165: How to Teach Kids Healthy Eating Without Dieting | Lizzie Ens

Teaching kids healthy eating means showing them how to fuel their bodies and explaining why, without putting them on a diet or turning dinner into a fight. If you spent years stuck in diet culture with a bad relationship with food, your biggest fear might be passing that on to your kids. So you stay quiet, avoid calling any food bad, and hope for the best. Here's the thing. Your kids do not need rules and restriction. They need an example to follow and simple reasons that make sense to them.

In this solo episode of The Lizzie Ens Show, Lizzie Ens, functional nutrition coach, business owner, author of Amish Renegade, and speaker, shares exactly what she teaches the moms in her Undiet You coaching program and her own son. You'll hear why show, don't tell works on kids and spouses alike, how one protein conversation got a picky eater to clean his plate before s'mores, and why Lizzie does not buy everything in moderation when it comes to inflammatory foods like gluten and seed oils. She also covers breakfast and focus at school, food dyes, and the dye-free candy she buys at Halloween. You can give your kids the best chance possible, and it starts with you.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How to teach kids healthy eating by leading with your own example, so your kids, spouse, and extended family start asking what you are doing instead of being told what to change.
• Why telling kids they can't have candy or soda backfires, and why you teach kids healthy eating best by explaining why protein, fruits, and vegetables matter.
• What to teach your kids about food at a first or second grade level, from what protein, carbs, and fats do to why food dyes and too much sugar don't help them.
• Why you should not stress or force foods during a picky eating phase, and how being made to eat foods she hated as a child shapes the way Lizzie parents today.
• How telling one picky eater that protein makes you big, strong, and smart got him to finish his entire roast beef dinner within minutes.
• Why Lizzie believes everything in moderation keeps your body stuck in chronic inflammation, and why knowing which foods hurt you is about knowledge, not fearing food.
• How a breakfast of cereal, donuts, or pastries sets kids up for a sugar crash at school, plus the dye-free Halloween candy brand Lizzie buys instead.

We talk about:

00:00 How to teach kids healthy eating without passing on diets

01:36 How do you get your family to eat healthy too

02:04 Show, don't tell and the power of leading by example

05:55 Why telling kids they can't have candy backfires

06:36 Teach kids why protein, fruits, and vegetables matter

07:35 What Lizzie teaches her son about food dyes and sugar

08:23 Should you stress when your kid is a picky eater

09:35 Every kid wants to be smart and strong

11:09 Why does my kid only eat junk food

11:46 Why everything in moderation keeps you inflamed

13:24 Breakfast, focus, and the sugar crash at school

14:51 Dye-free Halloween candy swaps for your kids

Want the knowledge to feed your body well and pass it on to your kids? Book your consultation with Lizzie at https://undietyou.com/

Resources mentioned

• YumEarth dye-free candy: https://yumearth.com/

Amish Renegade: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D2PKFCD7?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback

Connect with Lizzie

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lizzieens_wellness
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@lizzieenswellness
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lizzieh_wellness
• Website: https://undietyou.com/