Am I giving my child a well-rounded diet?
How much salt and seasonings is okay?
What is the deal with marketing for kid’s foods and why is it a problem?
How can we balance “convenience” foods and healthy foods?

These are all common questions I get asked as a Pediatrician and on my Instagram @pedsdoctalk. I welcome Monica Auslander (@eatlikemonica on Instagram). She is a Registered Dietician and founder of Essence Nutrition.

We both discuss food-shopping for our families, how to be a more conscious food shopper, and how to remove the guilt surrounding what we feed our kids.

00;00;08;22 – 00;00;30;10

Dr. Mona

Welcome to this week’s episode where I welcome Monica Auslander, who is a registered dietitian and lead and founder of Essence Nutrition and is on Instagram as Eat Like Monica. And we’re going to be talking today all about how to be a more conscious food shopper for your family and how to understand food labels a little bit better. Thank you for joining me today, Monica.

 

00;00;30;12 – 00;00;32;03

Monica Auslander

Thanks so much for having me.

 

00;00;32;06 – 00;00;51;02

Dr. Mona

I’m so excited I connected with you on Instagram. I would say probably almost a year ago, and we both have boys around the same age. You live about 40 miles from me, but we haven’t seen each other yet because of the pandemic. And I love your page like Monica so much. You keep it so real in terms of, you know, being a mom and the foods that you provide for your family.

 

00;00;51;02 – 00;00;55;11

Dr. Mona

And I can’t wait to talk about this today. Tell me what led you to find Essence Nutrition?

 

00;00;55;18 – 00;01;14;17

Monica Auslander

So, just to be a dietitian in the first place, you know, 16, 15 years ago when I chose the career, it wasn’t cool or trendy to be in food. It was pretty much like a hard core science. And it was a premed major, which initially kind of scared me off. So I was actually a linguistics major, a French minor, a teaching English as a second language minor.

 

00;01;14;17 – 00;01;32;16

Monica Auslander

I was going to move to France and have these big dreams. But then, you know, 2008 recession. And I’m like, okay, well, food is magic because I also was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease when I was a teenager. I had to do a lot with diet. And, you know, I was like, you know, food is more than just like the 100 calorie froyo that I get every weekend in my cool little car.

 

00;01;32;16 – 00;01;49;10

Monica Auslander

So I was like, wait a second. The more I dove into it, I wanted to inspire and foster a reverence and respect and excitement about food that I had. And then as the years went on and I got my master’s, I worked at Jackson Memorial Hospital, which is our county’s like large inpatient, academic hospital where University of Miami trains.

 

00;01;49;10 – 00;02;05;25

Monica Auslander

And that was awesome and fun. I was actually exclusively a pediatric dietitian inpatient. But after a while I thought to myself, I think I can do more for people in the outpatient world. So it was just me at first. And now there’s ten other dietitians, all in Florida. And it’s been really fun.

 

00;02;05;25 – 00;02;11;07

Dr. Mona

And you see all ages, right? Or do you see mostly adults or children or what’s the age demographic?

 

00;02;11;08 – 00;02;13;20

Monica Auslander

0 to 1000, if you can make it.

 

00;02;13;23 – 00;02;34;17

Dr. Mona

Wow. Wow, that’s so great. Well, no, I’m so excited. I ever since I connected with you, it’s just nice also to be able to have the contact for any of my patients that need any assistance. So this is so great. But I know, you know, we talked about what we should discuss on this episode, and we came up with this topic, among many other topics that we had to, so I’m so sorry.

 

00;02;34;18 – 00;02;38;11

Dr. Mona

I’m like fumbling over, I’m gonna reedit this. So, like, so yeah.

 

00;02;38;18 – 00;02;49;21

Monica Auslander

There’s so much that we cross-pollinate and agree on. I think we could probably have a weekly podcast between us. So this is let’s call this our inaugural topic together.

 

00;02;49;23 – 00;02;58;01

Dr. Mona

Yeah. I’m so excited because there is so much that we can go over as a pediatrician and dietician. But tell me why this topic is important to you.

 

00;02;58;02 – 00;03;06;02

Monica Auslander

So it was important to me before I used to go to the grocery store in that past imperfect tense of grammar. I haven’t been.

 

00;03;06;02 – 00;03;07;09

Dr. Mona

Since March.

 

00;03;07;11 – 00;03;39;08

Monica Auslander

And I used to take such joy and interest in inspecting the food landscape of what was offered. And I always, whenever I used to travel, go to a grocery store in the foreign country or city in which I was in, not to to buy food necessarily, although that usually was a side effect. But to set and understand what is marketed as far as food and what’s provided and what’s available, and how foods are marketed and labeled, especially to to specific populations like children, like elderly adults.

 

00;03;39;08 – 00;03;59;22

Monica Auslander

So now, as a new mom, you know, even though I’m not physically in the grocery store anymore, I’m, I’m kind of cringing at what I see in the food landscape, both on and off the shelves, because off shelves is how we teach our children and our, you know, friends, children by osmosis. And then on the shelf, we also are learning and communicating through what we see in labels.

 

00;03;59;22 – 00;04;08;00

Monica Auslander

And now, of course, what I’m seeing amongst my own friends is I start to get together with their children. My my son is in school now, his classmates. I have a lot of concerns.

 

00;04;08;00 – 00;04;16;04

Dr. Mona

Yeah. So let’s talk about that. You mentioned the marketing that’s done in other countries, but also in America. What are your concerns about the marketing, especially for children?

 

00;04;16;04 – 00;04;51;21

Monica Auslander

I’m concerned that the overall climate surrounding food, especially when it pertains to food, you know, labels and on shelves, is being what’s being communicated. Is that what a child or an adolescent, anyone you know, under 21 technically has to eat, has to be, quote, kid friendly. You know, it has to have these bombastic characters and colors, and therefore it has to either be completely devoid of flavor, you know, plain, plain pasta, no spices, or it has to be swaddled and an avalanche in sugar or salt, or it has to be portioned really strictly like, oh, it’s a kid’s yogurt.

