This week my two-year old grandson was being a picky eater. One day all he wanted was goldfish crackers and peas. The next day he had a plate of meat, potatoes, and broccoli. Broccoli was always a favorite, however on this day he ate two pieces of broccoli and devoured the meat and potatoes. While we may think this is typical for a two-year old, I learned something about food this week that made me think twice.
When we are hungry our body is asking us for fuel. It wants macro nutrients like protein, fruits, veggies, and carbs. If we feed it sugar, caffeine, and white flour in twenty minutes we are hungry and it’s asking for fuel again. It’s like your car needing regular gas and you fuel it with diesel. It can’t run. Neither can our bodies and our bodies will keep asking with “hunger” until we feed it the right kind of fuel it needs to run.
Each of my grandson’s meal choices were made by him listening to his body. A two-year old can’t opt to feed it sugar or white flour when he’s hungry like we can. He intuitively chooses the foods his body needs on any given day and that’s why his choices seem haphazard.
We adults would be smart to take a lesson. At two pm when our stomach is feeling so empty it hurts, our body is not asking for a candy bar and a diet coke. When we feed it these foods, we are hungry again by 3 pm. It is a signal we are not giving our body the right fuel so it keeps asking. We give it a bag of chips next. The carbs might sate us for awhile, but we have added a ton of useless calories. If we gave it protein and fruit in the first place, we’d be good until dinner time and avoid the sugar crash. Our body would be sated and able to power through the afternoon.
And so, as another day goes by, we would be smart to pay attention to what goes “IN the mouth of babes.” Lol! Have a great weekend, everybody!
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