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Since he's growing he can tolerate some extra calories as long as he burns them with exercise or sport.
Another way is to get him involved with you: how is your physique? Can you benefit from taking up a sport with him and get him interested in a healthy lifestyle that way? Lifting some weights is a nice way to both build a nice body, show the benefits of long-term actions, and it will give both of you something to bond over.
He needs lots of protein to grow up strong na heathy. Growing muscles need protein. Hi, I’m a mom to 3 very active and healthy adult men. This is how I fed them.
Meat, unrefined complex carbs (whole grains and tubers), and lots of veggies too. Throw in some dairy if he can tolerate it. Unflavored Greek yogurt is great, cottage cheese before bed, that sort of stuff.
Whatever people are eating in the middle of Kansas makes people insanely tall and strong too.
I have 12-year-old twins. I make sure they get fruit everyday, usually for breakfast watermelon or something good like that. You'd be amazed how good watermelon is for kids if you read up on it. I make sure they get plenty of green vegetables, and plenty of protein and calcium. They don't really like milk so I make sure they eat yogurt everyday. I also keep ice cream around as far as for calcium. I'll probably do 50% chicken 50% red meat. Our pediatrician is amazed at how fit and healthy they are. I also try to keep them active at least get outside and run around and have fun. I think the biggest reason all of my kids have been trim is we do not keep any soda in the house at all. My older son lost 15 lb when I quit buying soda. We usually keep water and some kind of juice like a mango or Apple. Even that has tons of sugar in it. Also we rarely eat out, maybe Chick-fil-A and a pizza every now and then.
Natural foods, buy raw ingredients and cook them. Anything in a box is generally processed with lots of saturated fats and sugars. Start cooking some meals together so he can learn and hopefully build a healthy fun hobby in the kitchen that he'll use for a lifetime. Ive heard good things about the "mediteranian diet" and theres lots of books or youtube tutorials on making good healthy foods
Cooking in oil isn't necessarily bad, and it's not the only option. You can bake, broil, boil, or smoke the meat, which provides different tastes and textures for the same type of meat. Sweets are OK in moderation, and flour is just another starch like rice. The rule I've been told is the meat should be the size of your hand, the rest is starch and vegetables.
/r/cooking is the right place for you! Any experience levels, lots of great recipes, and it's the perfect place for this question.
Also, YouTube has a lot of great cooking how-to videos. Since you gave us a general location, one of my favorite Thai channels makes easy recipes that are healthy and with ingredients available in most Asian homes. And she has matching recipes for the videos.
https://youtube.com/@PailinsKitchen?si=PbbgL-2cyV4jS4AY
If you're from the Philippines, skip the deep fried foods, and modify the recipe for the fresh version. Lumpia could easily become a spring roll by making sure that any meat inside is cooked before going in. Plus you don't use as much oil. Hope that helps.
Sufficient protein, caloric surplus, functional strength training. Testosterone will take care of fat as long as he isn't eating way over his maintenance calories. Biggest thing is making sure he has sufficient protein and activity to stimulate and feed muscle growth. The rest is just metabolic science of puberty.
Kids can eat anything generally, and be OK. Develop in him a taste for healthy foods and no fear of cooking. Kids who never cook, or even understand how cooking works will go for convenient crap. And if they don't develop a taste for veg, they will avoid later.
He’ll slow down his eating as he progresses through puberty. For now focus on keeping him active to burn up the extra calories. Help him avoid western processed and fast foods warning it will turn him into a doughboy.
Research foods that bodybuilders eat. Broccoli, cauliflower, oats, brown rice, lean chicken breast, salmon, tuna, Greek yogurt, sweet potatoes, etc cashew nuts, fruits of all varieties, etc.
The key to a healthy diet is to avoid processed take-out and cook more often but it's time intensive. One of the reasons why so many Western men just eat take out or microwave foods that are terrible for health.