 

00;04;51;21 – 00;05;10;26

Monica Auslander

So it’s three ounces. And I’m like, this is a yogurt for ants, you know, and that the food has to be fun. There has to be smiley faces all over it. And I take a little and I offense to this, and I prickle at this because I don’t know if that’s how we grew up with food, obviously. Yes, there was food marketing to some extent in the 90s, but for me, you know, I was always taught that this is food and we celebrate it.

 

00;05;10;26 – 00;05;30;14

Monica Auslander

And, you know, an apple and a cheese stick isn’t necessarily fun and dramatic and ostentatious, but it’s delicious. And we should be lucky that we have it. And I’m also concerned that this creates a lot of parental stress, in the parenting community, that what you serve your child has to be cut into perfect replications of Stonehenge and Instagram worthy or about.

 

00;05;30;17 – 00;06;01;21

Dr. Mona

Yeah, I agree. I mean, I think there is such a there is a modern parenting stress based on what they’re seeing on social media or hearing what their friends are doing. And then there is just a lot of food shaming that goes into this. Well, you can’t do this or you should do this. And I the purpose of this episode is just for people to understand how to look at those labels with the understanding that, hey, there is a lot of marketing, like you said, the colorful pictures, the four kids, you know, everything is kind of marketed that way for a reason, so that you’ll buy it and pick it up thinking that this

 

00;06;01;21 – 00;06;13;22

Dr. Mona

may be the best choice. I think one of the examples I talk to you about is yogurt. Like, there’s so much yogurt marketing for kids when in reality children can eat, yogurt that probably has less sugar, right?

 

00;06;13;22 – 00;06;29;24

Monica Auslander

I call it it’s fine. I in the fridge like when I’m my husband’s like, can I eat this? I’m like, okay, the people food is over here. Like, you know, I get support, like dog food. So the only yogurt, you know, I, I compare lots of friends because that’s where I studied abroad. I know you’re a fan of bringing up the Bay, and I actually read that book when it came out.

 

00;06;29;25 – 00;06;44;28

Monica Auslander

You know, I was nowhere near childbearing years back. And when that came out and I thought, I agree, why is this even a thing like this is also intuitive to me. In France there’s like three types of yogurt. There’s, you know, the full fat and the full fat from the go and the full fat, you know, over here.

 

00;06;44;28 – 00;07;01;03

Monica Auslander

And there’s no flavors. And and it’s like, you know, I when I teach, I do a lot of, wellness and. Well, I used to when there was a lot more school for students and parents and faculty. And I asked the children what colors and they’ll what comes out of the cow. And they say white, and I’m like, well, then why is your yogurt pink?

 

00;07;01;03 – 00;07;18;17

Monica Auslander

And they’re like, like, yeah, me neither. So they. Yeah. Full fat Greek, plain whole milk yogurt. In the absence of cows milk, protein allergy or lactose intolerance is is wildly appropriate. And maybe it’s not fun, but I mean, my 13 month old eats it with gusto because he’s never known anything different.

 

00;07;18;21 – 00;07;34;10

Dr. Mona

Right? And I think that’s the big thing here is that I want parents to know that they can give the foods that we’re eating, which is what should be happening. Meaning if we’re eating Greek yogurt, your child can have regular. They don’t need the one that has the the fruit mixed in. I mean, yes, if that’s for convenience, fine, we’ll get into this.

 

00;07;34;10 – 00;07;56;16

Dr. Mona

But you can add the fruit later, which doesn’t take up too much more time to mash some, some peaches or mash some fruit. That’s what we’ve been doing. So it’s really these small things that we do, which I think parents get suckered into. Well, this is a convenient thing that other people are doing also, when in reality the alternative is actually not that inconvenient, it’s actually not very inconvenient to mash up fruit.

 

00;07;56;19 – 00;08;14;03

Monica Auslander

I was going to say the argument for convenience is so relative. I think it’s more people have such anxiety like, he’s not going to like that because, you know, I grew up on that. That’s, the candy in the yogurt. It’s delicious. But so if you gave me that first and then presented me with the full fat, plain Greek, I would be like, no.

 

00;08;14;07 – 00;08;31;16

Monica Auslander

So I think we impart our parental anxiety of, oh, he’s not going to eat that. It’s gross. That’s gross. That’s so spicy. That’s so, you know, with this decade, it he’ll never eat that. But in preschool in France, they eat paté. And, you know, like I, I honeymoon in Japan, I know there are babies eating sushi and uni and think that.

 

00;08;31;16 – 00;08;49;06

Monica Auslander

So it’s all cultural relative and, you know, like we said, a lot of marketing and one food, one one dinner, I mean, one food, one family, one dinner. You know, even in the dog, everybody eats the same in the absence of food allergies or, you know, other other needs, you don’t need to be, you know, oh, it’s the adult yogurt and the child yogurt.

 

00;08;49;07 – 00;08;51;02

Monica Auslander

Like, you should be eating the plain yogurt, too.

 

00;08;51;02 – 00;09;21;03

Dr. Mona

I love that a lot of your understanding of this comes from going to other countries, because I saw the same thing happen in Japan and other countries that we’ve traveled to, which actually helped me a lot in my parenting, not just for food, but in other things as well. How we managed tantrums, how children are using screens like you go to other countries and you realize that our American culture has become so and it has become so ingrained that we have to do this because this is what is the easiest when, like we said, it’s not.

 

00;09;21;03 – 00;09;36;00

Dr. Mona

And our children can eat what we’re eating. The and the worry I have is like going into the yogurt marketing, right? We talk about it as all this stuff that’s marketed for children tends to load the sugar because children will eat it. So you’re right that the parents get into the cycle. Well, they eat it because it’s yummy.

