KIDS. FOOD. SANE ADVICE.
Join me and It’s Not About Nutrition blogger Dina Rose for a look at what your kids ought to eat–and the habits they need so they’ll actually eat what you serve!
MY PODCAST PARTNER: Dina Rose, PhD, is a sociologist, parent
educator, and feeding expert empowering parents to raise kids who eat right. She’s the author of the It’s Not About the Broccoli: Three Habits to Teach Your Kids for a Lifetime of Healthy Eating.
Have a question or topic you’d like us to cover in our podcast? Email us at happybitepodcast@gmail.com
EPISODES
Each regular episode is approximately 20 minutes long. Snack-Size Podcasts are approximately 10 minutes long.
Snack-Size Podcast: Best Practices for Packing School Lunches
It’s time to pack lunches again! In this episode, Dina shares how you can use packed lunches to teach your kids healthy eating habits, why sending a “too-healthy” lunch can backfire, and why she hates all those photos on social media of beautiful packed lunches!
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Snack-Size Podcast: How To Pick A Lunch Box
There are tons of options on the market–and some of them are pretty pricey! In this episode, I give you some pointers on choosing the best one for your kids (and help you learn from some of MY mistakes!).
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Snack-Size Podcast: How Talking About Weight Affects Kids
Do you remember your parents making comments about your weight when you were a child? In this episode, I talk about troubling new research that shows how those comments affect kids in the long-term–and share what YOU should do if you’re concerned about your child’s weight.
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Snack-Size Podcast: The Perils of Pressure
If feeding your kids makes you want to tear your hair out. If you feel like you have to tell your kids every single time that they have to eat a few more bites, then this episode is for you. In this episode—a solo snack-sized portion of The Happy Bite Podcast— Dina talks about pressure. It’s not something we like to talk about, but pressure is probably ruining your kids’ eating habits. Want solutions? She covers that too.
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Candy Rewards in the Classroom
Candy rewards can work, so we understand why teachers sometimes resort to giving out the goodies. But is it a smart or healthy policy? In this episode, Dina and I talk about what you can do if you’re not happy that your kis are getting candy in the classroom. We also talk about alternative rewards that teachers can use instead. Plus, we answer an important question: At meals, should you let your kids eat as much bread as they want?
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Energy Bars: Hype or Healthy?
There are 7000 bars on the market today. Manufacturers claim their bars are healthy. Are they? Or is the marketing all hype. In this episode, Dina and I discuss the pros and cons of bars, reveal which ones you’ll find us eating and help you figure out how you can put bars into your kids’ diets in a way that works. We also answer a listener question about what to do when your kids invite friends over but those friends don’t want to eat what you’ve prepared. Ugh!
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Easter Candy: Dump It or Save it?
The quintessential quandry: Do you dump your kids’ leftover Easter candy? Or do you save it—and let them pick at it until it’s gone? In this episode Dina and I dive deep into this question and provide tips for either way you want to go. We also discuss how to talk to your kids about managing candy, how to put treats into the diet in a way that works, and what managing candy and managing vegetables have in common.
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Easter and Candy-Crazy Kids!
This episode is an oldie-but-goldie show from the archives. Dina and I talk about how to prepare your kids for the food-filled holiday, how to navigate the day, and how much sugar is really in those marshmallow Peeps.
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Game-Changing Tips
There’s a lot of feeding advice out there. You could spend hours reading it. But have you ever wished you could just get to the “bottom-line?” In this episode we discuss some of the tips from my FREE e-book, 16 Game-Changing Tips for Feeding Kids. We also the question, “How do you get a toddler who has ants-in-his-pants to sit and eat at the table?”
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Valentine’s Day: Kisses, Candy & Classrooms
Valentine’s Day is practically synonymous with candy. Actually, it’s one holiday in a string of holidays that focuses on candy consumption. What can you do? And how can you convince your children’s school to throw non-candy holiday parties? In this episode, we talk about ways you can “control” the candy at home and in school.
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2016 Resolution Roundup: It may seem early to do a Resolution Roundup but research shows that 25% of resolutions are ditched during the FIRST WEEK of January. How have Dina and I done so far? Find out in this episode. We also reveal our dream resolutions for food manufacturers, health policy experts and our kids.
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Holiday Gift Guide: Christmas is around the corner and if you’re still searching for the perfect gift, you won’t want to miss this episode of The Happy Bite Podcast. Dina and I talk about our favorite gift ideas— books, toys and food favorites. Our ideas are easy and inexpensive. They might also change how your kids eat!
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Should You Health-ify the Holidays? As we enter the holiday season, all the experts come out with ways to healthify the holidays. Guilt-free pecan pie? In this episode, we question whether this is a good goal. (Our answers might surprise you!) Plus, find out what we like best about Thanksgiving and which dishes are our favorites!
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Going to Grandma’s: Going to Grandma’s house is usually a lot of fun. Especially for kids who often make out with lots of extra treats! In this episode, we talk about how to cope so you can go to grandma’s without going crazy.
