at any time. So why don't you take a look and see how much it could benefit you. You can join today, you can cancel at any time. The link to learn more is in my show notes, but you can also head to the website nourishwithKarina .com for more information. So head there, check it out. And as I said, not only will you glean a lot of information from the online portal and access to everything online,

but you will also have direct access to me every month where we can talk about this in a lot more detail. We can also talk about it in the private Facebook groups. So there's lots of support there for you if you want a bit more help in this world. So, or in this world of over -readers, I should say. So back to what we were talking about. Once we've identified what the main problem areas are, we can then set up a strategy.

Now I recommend picking only one or two key areas to focus on here. And the reason I do that is I speak from 21 years of experience and, and knowing about habit, you're changing to habits and you know, the human mind, if we just focus on one thing and achieve that and have success with that, then we can move on, build momentum.

Improving Child's Health through Nutritional Changes (29:04.142)
and, you know, work on the next thing. Whereas if we try and do too much at once, it will be too overwhelming and we won't achieve any of it. And we want to make changes to better your child's health. So I say pick one thing. Once you've achieved that, then move on to the next thing, rather than trying to make too many changes at once. So what are some of the changes that may be involved? Well, it really depends on what the problem areas are.

But it could be firstly choosing a healthier breakfast cereal, such as choosing a lower glycemic index cereal, lower GI. And GI really relates to how fast or slow the sugar releases in the blood. And the faster the sugar releases in the blood, the faster it disappears and then you're hungry again. So those high GI cereals are not, and they're not recommended in general.

But they're definitely not recommended on a school day when you want your child to concentrate through the morning and get through to recess time or crunch and sit in a stable state. You don't want them to lose concentration. You don't want their behavior to deteriorate. I mean, I know that that's going to be probably the teacher's issue, unless you've got a little one at home with you. But really at the end of the day, those fast sugars are not going to be nourishing them. They're not going to...

contain fiber, they're not going to be good for them anyway. So to be a good idea if your child is having corn flakes or rice bubbles or NutriGrain to try and swap to a healthier breakfast cereal such as Weebix or Porridge, or there's plenty of other good options as well. But a better, you know, more whole grain option that's going to have a slower release of sugar into the bloodstream is recommended there. And it might also be limiting the serve size because if you're

child is having, you know, two cups of cereal, it might be too much for their age and it might be worth pulling back to one cup and popping some fruit on the side. So again, they're not feeling like they're deprived, but at the same time, you're reducing the sugar load and that's going to benefit them. Another thing to consider, especially if your child is overweight and they love carbs, is swapping out the carbs some days. So rather than having, you know, cereal or toast with jam,

Nutritional Guidelines for Children (31:25.006)
You know, most days, it might be that you actually increase the days that they have eggs and you might do two scrambled eggs on one piece of toast. Or you might even just have the two scrambled eggs with avocado and tomatoes or mushrooms, or even swap the cereal for a smoothie perhaps. So reducing the carbohydrate sometimes. But look, for the majority of children, they need carbs, they need energy. It's just about choosing the better types of carbs.

But in some situations, I will say, how about we reduce some carbs and swap them out for some protein? That really depends on the case. It's a case by case scenario there. Okay. Moving on to the lunchbox. If the lunchbox is full of white, then we need to look at swapping out some of the packaged processed foods for homemade foods or plant foods or foods higher in protein.

Now I have all of these guides and tips and suggestions inside my membership, but I would recommend looking at your child's lunchbox and making sure that there is some protein in there, that there is some colour in there because we do want it to be semi -balanced and look, at the end of the day, we want them to eat it and have some food in their bellies, but some more protein. Got a great black bean brownie recipe, it's loaded in protein, it's lunchbox friendly, and that's a great one to...