 

00;09;36;04 – 00;09;56;21

Dr. Mona

I promise you that with proper exposure and repetitive exposure, your child will eat the yogurt that you eat. Your child will eventually maybe smell or touch the food that you are eating too. May not gobble it down because everyone has preferences, but it is all about exposure. Like you said, paté, sushi. Ryan eats Indian food, Thai food, Mexican food.

 

00;09;56;25 – 00;10;12;11

Dr. Mona

He eats everything because we just put it in front of him and say, hey, have the spice, have the flavors. There is just such a fear of flavors, and there’s such a fear of like, hey, well, we can’t have this. It’s just a baby. And I think that’s a misconception a lot in American in American nutrition.

 

00;10;12;11 – 00;10;28;26

Monica Auslander

I love all of your Indian foods that you know, you and your mother have, and I think your father have been making and it’s it’s just unlike thank you. Because, you know, there’s no reason a six month old can’t have paprika or can’t have turmeric, you know, as long as they don’t, you know, you don’t overdo it. And then they like, choke the seed of it.

 

00;10;28;26 – 00;10;49;00

Monica Auslander

But you know, it’s I mean, I, my mom is from Israel. Like, yeah. Imagine a little a little six month old. They’re not eating, you know, za’atar and all of these, you know, weird flavors. But they’re weird to us because we’re American and it’s cultural, very bland. But my problem with that is not that there’s, you know, I mean, you’re missing the anti-inflammatory magic of the spices.

 

00;10;49;00 – 00;11;00;11

Monica Auslander

But, you know, I think it’s very confusing to children, you know, okay, here’s your kids food and your dino nuggets. And then you turn 12. You no longer eligible for the kid. Menu. Enjoy your ondeh salad with this fig reduction.

 

00;11;00;11 – 00;11;01;02

Dr. Mona

Yeah.

 

00;11;01;05 – 00;11;18;26

Monica Auslander

They’re like blah blah. But my hot dog you know. So yeah. Then oh he’s a picky eater. No he’s not you know. So it’s it’s all about conditioning. And like you said, exposure exposure exposure and the whole family and the behavior and your verbal and non-verbal communications, you know, surrounding meal time in meals. Oh, yeah.

 

00;11;18;26 – 00;11;35;12

Dr. Mona

We could talk about picky eating on a whole different episode, but it really comes down like you said, to how we react to the food. And also the like you said earlier, the fear that we put in. Right. There’s that misconception that, well, my child won’t eat this. I have to do the one that’s marketed towards children because that’s yummy and they’ll eat it.

 

00;11;35;12 – 00;11;42;25

Dr. Mona

No, if you go into it like that, then they won’t eat anything. They’re you’re going to worry and they’re going to they’re going to sense that. How old is your son?

 

00;11;42;25 – 00;11;45;29

Monica Auslander

He is 13 that he’s one day younger than Ryan.

 

00;11;46;06 – 00;12;02;20

Dr. Mona

Oh yeah. So I’m sure you you see that obviously that there is you know, the, the need for exposure and your son’s not going to want to eat everything all the time, but you’re going to kind of have that understanding that I’m not going to panic if they say no to something. Yeah.

 

00;12;02;22 – 00;12;17;00

Monica Auslander

I mean, the only thing he ever actually spit out with hearts upon, which is funny because my husband, Colombian, and that’s like a very big staple. But, you know, the ten time I put it in front of him, he ate it. I think it was a texture thing. Like he raw radishes with cottage cheese as a snack every single day.

 

00;12;17;00 – 00;12;36;17

Monica Auslander

And, you know, I don’t even like raw radishes. Like, that’s so bitter. But he doesn’t know. You know, he doesn’t think it’s weird. He thinks they’re pink and they’re crunchy and, you know, a little lemon pepper on it. And I’m sure his preschool teacher is like, what on earth is going on here? But, you know, then I’m going to have a five year old who I can give a radish while I’m cooking and say, here, occupy yourself.

 

00;12;36;17 – 00;12;37;14

Monica Auslander

You know, instead of.

 

00;12;37;21 – 00;12;38;03

Dr. Mona

 

00;12;38;03 – 00;12;39;08

Monica Auslander

You know, here’s a pouch or.

 

00;12;39;10 – 00;12;55;15

Dr. Mona

Whatever. Yeah. And I think, again, one of the questions we’re going to go into is how to balance that sort of I’m going to call it convenient food. Right. Like the pouches and things like that and incorporating that into our everyday life because those things can have benefit. But before we go there, how can a family approach reading food labels?

 

00;12;55;15 – 00;13;01;02

Dr. Mona

I know it’s probably a loaded question, but where would you start when you go into the store and you look at all the items available.

 

00;13;01;06 – 00;13;18;01

Monica Auslander

So you don’t have to be a dietitian to read food labels and you and you shouldn’t be afraid, you know, because the FDA keeps us safe. You know, you’re not going to do anything toxic except, as you know, no honey for infants under or under one and choking stuff. So I would take a step back and ask yourself globally, what is this?

 

00;13;18;01 – 00;13;33;17

Monica Auslander

So you’re holding this in your hand and you’re like, oh, I’m looking at the fat and the calories. Yeah, but what is it? Okay, so there are plantains right. Is that a plant. Where did that grow. How did it grow. How was it harvested? Who picked it? How did it transpire? How did you know? Was there a contribution to the economy or human life involved?

 

00;13;33;17 – 00;13;51;21

Monica Auslander

You know, how does it taste? Is it affordable? Do I actually like this? Is my family like it? Is it affordable. And then go okay. Yes. No. Yes. No. And I hardly ever read the nutrition facts. I want to go into that in a second because they’re changing. I really only read the ingredients because holistically and globally, that’s what’s more important to me.