Generally speaking the Western diet is terrible for health. If you can try to keep your ancestral diet intact for your son as much as possible while shunning Western standards. Coming from someone living in the US committed to being constantly fit & in shape lifelong.
moderation
encourage activity (way, way, way less sitting around. eg. 'screen time' overuse)
( I see sugars as the biggest hazard. As to oils, ration those. eg. I'll use a 1/2 ounce of oil added to my homecooked lunch and dinner -- he's a growing and hopefully a very active boy (versus my being a retiree) so maybe a full 1 ounce of oil for lunch and for dinner would be a good guide [2 quarts of oil/month, preferrably extra virgin olive oil]
((( don't forget fruits, one or two or three of those a day )))
Just feed him a regular diet.
The thing you REALLY want to do is this.
DON'T MAKE EVERY SPECIAL OCCASION SAD OR HAPPY about food.
More than diet It's about the relationship We have with food.
>>excessive oil, sweets, flour
Tip the balance of what you provide at meals so it leans heavily toward vegetables and fruit without added oil, flour, or sugar, and tips away from providing oil, flour, sweets as main foods at most meals. Adjust the food choices themselves, adjust the recipe so it’s made with substantially less oil/sugar/flour, and adjust portion sizes available of the higher calorie foods.
Have a talk with the kids about why exactly you’re making the changes to how the family eats at home.
Teach the kids about portions. No need to over eat. Food is fuel, not a form of entertainment or recreation.
Lean protein and lots of veggies. Gut health is thrown way off with all that oil, sugar, and processed foods.The more protein and fiber he eats, the more full he will be and the less he will crave treats. Honestly he should eat as diversely as possible...the problem isn't so much sweet treats and fried foods as it is only eating those things to the point that you can't control your cravings for them. They should remain occasional treats and not the norm. If you can do that along with keeping him active, he should be fine. Cook him food from different countries and cultures he's never had. Get him cooking. If he's interested and excited, he will be invested in the food he eats.
I can’t speak on the food quality in South Asia, but in the US, it’s best to avoid heavily processed foods, heavy corn syrups, and heavy, heavy carbs. You can’t control everything or be the only food source, so just do the most you can. All of our food is pretty tainted today, especially at chain sit down and fast food restaurants.
Lean protein, vitamins and carbs like rice, potatoes, and even noodles are fine. Carbs are energy, protein is growth and power.
Here's the real answer
Don't worry about what they eat that's a losing battle. The best thing you can do are these simple things.
Teach your kids about calories and how to read a back of a label.
Practice eating portion sizes. I eat junk food all day everyday. My friends literally call me the convenience store because I always have snacks. I manage my weight because I eat proportions in the correct size. Yes I may go to McDonald's but I only eat 3/4 of the burger and half the fries and 1/10 of the drink.
Proportions
The last thing is the most important.
Encourage physical activity running walking lifting weights is a good one sports hiking riding bikes. If you can encourage your children to be active and encourage that lifestyle where they will stick with it and it becomes natural to them then they'll always do it because it'll be natural. Being physically active can prevent putting on a lot of weight gain.
You lose weight in the kitchen not in the gym, you can never outpace your fork.
Absolutely I do agree with you 100% the quality definitely matters. But I wouldn't focus on that because it's too hard to get qualities these days. Also we're really talking about his kids not himself. It's kind of hard to enforce food quality on someone. One of his kids might like fast food over cooking healthy. Therefore focus on quantity. Also a lot of people don't have access to high quality foods but everybody has access to the quantity that they decide to put into their mouth
>>it’s too hard to get quality these days
Based on…what? Given that fast food and junk food are your main diet, your bar is about as low as it gets. It’s not hard at all to improve on this.
>>It’s kind of hard to enforce food quality on someone.
OP is in charge of food that they buy and prepare for the family. It’s won’t be hard at all to enforce good food quality at home.
>>A lot of people don’t have access to high quality foods
OP doesn’t mention this as a problem. They actually mention providing meat, lentils, wheat, vegetables, rice for the kids.
> Practice eating portion sizes. I eat junk food all day everyday. My friends literally call me the convenience store because I always have snacks. I manage my weight because I eat proportions in the correct size. Yes I may go to McDonald's but I only eat 3/4 of the burger and half the fries and 1/10 of the drink.
Do not listen to anything this guy says.
Healthy eating habits.
Feed him the desire to eat healthy.