Put in the lunch box so that they're getting a protein that's going to help them feel fuller for longer. And it's also going to reduce any like fast sugar and the effect on their blood sugar levels. So again, you've got all of these at your fingertips in my membership, but otherwise just take the time to look at your child's lunch box and come up with some easy swaps and maybe throw in a boiled egg or throw in a bit of black bean brownie or throw in a bit of zucchini slice, something that's got a bit more protein in it.

just to help balance out the lunchbox. Okay, afternoon tea seems to be enemy number one. Then I like to recommend a platter style for after school. Look, it's hard when you're working and you're kind of kids roll in and you're like, damn it, I forgot the platter. And then they go to the pantry and they just smash mousse bars and chips and you know, diney daddies. And you're like, damn it, another day. So look, you know, we all have been there or are there, but...

Promoting Healthy Eating Habits in Children (33:46.382)
If you can possibly, you know, for five minutes before they get home or before you go pick them up, just throw some things on a platter that has a lot of fruits and vegetables together with some of their favorites. So still put some, whatever they would usually like to come home and eat. Might be some tiny teddies or some chips or a biscuit or a little choccy muffin. You still want to put some of those treat foods that they like on the platter, but

put that with a lot of other healthy stuff, whether it's like fruit, nuts, popcorn, crackers and hummus. It might be corn chips and guacamole or salsa, because you want them to have a variety of foods and you don't want them to just keep going back to the cupboard and scrubbing another packet of white, another packet of salty, another packet of sugary. So you just want to try to support them and eat still lots of food, but...

healthier food and that's going to be better for them. And again, it's going to set their taste buds up, you know, to have a healthier future. And it's also going to help them in the present, like now. If dinner is the issue, then we need to look at serve sizes and also the ratio of protein and carbohydrates to veggies because often the clients and the kids that I've worked with, if dinner is the issue, then we...

need to look at serve sizes generally, and also the ratio of protein and carbs to veggies, because with big eaters, often the plate is quite full of either carbs, if they're a white diet kit, or carbs and meat, but usually not enough of the plant -based foods, and this throws the balance out. So we really need to be looking at the serve sizes of

proteins of meat, chicken, fish, and also the carbs, the carbohydrates. So by that I mean the rice or the pasta or the bread, because if that balance is out and they're consuming a lot of those foods and again, too much compared to what they need, then that can just add to their daily load that that's going to be, you know, a mismatch to what they're actually needing and can cause weight gain.

Parental Guidance on Child's Eating Habits (36:10.83)
If children are wanting seconds, but you think they've had enough, then I give you permission to put the parent hat on and tell them lovingly that they probably need to wait for the food to reach their stomach to know whether they're full and whether they want to have any more. So it takes a good 20 minutes sometimes for the food to go from their mouth to the stomach. And actually, it was really sweet. The mum I worked with the other day, she said,

Look, your tummy hasn't received the email yet from your brain to say the food's coming and it hasn't received the email to say you've probably had enough. It was along those lines, but it was so cute that, you know, in this day and age of talking about an email from the brain to the tummy, I've also had a mum of a, quite a younger child actually, getting her child to knock on her tummy to see whether it was still hungry or full.

So, you know, there's, there's ways that we can try to support our children to listen to their tummies a little bit more. And, and I'll talk about that in a sec. But we always want to reassure them that they can have more food later. So you can always have more food later, but let's wait 20 minutes and then work out if you still want, or if you're still needing more food. And also remind them that they're...

empty stomach is only the size of their clenched fist. So you can show them your clenched fist and get them to clench their fist and say, buddy or sweetheart, your tummy is only this size. So we just need to let the food get there and then we'll see if it's still hungry and then you can have some more food later on. So they know that there's still going to be food later on, but they also know that there's some boundaries about waiting and you have my full permission to do that. That's not restricting.