 

00;13;51;21 – 00;14;11;11

Monica Auslander

Like what is in here, you know, so read them. Not with fear, but kind of with that little skeptical monocle like the monopoly man has that little his monocle, his little one eye glasses. Okay, what am I eating here? And then evaluate it with empathy, but also a little bit of skepticism. So I ignore all the splashy labels of gluten free, high, and iron.

 

00;14;11;12 – 00;14;29;21

Monica Auslander

Like, I’ll make that determination. Thank you very much. Label. And then if like, let’s say you’re you’re going to eat some hazelnut chocolate almond butter. Right? Okay. Sounds good. And you turn it over and you see the only ingredients are hazelnuts, a little salt oil and cocoa powder. You’re like, okay, like that’s great. Plant plant, nut plant. Get it?

 

00;14;29;25 – 00;14;45;26

Monica Auslander

But if you turn it over and you see sugar or even something, you know, sugar has like 48 names, you know, you see invert organic molasses and you’re like, ooh, that sounds good. But then then you might migrate over to the nutrition labels and see 38g of sugar a serving, and you’re like, well, is that a lot?

 

00;14;46;02 – 00;15;05;17

Monica Auslander

Just keep on. When it comes to sugar that four grams is a teaspoon and four grams, otherwise known as a teaspoon, is also like a packet of sugar like what you would put like in your coffee. So if you do the math and there’s 38g like that’s a lot of teaspoons of sugar. But if it’s like eight you know maybe don’t get get so so so excited.

 

00;15;05;17 – 00;15;24;14

Monica Auslander

And if it’s naturally occurring meaning like yogurts and dairy will have naturally occurring sugars from lactose, you know, it’s not added like on the label. It won’t have an added sugar. You know, a description. You’re fine. So, you know, I do want to let me know if you want to go into the nutrition facts label, because I do want to, communicate how that has changed.

 

00;15;24;14 – 00;15;25;24

Monica Auslander

And actually in the last year.

 

00;15;25;24 – 00;15;45;03

Dr. Mona

Oh yeah, I would love to. I think your comment is completely valid, and I love that you’re bringing this up because I think parents don’t know about this. And it’s actually like the milk, right? Like if you go and look at milk nutrition labels, there is sugar in there. But of course it’s from the lactose. So that’s different than going to the aisles and getting a bar that has 38g of sugar.

 

00;15;45;03 – 00;16;03;11

Dr. Mona

Right. That’s added sugars that are not naturally occurring. Like you mentioned, a huge distinction. I’m so glad you brought that up. The other question I get asked before we go into diving into the nutrition labels more is what about salt like sodium? Do you look at that a lot when you go shopping? Or how do you kind of determine that.

 

00;16;03;11 – 00;16;19;02

Monica Auslander

You migrate to that ingredient label and holistically evaluate what I’m eating. So some things need to have salt. So like canned foods like canned tuna and canned Sam. And by the way babies should be eating, canned salmon, canned tuna a little high in Mercury ham. Chicken, canned beans. If you’re going to, you know, make your own beans from scratch.

 

00;16;19;02 – 00;16;38;21

Monica Auslander

That’s amazing. Let me tell you who doesn’t? Monica Auslander Moreno, over here. No. Thank you. You know, a lot of. And, like, nut butters, those are going to need some salt, right? So that that’s okay. And even in the tiniest babies, like, you know that the earliest eaters, you can rinse this, the solution of the salt off of your canned goods, and that’s okay.

 

00;16;38;21 – 00;17;00;09

Monica Auslander

I am fine with giving a little bit of lightly sweetened, you know, like nut and seed butters to babies. I would prefer, like, you know, the unsalted. That can be hard to find. They eat such small amounts in such small portions, and as long as they’re adequately hydrated and that’s like they’re only processed food, which is another weird label, of the day.

 

00;17;00;09 – 00;17;23;03

Monica Auslander

Like, I think it’s completely fine when you’re cooking. I wouldn’t, you know, shake it like a salt shaker or salt. Be all over the place. But they can tolerate, you know, I think more salt than we give them credit for. And it might be more apt to get them to like foods, because if you’ve ever had eggs without salt, like, I mean, you know, but bless, bless your heart, but a tiny, tiny little pinch of salt can go very far.

 

00;17;23;03 – 00;17;45;07

Monica Auslander

Do I read salt on labels? Not particularly, because most of the foods that you should be serving anyway are not going to have added salt besides those and foods like how you know they’re not subsisting solely off of canned salmon and canned beans. So, you know, in the in the typical intake, if you’re giving oats for breakfast that doesn’t have added salt, you’re good at giving yogurt that doesn’t have added salt.

 

00;17;45;11 – 00;17;53;22

Monica Auslander

You’re giving fruits and vegetables. And, you know, one serving of canned beans and one serving of canned salmon. You should be fine with salt intake if you agree with me.

 

00;17;53;22 – 00;18;12;03

Dr. Mona

Oh, I completely agree. And I’m so glad you’re saying this because when I joined Instagram, there was this whole culture, you can’t give baby salt. And I was like, what’s going on here? And I think about it, you have to think about it from a common sense perspective. If you believe in evolution, but also just thinking about everyone who’s not on social media, okay.

 

00;18;12;09 – 00;18;32;07

Dr. Mona

Like all the parents are on social media in the middle of nowhere, or I’m talking like, let’s use India as an example. These families give their children what they eat. They’re not creating separate meals. And that’s okay. You know, you’re giving your child what you eat with the understanding that, okay, if you’re home cooking your meals, which is great if you can do that, you are putting the salt in the seasonings and that you would eat.

 

00;18;32;09 – 00;18;45;05

Dr. Mona

I want it to be balanced. Like you said, I don’t want high salt, you know, Cajun style salty food that I once made for my dad. And he was like, what is this? Because I put too much salt in it. But like, you know, I’m not a good cook, but people.

 

00;18;45;07 – 00;18;48;14

Monica Auslander

Think it’s tricky in recipes. You can easily mislead.