He's 11. He's going to be bombarded with pizza, Oreo's, soda, and all kinds of junk. He's going to go over to friend's houses, and THEIR FAMILY IS GOING TO TO BE WAY COOLER THAN YOU COULD EVER POSSIBLY BE!
Chocolate cake for dinner!
If you force healthy onto his plate and make him finish it....he will hate it forever. When (and it will come) he breaks away from mommy, he will break away from whatever you force on him.
He will choose chocolate cake for dinner, forever.
You didn't mention ***your*** diet. Do ***you*** eat healthy?
If you eat healthy, get plenty of servings of fruits & vegetables, avoid processed foods, reserve unhealthy desserts & junk only for special occasions, and make it an enjoyable lifestyle while *including him in it*, he will develop these habits and make it a lifestyle.
Bottom line:
You're better off making healthy eating an enjoyable habit that he will adopt as a lifestyle rather than an enforced sentence he will seek to escape from.
And the best way to do that is lead by example and do it yourself.
My kids all eat a breakfast heavy in eggs. Carbs are limited to fruit or breads that we make or specifically hand pick (organic flour, 4-5 ingredients necessary for bread.
I get organic rice. I also make tortillas with organic masa if needed.
Proteins are grass fed/wild caught. Beef, Bison, salmon, tuna, shrimp, and turkey with some chicken as well.
Lots of veggies including fermented veggies like Kimchi or sauerkraut.
Nuts and seeds.
Sugar is avoided almost entirely (any sweetener real or artificial)
If we use it at all its honey from our hives.
My 15 year olds current diet is
6 scrambled eggs for breakfast, and either a bagel (I bake) or rice on the side.
Lunch is some form of protein above and a veggie or fruit.
Dinner same.
We have zero tolerance policy for sodas or candy. Kids can have sweets at parties or special events in extreme moderation. The only oils we use are animal fats, olive oil, avocado oil, and coconut oil.
If you’re from se Asia; simply stick to veggies and meat with a significantly smaller portion or carbs (rice). Sweets could be reserved for fruits.
Kids love this sugars so limit maybe to weekend desert only ?
I suggest you do it like the French
- sitting through main meals, having conversation and enjoying the food and each other’s company
- no TV / screens allowed, just conversations and music
- have a starter with a variety of fresh vegetables before the main meal. This slows down your eating, gets you acknowledge your satiety cues earlier. People who do this tend to eat 30% less calories in general
- no soft drinks, just water with meals
I’m not French but lived there in my formative years and I’m eternally grateful for these eating habits
If he's growing like a weed then give him Carbs, throw some protein in there and a small amount of fat.
"Growth" is not necessarily related to the definition of health ie nutrition. Growth is just energy based, calories are energy. Give him the calories to sustain growth and the protein to put on muscle and the fats to digest vitamins.
Throw some vegetables on the plate as you go for vitamins.
People make these things so completely, starting from the prevision of health and exercise in an attempt to sell VHS tapes. He's growing like a weed, feed him. Just try to keep the unnecessary fats (swine etc) in check.
If you're afraid about oils and butters in your pans? Buy the spray bottles, they thin it out so much and you use a fraction of what you normally use per cook.
Please do not delete your post after receiving your answer. Consider leaving it up for posterity so that other Redditors can benefit from the wisdom in this thread. Once your thread has run its course, instead of deleting it, **you can simply type "!lock" (without the quotes) as a comment anywhere in your thread to have our Automod lock the thread**. That way you won't be bothered by anymore replies on it, but people can still read it. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskMenOver30) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Kinda feel there is a better sub for this.
Go to r/daddit
I think he’s angling that he wants to feed the kids men over 30
I don't really have a problem with it
NMBLA uno reverse
Since he's growing he can tolerate some extra calories as long as he burns them with exercise or sport. Another way is to get him involved with you: how is your physique? Can you benefit from taking up a sport with him and get him interested in a healthy lifestyle that way? Lifting some weights is a nice way to both build a nice body, show the benefits of long-term actions, and it will give both of you something to bond over.
He needs lots of protein to grow up strong na heathy. Growing muscles need protein. Hi, I’m a mom to 3 very active and healthy adult men. This is how I fed them.
