We are a nation of bread addicts. So it’s good news that bread has been found to be healthier than broccoli.

 In the spirit of April Fool’s Day, I am joking.  Ha! Be honest: for one moment, didn’t you wish it were true? Bread beats Broccoli! Think how easy it would be to feed kids well. They all love bread!

Now that I have your attention, I’d like you to consider this:

What would happen if you removed all the bread from your children’s diet?

This is a question that Jewish families all over the world deal with every year on Passover.

And if you want to know how hard it is for most families to survive without bread: almost every Jewish family I know, including my own, ends Passover by eating PIZZA.

Yes, we all love bread.

(Of course, over Passover we still eat Matzah. Which is basically like trading in bread for crackers. Or bagels for pretzels.)

From a nutrition perspective, most bread is a wasteland. From a habits perspective, bread is even worse.

Over-using bread means that the taste and texture of bread (in all it’s various forms) shapes the other foods kids will accept. That’s one reason bread beats broccoli.

Remember, for the most part, taste preferences are formed—not found.

Eating is a matter of math: what your kids eat the most, influences the kinds of foods they want to eat the most.

Do your children start the day with toast, cereal, bagels, waffles, scones or other kinds of bread?

And then move onto a…

  • Mid-morning snack of Goldfish crackers?
  • Grilled cheese sandwich for lunch?
  • Cookies or a granola bar in the afternoon?
  • Pizza for dinner?

One bagel is the equivalent of 4 slices of Wonder Bread.

Americans consume more than twice the amount of refined grains than we should. That’s old news.

Did you you know that to meet the dietary guidelines, we would have to decrease our total grain intake by about 27%?

A 27% surplus in grain consumption is significant!

You don’t have to get rid of all the bread….Think Proportion. (It’s one of the three habits of healthy eating. Variety and Moderation are the other two.)

From a habits perspective, it would be good to start thinking about all grains as bread-equivalents…and minimize their appearance — as a category — in your children’s overall diets.

For more on BREAD, read: Pizza, Pizza, Pizza

For other BREAKFAST options, read:Falafel for Breakfast

~Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~