 

00;18;48;17 – 00;19;05;29

Dr. Mona

And I go back to that one time I cooked a Cajun style rice for my dad, and I added way too much salt because Cajun seasoning already has salt in it. And so my dad was like, what is this? And I’m like, yeah, we’re not eating this. But you have to understand, if you’re cooking with moderation and that’s what you’re doing, salt is okay for your child.

 

00;19;06;23 – 00;19;08;28

Dr. Mona

You can’t sit there. Yeah. And. Yes, ma’am.

 

00;19;09;05 – 00;19;32;27

Monica Auslander

Yeah, I heard that. It balances out with, I could pop quiz you on this, but actually, a lot of a lot of physicians forget it’s not just about the salt. It’s also about phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, a lot of that balance it. So if you’re feeding your child things that also have those in them like fresh, fresh fruits and vegetables and nut and seed butters and beans, that’s kind of I don’t it doesn’t really work, as you know, metabolism balancing out the salt.

 

00;19;32;27 – 00;19;42;12

Monica Auslander

But, you know, as far as electrolyte balance goes, I wouldn’t be so concerned. Like, you know, they’re not going to get hypertensive or have kidney damage from, you know, scant amounts of salt.

 

00;19;42;14 – 00;19;58;29

Dr. Mona

And going on a salt tangent, I think one of the biggest things that people who are a you have to watch the salt are saying is that it will make them more accustomed to salty foods. And I actually disagree because you’re doing everything in rotation, right? I’m not always giving you Ryan salted foods. It’s a variety. It’s just part of the meal.

 

00;19;58;29 – 00;20;15;02

Dr. Mona

And like you said, I don’t even want to eat unsalted egg and especially Indian food. Like a lot of Indian food comes with the salt, but it also comes with the turmeric and the cayenne pepper. And again, this is all stuff that can be very helpful to baby. You don’t want to give them a five alarm chili at seven.

 

00;20;15;04 – 00;20;33;27

Dr. Mona

But Ryan eats spice because we slowly get him accustomed to all this. And I think it really helps, like you said, for them to be a better eater because you do that, you do a little bit of tasteless food. You know, you’re not always over flavoring. You’re doing the variety so that they understand food comes in all flavors salty, you know, little spices.

 

00;20;33;27 – 00;20;47;06

Dr. Mona

Okay. Little lemon juice, like there’s different tastes. And I’m going to eat different things. Sometimes mom will give me something that’s a little less flavorful, but this is what’s for dinner. I’ll try it. You know, and that’s kind of how they get exposed to the different flavors.

 

00;20;47;07 – 00;20;57;14

Monica Auslander

Absolutely. And you know what? If they if they don’t like it or they don’t want it, we say, I’m sorry, this is what’s on the menu tonight. And we’re I know and, you know, I mean, that’s a whole other episode also about.

 

00;20;57;14 – 00;20;58;21

Dr. Mona

Yeah. Exactly.

 

00;20;58;24 – 00;21;06;22

Monica Auslander

Yeah exactly I see okay. This is your time in the high chair and we’re all sitting here and you can stay with us and, you know, let me know.

 

00;21;06;25 – 00;21;22;09

Dr. Mona

Yeah. It works. I mean, I know we’re not talking about picky eating, but it’s important when we talk about food, we talk about eating like that. Well, the less reaction and the understanding that, hey, you don’t have to eat what I give you all the time, but I’m deciding one and one, and you’re deciding if and how much it really helps.

 

00;21;22;09 – 00;21;28;06

Dr. Mona

Like it? Sometimes Ryan eats two bites and sometimes eats 20, and sometimes he eats more than me and my husband combined.

 

00;21;28;12 – 00;21;39;16

Monica Auslander

Like is part of life of eating and the division, the responsibility. As a pediatrician. When do you lose sleep over? Oh my gosh, I hope they took their medicine. No, you say I did what I can and I said, no, it’s medicine.

 

00;21;39;18 – 00;21;40;05

Dr. Mona

Please go to.

 

00;21;40;05 – 00;21;47;15

Monica Auslander

CVS and pick it up. But you don’t, you know, like you do prescribing and the and the care and people go home and do what they. Well so you got to have a.

 

00;21;47;15 – 00;21;54;18

Dr. Mona

Division I it is reality. But tell me. Yeah tell me more about the labels you were going to say. Go like dive into the labels a little bit more.

 

00;21;54;25 – 00;22;15;02

Monica Auslander

There’s a lot of food. Lore is fascinating and food politics is fascinating. And I think we need more education from that, especially among health care providers and professionals. I know I certainly do, but now we’re we’re undergoing change right now in a couple of ways. Number one, the Nutrition Facts label was updated in 2016 to reflect updated scientific information.

 

00;22;15;02 – 00;22;35;14

Monica Auslander

It is allegedly easier for consumers to make better and informed choices. I do obviously have my own research. My thoughts on that with my British accent was supposed to go into effect by January 1st, 2020. If you had more than 10 million sales, I think there was some wiggle room. Now certain products have until July 1st, 2021, but everybody’s going to have to comply now.

 

00;22;35;19 – 00;22;49;24

Monica Auslander

So the serving sizes are supposed to be a little more realistic, because if you ever looked at an ice cream serving size, it was a half a cup. And like lol, who eats half a cup of ice cream? This ice cream for my 19 pound Cavalier King Charles Spaniel in size and also in boulder type. The sizes are supposed to be more realistic.

 

00;22;49;24 – 00;23;13;02

Monica Auslander

The calories are in larger type. I have mixed feelings about that. The daily values have been updated and the actual amounts of micronutrients are declared. And we have some that are now required like potassium and vitamin D, which are very important. And weren’t declared before. Calories from fat has been removed and vitamin A and C are not, documented anymore because it’s very, very rare in this country to have, deficiencies of those.