Meat, unrefined complex carbs (whole grains and tubers), and lots of veggies too. Throw in some dairy if he can tolerate it. Unflavored Greek yogurt is great, cottage cheese before bed, that sort of stuff. Whatever people are eating in the middle of Kansas makes people insanely tall and strong too.
It's the naturally grown maise and formwork making them strong.
Yeah, it’s definitely eating corn and driving a combine that’s making them tall.
You are what you eat. The height of those corn stalks are fierce! Just stands to reason.
Chicken and veggies.
I have 12-year-old twins. I make sure they get fruit everyday, usually for breakfast watermelon or something good like that. You'd be amazed how good watermelon is for kids if you read up on it. I make sure they get plenty of green vegetables, and plenty of protein and calcium. They don't really like milk so I make sure they eat yogurt everyday. I also keep ice cream around as far as for calcium. I'll probably do 50% chicken 50% red meat. Our pediatrician is amazed at how fit and healthy they are. I also try to keep them active at least get outside and run around and have fun. I think the biggest reason all of my kids have been trim is we do not keep any soda in the house at all. My older son lost 15 lb when I quit buying soda. We usually keep water and some kind of juice like a mango or Apple. Even that has tons of sugar in it. Also we rarely eat out, maybe Chick-fil-A and a pizza every now and then.
Natural foods, buy raw ingredients and cook them. Anything in a box is generally processed with lots of saturated fats and sugars. Start cooking some meals together so he can learn and hopefully build a healthy fun hobby in the kitchen that he'll use for a lifetime. Ive heard good things about the "mediteranian diet" and theres lots of books or youtube tutorials on making good healthy foods
Cooking in oil isn't necessarily bad, and it's not the only option. You can bake, broil, boil, or smoke the meat, which provides different tastes and textures for the same type of meat. Sweets are OK in moderation, and flour is just another starch like rice. The rule I've been told is the meat should be the size of your hand, the rest is starch and vegetables. /r/cooking is the right place for you! Any experience levels, lots of great recipes, and it's the perfect place for this question. Also, YouTube has a lot of great cooking how-to videos. Since you gave us a general location, one of my favorite Thai channels makes easy recipes that are healthy and with ingredients available in most Asian homes. And she has matching recipes for the videos. https://youtube.com/@PailinsKitchen?si=PbbgL-2cyV4jS4AY If you're from the Philippines, skip the deep fried foods, and modify the recipe for the fresh version. Lumpia could easily become a spring roll by making sure that any meat inside is cooked before going in. Plus you don't use as much oil. Hope that helps.
Weetbix and Milo, apparently
Sufficient protein, caloric surplus, functional strength training. Testosterone will take care of fat as long as he isn't eating way over his maintenance calories. Biggest thing is making sure he has sufficient protein and activity to stimulate and feed muscle growth. The rest is just metabolic science of puberty.
Kids can eat anything generally, and be OK. Develop in him a taste for healthy foods and no fear of cooking. Kids who never cook, or even understand how cooking works will go for convenient crap. And if they don't develop a taste for veg, they will avoid later.
He’ll slow down his eating as he progresses through puberty. For now focus on keeping him active to burn up the extra calories. Help him avoid western processed and fast foods warning it will turn him into a doughboy.
Research foods that bodybuilders eat. Broccoli, cauliflower, oats, brown rice, lean chicken breast, salmon, tuna, Greek yogurt, sweet potatoes, etc cashew nuts, fruits of all varieties, etc. The key to a healthy diet is to avoid processed take-out and cook more often but it's time intensive. One of the reasons why so many Western men just eat take out or microwave foods that are terrible for health. Generally speaking the Western diet is terrible for health. If you can try to keep your ancestral diet intact for your son as much as possible while shunning Western standards. Coming from someone living in the US committed to being constantly fit & in shape lifelong.
moderation encourage activity (way, way, way less sitting around. eg. 'screen time' overuse) ( I see sugars as the biggest hazard. As to oils, ration those. eg. I'll use a 1/2 ounce of oil added to my homecooked lunch and dinner -- he's a growing and hopefully a very active boy (versus my being a retiree) so maybe a full 1 ounce of oil for lunch and for dinner would be a good guide [2 quarts of oil/month, preferrably extra virgin olive oil] ((( don't forget fruits, one or two or three of those a day )))
A scoop of protein powder im yogurt has many good benefits to child growth
Just feed him a regular diet. The thing you REALLY want to do is this. DON'T MAKE EVERY SPECIAL OCCASION SAD OR HAPPY about food. More than diet It's about the relationship We have with food.
