Seems there’s quite a bit of buzz in the blogosphere about Jessica Seinfeld’s new cookbook, Deceptively Delicious, which, as far as I can tell, is a recipe book aimed at sneaking veggies into your children’s meals by some creative hide and seek pureeing.

Isn’t that a little sneaky? Well, yeah, but what other bonuses are there to parenthood other than the sneaky little smirk once in a while? Hey, they’re my kids. I think I owe them sometimes.

So, I’m not so concerned about the sneakiness. Because someday they’ll be teenagers. What I am concerned about it the food habits that you teach them.

Thanks to the director at my son’s childcare, I have a new outlook on feeding the kiddos. I used to look at it like this: they’re both skinny, picky little things, so I was happy to give in to whatever they would eat just to get some calories into them. They’d go to the doctor and test average on weights, heights and iron pokes, therefore, what and how I was feeding them must have been fine, (popsicles, cookies and etc) because calories are calories, and it seemed to be working out ok.

But, not really.

See, you are teaching your children eating habits by everything that you cook, everything that you set in front of them, every McDonalds you drive through (Britney) and every food that you don’t eat.

If your child doesn’t see parsnips when they’re young, most likely it’s going to take some prodding for them to see parsnips when they’re older. If your child thinks dinner= golden arches when they’re young, then they’re going to keep it coming when they’re older and don’t have that magic little metabolism working for them.

Therefore, all you readers and bloggers of Jessica Seinfeld, here’s my ‘expert’ (stop laughing!) opinion:

Trick them all you want. Feed them carrot puree stuffed brownies til the cows come home. I don’t care. Just make sure they’re SEEING a balanced plate, including a fruit/veggie at every meal. Lead by example and it will pay off when they are 40 and still lean, healthy and tricking their own kids.

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