 

00;23;13;05 – 00;23;33;08

Monica Auslander

I say the biggest thing is that added sugars are declared. But this is a very mixed message. And this could get very murky for people because people can say, oh my gosh, no added sugar. This is an amazing product. Well, juice has no added sugar. Some juices like, you know, but they can have far too much sugar. And I do not advocate for juice for children or, you know, virtually everyone who isn’t a mixologist.

 

00;23;33;08 – 00;23;54;20

Monica Auslander

Right? So, I mean, you do need it sometimes in your cocktails. So that can be potentially very confusing. And then as far as, labeling goes, as far as, like I’m also a food allergy mom, you know, there’s voluntary labeling of some of the food allergens, notably sesame and notably, cross contamination in facilities. So that’s a little concerning.

 

00;23;54;20 – 00;24;10;02

Monica Auslander

But yeah, allegedly. Now the nutrition facts are more, quote, user friendly. Although like I said, I’m very concerned by that added sugar delineation that could potentially be, you know, a green light for some things that really shouldn’t be in a red light for other things that really shouldn’t be red lighted.

 

00;24;10;07 – 00;24;14;24

Dr. Mona

That is great to know. So has that already started to come into play or that’s going to be rolled out?

 

00;24;15;00 – 00;24;44;00

Monica Auslander

We’ll see that on on on. It depends on their, annual revenue or, you know, just their willingness to comply. But by July 1st of this year is supposed to be everything, everybody. And I’m sure you know, they’ll a grace period. Of course with Covid there’s probably going to be a lot more grace. But you know, there’s also now delineations about calorie labels in like these chain coffee restaurants and things, which I am not for that actually, which people are surprised about because I think it drove dramatic sizes and stigmatizes food a little too much.

 

00;24;44;00 – 00;24;49;04

Monica Auslander

But, yeah, to answer your question, we should see those labels now and and into the next six months.

 

00;24;49;08 – 00;25;03;00

Dr. Mona

Wow, that’s great to know I love this. I love being able to connect with you and all my other guests also, because I learned so much about especially the world of nutrition, right? We how would I ever learn this unless I talked to experts who are heavy into this? So great. That’s why I have.

 

00;25;03;00 – 00;25;07;13

Monica Auslander

You to text in the middle of the night. Of what? What setting should I put my humidifier on?

 

00;25;07;15 – 00;25;31;04

Dr. Mona

I love it, I know, I love this, I love this team approach. I’m so this has been so eye opening and I know, everyone listening is probably like, oh well, good. I’m happy that a pediatrician and dietitian are agreeing about all this kind of stuff with seasoning and whatnot. You know, the common question that we get asked, and I know a lot of my followers struggle with is finding that balance between I put I’m putting this in quotes, healthy foods because everyone’s like, is this healthy?

 

00;25;31;10 – 00;25;47;16

Dr. Mona

Is it okay if I give my kids this versus something that’s more convenient and I’m going to use packaged foods as convenient foods, you know, things that you can open up and just give to your kids, like pouches. You know, cereal bars, things like that. So how do we balance that? Like, how do you balance that? As a mom who’s a nutritionist.

 

00;25;47;19 – 00;26;02;05

Monica Auslander

I kind of like to evaluate. It’s really hard to evaluate a certain food. It has to really be in the scope of one’s entire intake over a vast amount of time. And we like to say that all foods fit and all bodies are good bodies. So, you know, that said, there are perfectly wonderful things that come in pouches and boxes.

 

00;26;02;05 – 00;26;20;08

Monica Auslander

I mean, like I do make my own hummus because my child happens to be allergic to sesame. But, you know, before that I was intending on giving him a little single serving like package promises. I’ll all the live long day. And as for pouches, I use those very heavily because I found a company that only does pouches that are just like grass, that meats and vegetables.

 

00;26;20;08 – 00;26;44;16

Monica Auslander

And he was eating these like little tiny butter fly portions of meat. And I was spending 40 minutes cooking all the meat and the chicken, and it was all going to waste because I couldn’t get through that amount of meat and chicken. And he would eat like three bites because he was six month old. So, you know, I think, you know, pouches and convenience foods have a place just, you know, perhaps we could make very informed and, and, and flagrant choices.

 

00;26;44;16 – 00;27;07;08

Monica Auslander

Okay. So the key word like you said is balance. There’s no such thing as perfect eating. Right. Because you see a lot of eating disorder clients both, you know, unfortunately pediatric and adults and perfect eating is is orthorexia. So what you can do is equip yourself with the knowledge and the know how to try to do your best when choosing foods for you and your family, whether or not they whatever package they come in or if you put them straight out of the ground, Bugs Bunny style.

 

00;27;07;08 – 00;27;30;27

Monica Auslander

So what that means, though, is allotting the time to learn, the time to shop and inspect. You know, like I used to the grocery store things or Instacart or wherever, using the time to prepare, the time to serve, the time to clean, and mostly the time to think and get organized. So what I do is, is for people to have these little meal planners on the fridge or in a conspicuous place, and for older kids, you can allow them to write in requests.

 

00;27;30;27 – 00;27;49;19

Monica Auslander

And for little kids who who can’t write, you can have photos. And that kind of primes the whole family for this is what we’re having. This week. And we all have input and say and it’s exciting and fun. So when it when it is going to be a, quote, processed food, I’ve actually already factor that in and plan that in, okay, we’re going to be at the park and it would be really awkward to whip out my short rib.

 

00;27;49;19 – 00;28;12;24

Monica Auslander

Right now he’s going to get some fish sticks. However, they are from a very reputable brand. I don’t care if they’re organic or not, but the only ingredients are, you know, some corn, some oats, some oil, a little seasoning. And I just have to, like, microwave them and throw them in the, in the, in the little pouch thing that his stasher bag thing that I do, to be fair, I really like being environmentally conscious and bringing reusable bags for those snacks.