That's just supporting them and teaching them how to have healthy eating habits and how to start listening to their bodies and how to start to develop a bit of mindful eating. The next one I wanted to mention is the amount of carbohydrates. Only because I'm coming at it again from a metabolic perspective, because some carbohydrates such as rice, like white rice, and this is not basmati rice or

Understanding the Impact of Carbohydrate Consumption on Children (38:38.254)
brown rice, but white rice, that's like short grain white rice, is quite high GI, it's quite a fast sugar. And if you've got a child that's having, you know, a big eater, like a 10 year old that's having like one or one and a half, two cups of cooked rice next to a piece of meat or chicken at dinner, two cups of cooked rice is quite big. And look, you know, maybe they're not having that much, but you know, if they're a big rice eater or a big pasta eater,

Just have a look at how much your child is consuming and consider reducing it. And as I said before, it's because carbs, they break down to sugar, some faster and some slower. And that's why we've got the high GI and the low GI. But when they break down to sugar, the sugar goes into the bloodstream. And the way that the body gets that sugar out of the bloodstream into the cells is it uses insulin.

So insulin is required every time we eat carbohydrates. Insulin is required. That's a normal physiological mechanism in the body. Like it's, it's, it's an essential hormone because otherwise if we can't clear out the, the, the sugar into the cells, we can't access that sugar. And that's a problem in a function of type one diabetes. So, so we need that insulin, but too much sugar means too much insulin's

pumping around our system all the time and insulin is a storage promoting hormone. So what that means in the context of a child who overeats and needs to be on the heavy side, if there's a lot of circulating sugar going around the blood and then subsequently or consequently a lot of circulating insulin that we need to manage, that's not healthy metabolically. Because if this goes on chronically for years,

And there's a lot of sugar and insulin circulating daily, then you do increase the risk of problems like type two diabetes as a teenager or an adult. And we don't want that. And look, I don't think most of our kids are at risk of that, but I just wanted to mention again, putting the geeky nerdy hat on there, sorry. I'll progress on. So we want to avoid the excess intake of sugary foods, soft drinks, lollies.

Child Nutrition and Overeating (41:02.062)
Flavoured milk drinks is a big one too, so be mindful of, you know, if they're ordering lunch orders, how many days a week are they adding on flavoured milks? Because again, it can all add up and there can be a lot of sugar in those. Sometimes kids don't drink enough water. Sometimes kids don't drink enough water at the dinner time or, you know, main meals. And water is obviously important. Constipated kids actually are overeaters as well, because when you're constipated,

I believe you lose that really effective feedback of hunger and fullness and constipated kids and constipated adults, I don't think can regulate their appetite as well. Now, look, I have to put in a clause here that I haven't done a massive literature review on this, you know, recently, but I believe that being constipated or having IBS can really interfere with...

your feelings of hunger and fullness because your system is just not clearing out properly. But anyway, if your child isn't a big water drinker, that could be another strategy that you consider to try to help fill them up a little at main meals because it will increase the volume in their stomach and help them to feel fuller in the short term anyway.

And if they're not a good water drinker, then that could be a good strategy, especially for main meals and potentially snacks as well. I mean, you don't want to be pouring three litres of water down their throat, but at the same time, you know, they need, generally most kids will need at least a litre of water a day. And that could be a good time to give it to them, you know, have a cup of water with dinner. Okay. The last thing I wanted to talk about was sneaking food. Sneaking food can certainly be a consequence of...

over restriction and you know, that forbidden fruit mentality, a child that's been, never had access to chocolate or chips. So they then will just sneak it because they know then they're not allowed. But then I also really think it depends on the personality of the child. Some children are just more sneaky than others, full stop. And I think I've already told you the story about my son stealing a 300 gram block of Cadbury chocolate and...

Understanding Children's Eating Habits (43:19.854)
chomping on it behind his bedroom door at the age of like three. Chiggy monkey. And you know, some kids are just more sneaky. My daughter would never ever have dreamed of doing that. She still wouldn't dream of doing that. So, you know, sometimes kids just sneak foods that have been given, you know, treat foods and it's not the forbidden fruit mentality. So it's, it's just different children and their personalities.

But I think it's still important that they know and understand that there's those everyday foods and those sometimes foods and it's teaching them the difference and encouraging them to be honest and transparent. So if you're worried about your child overeating and you're just really worried about the volume of food that they're consuming,

I think it's totally fine to start planting the seeds of mindful eating and eating to what you need and eating to appetite. But you really have to be strategic about it. And the words that you use will really depend on their age and their ability to comprehend it because...

