Any ideas on how to include children in your low carb meal plans?

[spekulatius]

I want us to change our eating habits to cut out processed food and eat fresh food instead. Me and my husband both need to lose weight (me the most) but both our children are also overweight. They eat a lot of biscuits. Our oldest only eats plain pasta or chips and nuggets, no fruit or veg at all. She is 10. Younger one is easier but snacks constantly. I'm looking at low carb options amd healthy snacks but can't really see our children eating cauliflower rice or spaghetti. I've been cooking two meals for the last 10 years and want to change that. But I feel stuck with the children. If I take out all sweets, biscuits, crackers etc what do I give them instead? Only so much carrot and cucumber sticks anyone cam eat. But I feel that we need to show them how important it is to make right choices. I don't want them to think that I am in a diet. I want them to know that this is the right way to look after your body. Any suggestions?

The easy answer is stop buying the snacks. They can have fruit, yoghurt, cheese, home made bakes. Children need carbs so personally I wouldn’t cut them out, but switch to whole grains for pasta, wholemeal rice etc. respectfully, teaching kids to cut out entire food groups isn’t a healthy mindset either, so I’d personally be looking to just swap the processed foods for more natural alternatives. Good luck in your journey!

My husband is T2 diet controlled diabetic. What works for us is to mainly stick to recipes where the carb element is separate e.g chilli and rice - he has cauliflower rice (frozen portions of) and the kids have normal rice. We all eat more veg so with a meal that would tend to be meat/potato/veg I will do a couple of veg options - DH has meat and 2 veg, kids have meat + potato + veg. Anything that would have mash (cottage pie etc) is topped with carrot and swede or celeriac rather than potato.
Just get rid of biscuits etc - kids really do not need to snack all the time and if they are hungry point them to the fruit bowl.

Just have them as a side dish? 😂

@Patchworksack your comment is exactly why I clicked on this thread! 😂😂I was sure someone must have thought the same as me.....!

@Patchworksack sorry! My post was for @Eyesopenwideawake!

I would maybe focus on reducing sugar and increasing veg rather than trying to cut carbs out (for the kids, this is!). Carbs can be very useful for hiding veg and getting them to eat it!

• Add carrot / parsnip / swede / sweet potato to mash
• Add grated courgette / carrot / mushroom to pasta sauce
• frittata/omelette again with grated veg, chopped spinach and a little cheese (you can cut the carbs from this one)

There are some good recipes in "What Mummy Makes" and "Family Comforts" both for main meals and low sugar snacks (savoury muffins, bliss balls, fritters etc). They are aimed at cooking for younger children, but it's food suitable for the whole family.

I tend to serve the carb bit as a separate side. Even down to having deconstructed cottage pie at times!
There's usually salad and/or a choice of veggies and the rule here has always been to eat the protein and a good portion of veg, and then to choose an appropriate size portion of carbs depending on how hungry you are.
Ive also encouraged smaller portions with going back for seconds if we're still hungry, rather than piling on a massive portion at the start.

It works with what they've been taught at school too in the "carbs are for energy" line. And the kids can work out that if they've been slobbing around all day they've used (and therefore need) less energy than if they've been at an all day football tournament.

Me too 🤣. I thought it was a fairly bold question from the OP given the audience!

I only came on to say children are pretty low carb.
But seeing as I’m here, would dried fruit (pineapple, mango) be a step in the right direction as a snack, even though it’s high in sugar? Beef jerky? Baby bel? Yoghurt with honey? Rice cakes (I know nutritional value is low but it’s less calories compared to crisps and the flavoured ones still seem a treat)? I know these aren’t the healthiest suggestions but they’d still be an improvement and maybe a stepping stone to the real healthy options.

OP if your eldest only eats chips and nuggets and pasta that is because you give it to them. Give them healthy food. And stop buying biscuits. If you don't have junk like bus units and crisps at home then they can't eat it. Buy lots of different fruit and vegetables. If they like chicken nuggets they will like like chicken. Cook them chicken, a few new boiled potatoes and 2 vegetables.

Wow
Amazing how perfect you all are!! Apart from a few helpful comments......

Children need carbs

Low carb eating is categorically not about cutting out carbs as it is about replacing low nutrient 'beige' carbs with fresh, leafy green, high nutrient carbs.

Whether DC can be convinced may be a whole other ballgame.

Unfortunately, if your oldest DC has got to 10 and still doesn't eat any fruit/veg, it is going to take you a while to change that.

So it's probably going to be easier to expect her to eat fruit instead of veg, while you gradually introduce more veg into her diet.

Constant snacking means that they're not getting enough food to keep them satisfied - which sounds about right if you're allowing lots of biscuits. I know you don't like people saying this, but frankly they're right - just stop buying the biscuit/crackers/crisps (or whatever they're snacking on).