 

00;28;12;24 – 00;28;33;04

Monica Auslander

Some days it’s going to be my homemade eggless quiche and a and a lentil soup. So it it’s what works for your family. Obviously, dietitians can help bridge the gap between this fantasy of personal chef like five Star cuisine and the reality of, you know, what actually happens. But whatever it should be, it should be joyous, meaningful, and health enhancing for your child and for your family.

 

00;28;33;04 – 00;28;51;04

Monica Auslander

But you do have to sit down and plan. Okay, so you should have an arsenal of these back up convenience foods. The pouches, the frozen foods, the nuggets, the stuff that, you know, we all grew up on. I grew up on ballpark ranks, Hebrew National salami, lunch, edibles, fruit roll ups. You know, like I’m here to tell the tale of survival for sure.

 

00;28;51;10 – 00;28;52;05

Dr. Mona

But my mom.

 

00;28;52;05 – 00;29;04;23

Monica Auslander

Knew she was like, all right, you have gymnastics this day and this day, so you’re going to get Hebrew National salami in the car. But on the other, you know, three days I think I was like me, where she didn’t have Excel, but I have my Excel spreadsheets and I’m like, okay, this is what we’re doing for the week.

 

00;29;04;23 – 00;29;21;18

Monica Auslander

And I have it organized. And I also think it’s very important you’re going to find this hilarious. I’m pregnant and I’m driving with my husband, and when you come visit me in, in my suburb of Miami, you’ll see that I live close to a, a four way stop, I guess it’s called the intersection, and there’s four. What is wrong with my brain?

 

00;29;21;21 – 00;29;38;08

Monica Auslander

There is four. There are four fast food restaurants on each side of the intersection. There is a Taco Bell, a Wendy’s, a Domino’s, a Papa John’s. I think there might be a yeah, there’s a McDonald’s. And I go to the met, say my husband, I’m so excited to take our son here. And what I mean now with the allergies, he actually can’t.

 

00;29;38;14 – 00;30;02;20

Monica Auslander

But he goes, why go? I want him to have an exposure to all of these things and to normalize them and show him, you know, about all foods. He’s also hopefully going to go with us, you know, to France where mommy studied abroad and eat paté. But I want to destigmatize and normalize all foods for him and focus more on the the sensory and exciting ability and, and and this wonderful blessing we had to be able to eat orally.

 

00;30;02;20 – 00;30;18;03

Monica Auslander

As you know, not everybody has that luxury. Not all children orally instead of, oh, we would never feed him McDonald’s. It’s poison, you know. So balance. Yes. You said it right. Balance. But it does require planning, preparation and cognition and learning and understanding.

 

00;30;18;04 – 00;30;39;27

Dr. Mona

Absolutely. What a great way to put it. And like you said, we’re telling the tale of survival, right? Having all these foods growing up. And I think that’s an understanding that I hope most parents listening get is that we grew up on a lot of these foods that now maybe we may not always give to our children. Maybe I maybe ate too much of that when I was younger, and I probably won’t give it to Ryan as much just because I want to balance a little bit more.

 

00;30;39;28 – 00;30;55;07

Dr. Mona

But I will still give those foods, you know, puff cereals. As an example, someone asked me on my Instagram, Do I have to give puffed cereals to my child? They seem so processed. And I said, okay, you can give it if you want because it’s not harmful, but you don’t have to give these foods. It’s just something to have.

 

00;30;55;08 – 00;31;02;16

Dr. Mona

Like you said, a food that’s easy to go, but don’t worry if you don’t get it. But don’t worry if you do, anything this week.

 

00;31;02;18 – 00;31;06;27

Monica Auslander

Tell you you have to home make your own puff cereal. I’m also not here to tell you that you should definitely.

 

00;31;06;27 – 00;31;08;09

Dr. Mona

Exactly buy.

 

00;31;08;12 – 00;31;23;29

Monica Auslander

That. I’m here to tell you what works for your fat. Let’s have a discussion about it. You know, let’s have a an open and honest and realistic discussion about it. But as we say in the breastfeeding world, like that is best. And I would rather have a nourished child than a undernourished one out of fear for glyphosate or something.

 

00;31;24;03 – 00;31;39;14

Dr. Mona

Right? I mean, your your desire to destigmatize food is so important. I love what you said about the fast food, because that is just part of the food that we eat, right? It’s okay if you get fast food for yourself, even as adults. It’s okay if you get it for your child. It’s just part of everything. I’m not okay in.

 

00;31;39;20 – 00;31;42;28

Monica Auslander

Recommending that you have fast food. Of course you did. You were trying to live.

 

00;31;43;02 – 00;31;56;19

Dr. Mona

And I’m not, you know I’m not. Okay. You know, I talk to my family like I don’t want it to be that they do one of something forever, right? I don’t want fast food every night. And that’s how I want to educate the families on ways to create home cooked meals that are convenient and easy, because that’s what we don’t want.

 

00;31;56;19 – 00;32;04;08

Dr. Mona

But we also don’t want the family to feel like they have to home cook everything, because that’s not sustainable. Like it’s just we have to balance this. You.

 

00;32;04;12 – 00;32;16;00

Monica Auslander

Bottle you up the joy of parenthood and will ultimately trickle down onto your relationship with food and your child. So pursue joy and pursue health, but make it your own.

 

00;32;16;06 – 00;32;33;00

Dr. Mona

Oh my gosh, I completely agree with this. Like my the way how I approach it, I definitely start a meal planning and I notice a huge difference in my stress levels when I started meal planning because I’m not thinking so much, well, do I need to balance this? Well, he already had this two days ago. It has become so easy.

 

00;32;33;00 – 00;32;48;09

Dr. Mona

Oh my. I started this three weeks ago when my mom and dad left. My mom was helping me with food before, but now it’s like so much easier. My nanny doesn’t have to ask me, like three times. Hey, what’s he eating? My husband doesn’t need to text me at work. Hey, what is he eating today? It’s all on a menu on the on the fridge.