We really need to keep things in simple, basic terms for them to get it. We don't want to overcomplicate things. Concepts that you can start introducing, I think, from about school age is the difference between head hunger and tummy hunger. Now, the level of detail that I would go into would very much vary depending on their age, and I'd keep it super basic for kids, you know,

up to the age of probably 10 even. As I said, I had a mom of a three -year -old knocking on her tummy to see whether it was hungry or full, which I guess is probably one of the more basic ways of explaining it to like a three or four -year -old. So that was quite cute. And then we had the email example of that was a mom of a seven -year -old. So I guess, you know, the, obviously the son understands what an email is.

Teaching Eating to Your Child's Needs (45:30.062)
So I think you just choose your analogies or choose the way that you talk about head hunger and tummy hunger or eating to what you need based on how old the child is. But I think it's a really nice, but I think it's really nice to talk to our kids about eating to what they need and the fact that everyone has different needs because how much food you need depends on how old you are, how...

active you are. There's plenty of things that will influence it and it's just about saying, well, you need different amounts to what your sister needs or your mummy needs or your daddy needs. So we just need to focus on, you know, not we, but you. Another way of talking about it is saying to children, or again, planting the seeds about eating to what they need. And this is where we say to them, look, everyone's got different ...

You know, requirements, everybody's needs are different. You know, your body needs different things and different amounts to, you know, your mum's or your dad's or your sister's. So it's about explaining that we all need to listen to our body and eat to what our body needs and eat when we're hungry and stop when we're full. So again, it's just trying to plant those basic concepts and that understanding about.

listening to our body, being in tune to when our body's hungry or full and becoming more mindful eaters. Because look, if you can set your child up to be a mindful eater and have a positive relationship with food and understand sometimes foods and everyday foods, it doesn't matter if they're a little chubby around the middle for now because they're probably going to grow and it will all go.

It's so much more important that you set up these behaviors and understanding and like lifelong eating habits that are positive now. And you can always, you know, tweak things as we go, but I think it's really important to not have a knee -jerk reaction. Don't stress if your child's a little bit chunky around the middle. Start making small changes, one change at a time. Don't even talk to them about it, but...

Promoting Healthy Eating in Children (47:51.726)
be subtle but supportive and set boundaries, but always give them plenty of food. It's just the healthier food. Still with some treats, we can do it in a more subtle, supportive way. We don't want to just restrict things and talk about, I guess, bodies in a way that's not going to be conducive to, you know, positive body image.

There are mindful eating diaries that I sometimes will use with families, especially if children are over the age of 10, so probably 11, 12, 13 year olds that can help to develop more mindful eating behaviors and rating hunger and fullness out of 10 and whatnot. And once again, all of these are available to people inside my membership and you can find the link in the show notes.

or head to nourishwithKarina .com forward slash membership. Okay. So I'll start wrapping things up now, but I'm really glad that I was able to record this podcast today because I have worked with a number of families recently. I've had friends with kids with similar issues and it's something that a lot of patients, parents base, a lot of parents worry about.

you know, their child overeating or their child being a little on the heavy side. And as I've said, it's about looking at the key problem areas, putting some supportive, you know, small changes in place that subtly make a big difference over the long run without creating a big issue about it. Because at the end of the day, we want our children to love their bodies.

And of course, you know this and you want this for your child as well. I'm preaching to the converted here, but we just need to be really careful about how we talk about our own bodies and how we role model healthy eating behaviors ourselves. And then how we set up healthy eating for our children. And as I said, it needs to include some treat foods, but we also need to set up those boundaries at dinner times, especially with serve sizes and just talking about eating to what we need. Thank you so much for being here.

Podcast Promotion (50:07.95)
If you like what you hear, then please make sure that you leave me a review and subscribe to this podcast because it helps get this podcast out to more families and mums out there. And please message me on Instagram, Nourish with Karina or Facebook. I'd love to know how this podcast has helped you. Bye for now.