The Indians Are Doing It, Too

Anoulie · Post by **Anoulie** » Mon Mar 05, 2012 8:59 am

I seriously don't get why everyone freaks out when they hear about No S not allowing snacks. Having three (or two, or four) main meals a day, nothing in between, has been a part of almost every human culture in the world for the past thousands of years... this has changed only in the last 50 years or so.

Now I found something interesting online: Ayurveda (Indian folk medicine) basically recommends following No S!

Guidelines for everyone are
only eat when hungry
do not eat snacks in between meals
eating the main meal at noon (which is what Germans do, btw)
do not eat while mentally upset
have at least three hours' break in between meals
do not eat until completely full
eat fresh groceries
drink water (may be heated) and herbal tea
all six ayurvedic tastes (Rasa) should be included in every meal; sweet, sour, salty, spicy, bitter and tart
(from German-language wikipedia)

Now why don't people just stop snacking to lose weight? Is it that hard?

Katie

wosnes · Post by **wosnes** » Mon Mar 05, 2012 2:18 pm

Recently I've been reading Bringing Up BÃ©bÃ© by Pamela Druckerman. She's an American expat whose children have been born and raised in France. I primarily started to read it to learn how the French deal with children and food, especially how they get their kids to eat a wide variety of foods. Children do have something to eat at about 4:00 in the afternoon and it may include sweets. (Adults may eat a little something then, too; it depends on who you read.) Part of the reason they eat so well is that they're hungry at meal times, because they haven't been snacking all day.

Reading reviews of her book led me to Judith Warner who not only wrote a review of the book, but wrote Less, and Less Often and more for the New York Times.

From Less, and Less Often:

Judith Warner wrote:When I lived in France and had my children there, my pediatrician gave me exactly one admonition regarding their feeding: "Don't let them eat cookies all day." The emphasis wasn't on "cookies" but on "all day" â€” I guess he'd seen enough American expat moms toting around their sad little baggies of Cheerios to know that of which he spoke.

As the author Mireille Guiliano has preached so best-sellingly, French people don't get fat. (Or at least they don't when they follow their traditional dietary routines; in recent years, an increased use of convenience foods and decrease in family meals has been accompanied by a thickening of waistlines.) The French generally stay slim, they will tell you incessantly â€” I've had fingers waved in my face many times over this â€” because they don't eat between meals, and children snack just once, at 4 o'clock, when they eat a couple of little cookies and then are done with sweets for the day.

From the time they are about 6 months old, French children eat 4 times daily with about 4 hours between meals. They don't eat between about 8 PM and 8 AM. Like the Indians (and Germans) the main meal is at noon (for everyone). The evening meal at home is lighter. Much of what Anoulie wrote about the Indians is the same for the French. Water is the primary beverage throughout the day.

There's another book coming out in April that I plan to read: French Kids Eat Everything: How Our Family Moved to France, Cured Picky Eating, Banned Snacking, and Discovered 10 Simple Rules for Raising Happy, Healthy Eaters by Karen Le Billon.

Post by **reinhard** » Mon Mar 05, 2012 9:06 pm

I seriously don't get why everyone freaks out when they hear about No S not allowing snacks. Having three (or two, or four) main meals a day, nothing in between, has been a part of almost every human culture in the world for the past thousands of years... this has changed only in the last 50 years or so.

It is very, very strange to me. For some reason, stuff that is new (artificial sweeteners, high fructose corn syrup, trans-fats, etc) ges lots of people riled up, but eating behaviors that are new (permasnacking) don't.

I'm no fan of a lot of the new "stuff" (especially the examples I listed) but I think the new behaviors are a lot more damaging.

American expat moms toting around their sad little baggies of Cheerios

I love that line -- I've read it before but it still cracks me up. It's so universal here that you don't even see it. Kids inhale cheerios.

Reinhard

oolala53 · Post by **oolala53** » Tue Mar 06, 2012 1:31 am

I think in the book The Fat Fallacy in which the author also wrote about his changed eating habits from liviing in France, there was a story of an American taking her young child to the pediatrician for a check up. The doctor gave her instructions about how to introduce the child to bleu cheese bit by bit. Mom asked if it was for some health benefits the cheese had. Doc said, no, it's to get him used to the taste!