 

00;32;48;11 – 00;32;48;23

Dr. Mona

And?

 

00;32;48;24 – 00;32;56;08

Monica Auslander

And it doesn’t have to be complicated. Guess what the best lunch is today? I can’t. Yeah, get the salmon with an apple and some carrots.

 

00;32;56;10 – 00;33;12;29

Dr. Mona

And I always prioritize giving the foods we’re eating. That’s I think my number one thing always prioritize. If you’re eating something and you can put it into a consistency if your child’s a baby, if you’re if you need to break it down and create it in a way that your child can eat it because they don’t have, you know they’re not older yet, always try to give them what you’re eating.

 

00;33;13;03 – 00;33;29;10

Dr. Mona

I know that’s not always possible, because sometimes we’re not home for lunch, sometimes we’re not eating a full dinner because we’re not hungry. But always prioritize that. And then when I go shopping, what I do is if I am thinking about something to give, I always look in my normal aisles like crackers. I don’t need to get him child crackers.

 

00;33;29;10 – 00;33;33;09

Dr. Mona

I can get crackers that I eat and just break them up. I’m putting.

 

00;33;33;14 – 00;33;35;17

Monica Auslander

Like your great grandma on India about.

 

00;33;35;17 – 00;33;49;24

Dr. Mona

Child. I know she should be like, oh, we just gave you what was there. And but it’s so important to remember that you do not have to go for that child stuff if you want it to. Great. But I don’t want you to get suckered in thinking that that’s what. That’s what kids need to eat. Including the yogurts.

 

00;33;49;24 – 00;34;05;05

Dr. Mona

You know, I keep going back to the yogurt because I give Ryan Greek yogurt with fresh fruit, and it’s the best we. You know, I may start to go to, like, more packaged yogurts, but he doesn’t need that. He. We just do a yogurt on the go. I mean, I just take something to wipe his face, but we just do it that way and it works.

 

00;34;05;05 – 00;34;32;19

Dr. Mona

You can create a convenient lifestyle by still giving a variety of foods that we need. They don’t have to be cater to children. And like Monica said, just balance it out. You know, don’t stress yourself out too much of being so, well, if I do this, then someone’s going to say this. It’s not about that. You just need to feed your kids and come up with that balance of, okay, I’m giving some different things in different food groups throughout the week, like just work, work with it to get something, get different things into them.

 

00;34;32;19 – 00;34;33;13

Dr. Mona

It’s hard to.

 

00;34;33;16 – 00;34;47;01

Monica Auslander

Compare and compare really sucks. It really will rob you of the joy of parenting. And you know, if you want flavored yogurt, take frozen fruit, which is cheap, microwave it and put it in the plain yogurt. And now you’ve got like this bleeding delicious component.

 

00;34;47;01 – 00;34;57;02

Dr. Mona

Oh, I love that. You know, Monica, this was such a great episode. I really, really learned so much too. And I think it’s just so nice kind of breaking all this down. What would be your final message for everyone listening?

 

00;34;57;04 – 00;35;21;17

Monica Auslander

I think the ultimate message is, again, that, you know, feeding your family is an in a health enhancing and joyous, positive, realistic, non stress adding way. Is the game here. You know I I know you guys all grew up on ballpark. Frank’s like I didn’t live to tell the tale. So stop waving your nontoxic toothbrushes at me. And let’s get smart about labels and reject harmful marketing, you know, to kids, even to adults.

 

00;35;21;17 – 00;35;26;03

Monica Auslander

But also foster happy and joyous relationships to all foods and all bodies in a more.

 

00;35;26;10 – 00;35;26;28

Dr. Mona

Neutral.

 

00;35;26;28 – 00;35;42;19

Monica Auslander

Way. And stop moralizing or shaming people you know we have enough to worry about right now. Focus on the who, what, why, where, when, and how of the food. And not just the what, how much according to the clock. And, you know, enjoy the food. Because like I said, it’s a sheer blessing to be.

 

00;35;42;19 – 00;35;59;16

Dr. Mona

Able to eat it is and I, I that’s something my mom instilled on me from a young age, the blessing that food is, and I’m very big on that. And that’s carried to me as a pediatrician when I talk about food, because like you said, not everyone is fortunate to be able to eat with their mouth and not a not everyone is able to have food.

 

00;35;59;28 – 00;36;19;28

Dr. Mona

And so it’s just that both of those things together, we’re trying to teach our children about gratitude, but understanding that, you know, this is what nourishes us. This is something that sustains us. And it’s something, like you said, that’s enjoyable. I want families to love eating. I want children to grow up loving eating in terms of the variety and all the things that comes with it.

 

00;36;19;28 – 00;36;37;08

Dr. Mona

And when parents get so stressed out about, well, I can’t do this, I can’t do this. You’re right, like you said earlier, that that’s going to carry down to them as kids. It’s going to carry them down to them. It’s how they look at food. And I want them to look at this as a positive thing. Monica, I can’t wait to have you on again.

 

00;36;37;08 – 00;36;51;09

Dr. Mona

I can’t wait to see you in person and give you a non-COVID hug. Everyone else is like Monica on Instagram. And tell me more. Your your company. Does it cater to everyone outside of Florida or is it only Florida?

 

00;36;51;09 – 00;37;07;13

Monica Auslander

We can legally see people in the state of Florida, and there are some states who have reciprocity. You. We’d have to look it up, but generally and we can do some virtual work with you. But thank you so much for having me. This has been so much fun, and I am quite inspired to go have some yogurt at this very moment.

 

00;37;07;16 – 00;37;25;22

Dr. Mona

I think I will do. Thank you again. Thank you for tuning in for this week’s episode. As always, please leave a review, share this episode with a friend, share it on your social media. Make sure to follow me at PedsDocTalk on Instagram and subscribe to my YouTube channel, PedsDocTalk TV. We’ll talk to you soon.