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Sugary School Breakfasts: In this podcast, we speak with our very first guest Bettina Siegel, the brilliant blogger behind The Lunch Tray. Bettina is a nationally recognized advocate for change in school food programs and she has written an incredibly informative–and sometimes shocking–expose of school breakfast programs for Civil Eats. Here, Bettina discusses the sugary school breakfast problem and what we can do to change the state of breakfast in our own school districts. Dina and I also answer the most common reader question we get: How to respond when your formally-excellent-eater turns into, well, a toddler.
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School Lunches–Reality vs Pinterest: Back-to-School means back-to-school lunches. But you don’t have to pack Pinterest-quality lunches to nourish your kids and teach them healthy eating habits. In this episode we give you our top lunch-making tips.
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Summer BBQs Health & Habits: BBQs are one of summer’s greatest pleasures! Hanging out in the yard with friends and families, tossing food on the grill, and watching the kids play til they drop! While BBQs can be a danger zone (lots of ice cream and lemonade) BBQs can also be a great place to teach your kids healthy eating habits. In this episode, we unpack the secrets of the successful summer BBQ!
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Summer Drinks & Kids: Remember drinking Kool Aid, Hawaiian Punch and “Bug Juice” on those hot summer days? We do too. But these days, what your kids drink in the summer is something to consider. How do you keep kids hydrated? How much sugar are they consuming? What about caffeine? And Juice! This episode gives you all the info you need to teach your kids the nutrition and habits they need for a lifetime of healthy summer sippin’!
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A Peek into Our Grocery Carts! Ever wondered which foods this nutritionist (i.e. me!) and this non-nutritionist (i.e. Dina!) stock our fridges and pantries with? In this episode of The Happy Bite podcast we dish about the surprising foods we don’t bring into our homes and the more surprising foods that we do!
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What Place Do “Fun Snacks” Have In A Child’s Diet? In this episode, we talk about “healthifying” snacks like fruit leathers—and what that means for your kids’ snacking habits. Plus, tips and advice for smarter snacking.
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Easter Candy Craziness: Easter is yet another holiday that brings with it loads of candy. So how should you handle it with your kids? We talk about strategies for the holiday itself plus that leftover stash. Is a “candy drawer” the way to go–and what does “moderation” mean when it comes to candy?
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Do Kids Need Milk? Everything you always wanted to know about milk, but were afraid to ask! In this episode, we talk about why milk is such a hot-button topic, issues surrounding organic milk, raw milk, and chocolate milk as well as alternative sources of calcium.
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Dishin’ on the Dietary Guidelines: Our thoughts on recently released recommendations for the 2015 Dietary Guidelines. We get into it all: sugar, saturated fat, the food lobby, and, of course, nutrition vs habits.
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Valentine’s Day Classroom Tips: We discuss ways schools can celebrate Valentine’s Day without so much candy.
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Chasing Perfection: It’s easy to get caught up in trying to be the perfect parents. Especially when it comes to food. And especially when it seems like everyone has an opinion. But there’s no need. In this episode, we about ways to get out of the perfection trap while feeding your kids well.
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Dream Resolutions for 2015: The resolutions we WISH the world would make this year, including Big Food, parents, schools, and people online.
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Handling Holiday Parties: How to navigate holiday parties with both your sanity and your kids’ healthy eating habits intact! Why you don’t have to hover; why shouldn’t make your kids eat the healthy stuff before the fun stuff; and how to make sure kids eat the healthy stuff during non-party times.
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Figuring Out Family Dinner Part 3: What to do when your child refuses to eat a meal, including how to use a backup, feeding a vegetarian when you’re not one, and the best way to make sure your meals are nutritious.
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Figuring Out Family Dinner Part 2: The problem of other parents interfering with your feeding style, whether you ought to cut off those crusts, and the pros and cons of serving food family style.
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Figuring Out Family Dinner Part 1: The “no thank you bite,” snacking, Eating Zones and why meals might not be the best time to introduce new foods.
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Smarter Snacking: Do children really need to snack? How you can use snacks to introduce new foods and what kids should snack on.
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Is Breakfast Really Important? What does the research really say about breakfast? What are the “dangers” of the typical breakfast for fostering good eating habits? When is a junky breakfast acceptable?
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Buying vs. Bringing School Lunch & Keeping it Healthy: We reminisce about the school lunches we had to eat, and talk about the pros and cons of a packed vs a school lunch, and strategies for coping with foods that your kids want from school that you might not want them to eat.
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Eating on Vacation: Tips for traveling with small children, including how to navigate eating in restaurants and hotels successfully.
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Coping With Camp Food: Techniques for coping with unhealthy camp food options, and strategies getting your child’s camp to upgrade the quality of food that they serve.
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Are Artificial Dyes Safe For Your Kids? The surprising places you’ll find food dyes. Should your family gradually wean off food dyes or go “cold turkey?” What can you do to cope with food-dye laden foods at parties? And what about natural food dyes? Are they any better?