I remember the days when I couldn’t leave the table until I finished everything on my plate. It didn’t matter if I was full or not. While my mom implemented this rule with the best of intentions — to make sure I got lots of nutrients — such advice can mess with children’s ability to recognize fullness as they get older. With the loss of satiety cues, a person is more likely to overeat. Thank goodness “the clean plate club” is no longer trending.
[See: 8 Food Trends Nutrition Experts Pray Will Never Return.]
This is just one example of health advice many of our moms delivered because they surely wanted what was best for us. But as times have changed, some of it might be a little outdated. Sorry moms; we know you meant well! Here are nine other tips that are better left in childhood:
1. “A minute on the lips, forever on the hips.”
“My mom used to infuse fear and guilt into eating by saying, ‘A minute on the lips, forever on the hips.’ Wrong! One food or meal does not a diet make. I say: Forget the guilt, enjoy a wide variety of foods and moderate portions of nutrient-poor foods while savoring each bite. Life is too short!”
— Elisa Zied, registered dietitian nutritionist and author of “Younger Next Week”
2. “Chocolate milk has no calcium.”
“My mom didn’t let me drink chocolate milk because she said I wouldn’t get calcium that way. Being able to drink a cup of it on school days would definitely have helped me boost my calcium intake when I was a kid — and research backs that up. Though, overall, mom was right on steering clear of excess added sugars from so many other foods and beverages.”
— Jackie Newgent, culinary nutritionist and author of “The All-Natural Diabetes Cookbook”
3. “No need to change your diet!”
“In my mother’s eyes, there was never a need for me to change anything about myself — especially my eating. But from my view, I saw an overweight kid who needed to learn how to eat better and lose weight. Therefore, I had to personally teach myself as a teen about healthy eating in order to lose weight. Luckily, I was successful and so inspired that I became a nutritionist. Parents these days talk more freely about being involved in their children’s weight issues, and today, there are many registered dietitian nutritionists to choose from to help them create safe and effective weight-loss guidelines.”
— Bonnie Taub-Dix , registered dietitian nutritionist, creator of BetterThanDieting.com and author of “Read It Before You Eat It”
4. “Try a fad diet.”
“When I was a body-conscious teenager, my mom encouraged fad dieting, including one diet that required eating a hot dog along with a cup of beets each night for several nights, followed by a full cup of vanilla ice cream. Processed meats aside, it’s now known that fad dieting is not a great strategy for long-term success. Kick-starting your weight-loss journey by losing a few quick pounds can be motivating, but the real results come from changes you can live with.”
— Samantha Cassetty, registered dietitian nutritionist in New York City
5. “Rinse raw chicken in the kitchen sink.”
“My mother insisted that we rinse raw chicken in the kitchen sink ‘to get rid of the germs’ before putting it in the roaster pan on the way to the hot oven. Sorry mom, but you don’t need to give the bird a bath. In fact, all that splashing in the sink could splatter the bacteria in the chicken all over the sink and countertop. It’s no wonder I experienced food poisoning growing up.”
— Joan Salge Blake, registered dietitian nutrition and clinical associate professor at Boston University
[See: Should I Wash the Turkey Before Cooking It?]
6. “Always keep ice cream always in the freezer.”
“Growing up, we very often had a half-gallon of mint chocolate chip ice cream in the freezer. While this didn’t mean we ate ice cream every night, it was definitely easily accessible. Now, I don’t typically keep dessert in the house. It’s just too easy to eat if it’s there! If I want ice cream, I’ll take a half-mile walk to closest ice cream shop (in the next town!) to get it.”
— Amy Gorin, registered dietitian nutritionist and owner of Amy Gorin Nutrition in Jersey City, New Jersey
7. “You can’t leave the table until you eat all your vegetables.”
“I was a picky eater as a child and hated vegetables, but I couldn’t leave the table until I finished them. As a result, nights inevitably ended with hours at the table and lots of tears. While my mom was just trying to get me to eat some healthy food, I now know that it’s better to not ‘force’ kids to eat something they don’t want. Instead, it’s better to offer multiple veggie choices at dinner and let the child pick one. The sense of autonomy can help encourage picky eaters to try different vegetables.”
— Alissa Rumsey, registered dietitian nutritionist and owner of Alissa Rumsey Nutrition and Wellness in New York City
8. “You need a little salt; otherwise, it will be bland.”
“My mother is Southern European, so she knew the importance of serving a healthy Mediterranean diet, but the one habit that I quickly learned wasn’t the best was the overuse of the saltshaker and salty foods. She’d say, ‘You need a little salt; otherwise, it will be bland.’ We now know too much sodium puts us at risk of developing medical conditions such as high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend we consume less than 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day. My advice is to enjoy salt-free herbs and spices to flavor food, taste foods before adding salt and read the nutrition labels.”
— Kathy Siegel, registered dietitian nutritionist and nutrition consultant for Triad to Wellness
[See: These Healthy Seasonings Are Tasty Substitutes for Sugar and Salt.]
9. “Fat-free dairy is healthiest”
“Growing up, we always had skim milk and low-fat dairy products (often highly-processed varieties like fat-free cheese slices in plastic wrap) because my mom thought it was healthier. Today, I believe a little full-fat dairy goes a long way in terms of taste. Plus, research shows it may offer additional nutritional and health benefits.”
— Patricia Bannan , registered dietitian nutritionist and author of “Eat Right When Time is Tight”
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Everything Your Mom Told You About Healthy Eating Was Right — Except This originally appeared on usnews.com