To break the snacking habit, you need to make sure they're not so hungry between meals. So you should start with breakfast. Stop giving them any carb-heavy stuff, like cereals/porridge, and substitute those with protein and fat-based meals, so stuff like scrambled/poached/boiled eggs. Wholemeal toast will be fine, but make sure it's with eggs, or some other protein. Make sure that they're having full fat options - full fat Greek yoghurt with fruit for breakfast would be a perfect option. Give them full fat milk to drink, and make any sauces with cheese and full fat milk and/or cream.

Don't know what you do about lunches - do they have school meals or are you doing a packed lunch? If the latter, try and avoid the obvious sandwich + crisps + biscuit.

Evening meals are, actually, the easiest. Don't try and make meals like spag bol, where it's obvious there's no spaghetti - but cook something that's meat/fish with veg/salad. They can have potatoes with theirs (children can cope with more carbs than adults, as they're still growing/need the energy), but encourage them to eat more veg with theirs.

If you haven't been giving them veg or salad so far, and it sounds like you haven't, then you may have a bit of a battle on your hands - so start with easier veg/salads; carrots, tomatoes, peppers are generally preferred to things such as broccoli and sprouts!

Things like shepherd's pie generally go down well - you can make the mash with celeriac and leek, or cauliflower. With a good handful of cheese on the top I doubt anyone would notice it's not potato mash.

Please don’t put kids on a low carb diet without consulting a dietician, to cut out an entire food group could be harmful. Let them eat what you’re eating eg if your having an omelette make them some sweet potato chips on the side.

If you want to replace unhealthy snacks again you don’t need to cut carbs just swap to healthy ones. Examples of healthy snacks for kids that contain carbs are fruit, oatcakes with peanut butter/cottage cheese/cheese spread, greek yoghurt with fruit, homemade oat and banana bars, overnight oat pots with mixed seeds, smoothie with fruit and yoghurt……

Other meals ideas you can eat low carb but then add carbs for kids

eg

You - Chicken salad
Kids - Chicken salad Jacket potato

You - Chicken curry with cauliflower rice
Kids - Chicken curry with brown rice

You - Bolognese with courgetti
Kids - Bolognese with wholewheat spaghetti

You - Tuna salad
Kids - Tuna salad wraps

etc etc

@BLT24 A low carb diet isn't about cutting out an entire food group. And if you'd read my posts and also @FinallyHere's posts, you'd see that we both say that, and advocate for higher levels of carbs for the children.

Just add hidden veg.
I always add a tin of lentils to mince for chilli & bolognese. Plus lots of finely chopped veg like carrots/celery, tin tomatoes onions, garlic. You can add pureed beans to all sorts of things.
Make a hidden veg pasta sauce. Melissa Helmsley Instagram's account has lots of recipes. Homemade Granola is really nice. You can get the kids to help you make it. I've just made the Zoe app one on You Tube. But you can adapt it & add the things your kids like. Even a little bit of dark chocolate.
Find a dip they like & make some carrot/cucumber sticks/bread sticks. Home made oven chips are easy to make & taste much better than oven chips.

1. I didn’t say a low carb diet was cutting out an entire food group, I said cutting out an entire food group would be harmful

2. I was responding to the OP’s question not any information others have given

So what did you mean then@BLT24 when you said to cut out an entire food group could be harmful? There are three food groups - protein, fat and carbs.

I'd switch to wholemeal pasta and whole grain rice then portion control. Adults and kids are better off eating good carbs than being hungry and snacking!

Switch to non processed meat so chicken rather than chicken nuggets

With your kids it might help to move from white bleached flour carbs to wholemeal. Get the child who likes plain pasta 100% lentil or veg pasta - so they can taste what they’re eating. They might hate it & it might convince them to try something else. Or they might love it

I think you need to do it as a positive thing rather than a 'taking away' thing.

So tell them you want to try making dal or chickpea curry for example, see if they like it, with a bit of what they'd normally have as curry. Then taper out the unhealthy stuff.

Buy half the snacks and say when they're gone, there's carrot/fruit/oatcakes etc. Then reduce how much you buy a bit more after a month or so.

I think with carbs you'd be better slowly reducing portions to a healthy level and introducing the odd wholemeal option rather than trying to change things up overnight.

Exactly what I wrote

Do you know why your DD has restricted her food? Is it to do with new food stuffs, taste or texture?

My DD with ASD prefers foods that are the same temperature ie not hot and cold on the same plate, texture is either lumpy or smooth but not a bit of both like orange juice with bits, likes 'dry' things so quinoa and couscous was preferred carbs or smooth mash.