Redefining Pantry Staples

The Benefits of a Well-stocked Kitchen

Part One

By Donna Smith

Does your pantry need a makeover? Stocking the right ingredients can help put your family on the road to healthier meals and snacks, and even help reshape the way you think about food.

"It is important to establish healthy eating habits early on in a child's life, and having healthy, nutritious foods around will set a good example for the basis of a family's diet," says Peggy O'Shea, a Boston-based registered dietitian and a member of the Massachusetts Dietetic Association board of directors. "Also, by keeping healthy foods on hand, it will be easier to maintain healthy eating habits for the entire family since choices for both snacks and meal ingredients will be more healthful overall."

Dr. Andrew Larson, author of The Gold Coast Cure: The 5-Week Health & Body Makeover (HCI, 2005), agrees. "Children are very much influenced by their parents' food choices," he says. "Once you start leading by example you will be amazed to see the influence you have on your children's food choices."

Because parents are responsible for buying and storing the family's food, they ultimately have control over the contents of the pantry. "Keep in mind, kids don't have much money and rarely would they choose to waste this valuable resource on food!" Dr. Larson says. "If you as parents refuse to buy junk food your kids are going to be way ahead of the game. By default they're going to eat healthfully the vast majority of the time, at least at home anyway. Sure, they might try to sneak junk when you aren't looking, but how much junk can they realistically sneak, if there isn't any junk in the house?"

Dr. Larson says the No. 1 thing a parent can do to help prevent or reverse the health problems associated with poor childhood nutrition is to step up to the plate and take responsibility for the foods you bring into the house. "This means you can't buy cookies and chips for yourself and then expect your little one to munch on carrot sticks," he says. "You have to lead by example. The best solution is one that involves the entire family."

A pantry stocked with healthy food choices also helps busy families with something Roberta L. Duyff, a dietitian, spokesperson for the Canned Food Alliance and author of American Dietetic Association Complete Food and Nutrition Guide

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