As far as I know, children are expected to sit at the table, use utensils, and have manners. And they do. No standing up, banging on the table, or the myriad other behaviors I've seen in restaurants here. In restaurants! I wonder what they do at home.

I once asked my Iranian boyfriend if parents had any trouble getting children to eat any foods, like plain yogurt, as they had at many meals. He looked at me shocked and said nobody doesn't like yogurt!

wosnes · Post by **wosnes** » Tue Mar 06, 2012 9:48 am

oolala53 wrote:The doctor gave her instructions about how to introduce the child to bleu cheese bit by bit. Mom asked if it was for some health benefits the cheese had. Doc said, no, it's to get him used to the taste!

As far as I know, children are expected to sit at the table, use utensils, and have manners. And they do. No standing up, banging on the table, or the myriad other behaviors I've seen in restaurants here. In restaurants! I wonder what they do at home.

I once asked my Iranian boyfriend if parents had any trouble getting children to eat any foods, like plain yogurt, as they had at many meals. He looked at me shocked and said nobody doesn't like yogurt!

If you think about it, around the world various cultures eat some pretty unusual foods -- and the kids in those cultures eat the same foods the adults eat. Until recently, it's only been in the US that we feed children "kids food" or that children are allowed to choose their foods or limit their diets in any way. A child being allowed to eat only chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese is unheard of in other places.

Bringing Up BÃ©bÃ© began with a story of the author going on vacation with her husband and daughter and the mealtimes in restaurants were unpleasant at best. Then the author noted that the French families weren't experiencing the unpleasantness. The smallest children were waiting patiently for their food, which was served in courses, and they were eating what they were served -- including fish and vegetables.

It's an interesting read and I'm anxious to read French Kids Eat Everything. Check out the author's French Kids School Lunch Project. Imagine American kids eating those lunches. Actually, in many cases, imagine American adults eating those lunches!

Also School Lunches in FranceÂ

Strawberry Roan · Post by **Strawberry Roan** » Tue Mar 06, 2012 2:38 pm

Toting around their sad little baggies of Cheerios is so right on target. Do you EVER see a child out anywhere without provisions that might carry them through a famine? And, an attached to their face Sippie Cup as if superglued? Kids go from a bottle to a sippecup to a juice box to a SuperSlurpee with barely a pause in between. I see women pawing through HUGE totes trying to satsify the wee one, ziplog bag after ziplog bag yet never exactly the treat desired... Poor dears.

Seriously??????

Can you imagine the outrage if a new car dealer didn't include cup holders? God Forbid, one could perish of thirst.

oolala53 · Post by **oolala53** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 12:36 am

I traveled through India in the late 70's for about 5 months. I saw a lot of women with children traveling on the trains. I don't remember their having food with them, though since I went third class, it wasn't only because it was not the habit to have food ready every minute. I don't think they could have imagined such luxury, not knowing it's a trap.

However, interestingly contrary to this, I had a friend who stayed in Thailand a few months with her family who said the children there grazed all day and that I think there was only one real meal a day. Not fat people, though!

Ani33 · Post by **Ani33** » Thu Mar 08, 2012 12:37 pm

This is really interesting, I have three boys two toddlers and a baby. I never bring snacks for the toddlers unless I know we will be out for lunch. They are used to not snacking and eat really well at meals. However my friends look at me in horror when my kids ask them for some of their snacks, my kids associate some people with a constant supply of snack food and of course they want some too. Im not lazy or disorganised I just never felt the need to have a constant supply of food for them, healthy or otherwise.

Hunger really is the best sauce. I never buy food specifically marketed for kids either, I think its nonsense. If my kids ask for frosties or the like I just say 'sorry no sugar cereals in our house' - pick something else.

Sinnie · Post by **Sinnie** » Fri Mar 09, 2012 1:42 pm

Thanks for the reference to Bringing Up Bebe, wosnes. I bought it and really enjoying it!!!

wosnes · Post by **wosnes** » Fri Mar 09, 2012 3:08 pm

Sinnie wrote:Thanks for the reference to Bringing Up Bebe, wosnes. I bought it and really enjoying it!!!

I particularly enjoyed her observation that whether it be during pregnancy or child-rearing or just about anything else, Americans automatically jump to the worst case scenario. If "x" happened to one person, well then we better change the protocol for everyone so it doesn't happen to anyone else! It is so true.

I also enjoyed the part about pregnancy not being an excuse to eat whatever, whenever.