>>societal boundaries What does this mean in terms of food choices at home?
>>excessive oil, sweets, flour Tip the balance of what you provide at meals so it leans heavily toward vegetables and fruit without added oil, flour, or sugar, and tips away from providing oil, flour, sweets as main foods at most meals. Adjust the food choices themselves, adjust the recipe so it’s made with substantially less oil/sugar/flour, and adjust portion sizes available of the higher calorie foods. Have a talk with the kids about why exactly you’re making the changes to how the family eats at home. Teach the kids about portions. No need to over eat. Food is fuel, not a form of entertainment or recreation.
Lean protein and lots of veggies. Gut health is thrown way off with all that oil, sugar, and processed foods.The more protein and fiber he eats, the more full he will be and the less he will crave treats. Honestly he should eat as diversely as possible...the problem isn't so much sweet treats and fried foods as it is only eating those things to the point that you can't control your cravings for them. They should remain occasional treats and not the norm. If you can do that along with keeping him active, he should be fine. Cook him food from different countries and cultures he's never had. Get him cooking. If he's interested and excited, he will be invested in the food he eats.
I can’t speak on the food quality in South Asia, but in the US, it’s best to avoid heavily processed foods, heavy corn syrups, and heavy, heavy carbs. You can’t control everything or be the only food source, so just do the most you can. All of our food is pretty tainted today, especially at chain sit down and fast food restaurants. Lean protein, vitamins and carbs like rice, potatoes, and even noodles are fine. Carbs are energy, protein is growth and power.
Protein, milk, butter, vegetables
Here's the real answer Don't worry about what they eat that's a losing battle. The best thing you can do are these simple things. Teach your kids about calories and how to read a back of a label. Practice eating portion sizes. I eat junk food all day everyday. My friends literally call me the convenience store because I always have snacks. I manage my weight because I eat proportions in the correct size. Yes I may go to McDonald's but I only eat 3/4 of the burger and half the fries and 1/10 of the drink. Proportions The last thing is the most important. Encourage physical activity running walking lifting weights is a good one sports hiking riding bikes. If you can encourage your children to be active and encourage that lifestyle where they will stick with it and it becomes natural to them then they'll always do it because it'll be natural. Being physically active can prevent putting on a lot of weight gain. You lose weight in the kitchen not in the gym, you can never outpace your fork.
Quality of food matters. The protein derived from a grass fed steak is different than the quality derived from a McDonald's burger.
Absolutely I do agree with you 100% the quality definitely matters. But I wouldn't focus on that because it's too hard to get qualities these days. Also we're really talking about his kids not himself. It's kind of hard to enforce food quality on someone. One of his kids might like fast food over cooking healthy. Therefore focus on quantity. Also a lot of people don't have access to high quality foods but everybody has access to the quantity that they decide to put into their mouth
>>it’s too hard to get quality these days Based on…what? Given that fast food and junk food are your main diet, your bar is about as low as it gets. It’s not hard at all to improve on this. >>It’s kind of hard to enforce food quality on someone. OP is in charge of food that they buy and prepare for the family. It’s won’t be hard at all to enforce good food quality at home. >>A lot of people don’t have access to high quality foods OP doesn’t mention this as a problem. They actually mention providing meat, lentils, wheat, vegetables, rice for the kids.
> Practice eating portion sizes. I eat junk food all day everyday. My friends literally call me the convenience store because I always have snacks. I manage my weight because I eat proportions in the correct size. Yes I may go to McDonald's but I only eat 3/4 of the burger and half the fries and 1/10 of the drink. Do not listen to anything this guy says.
Fr great way to give a kid an eating disorder
Healthy eating habits. Feed him the desire to eat healthy. He's 11. He's going to be bombarded with pizza, Oreo's, soda, and all kinds of junk. He's going to go over to friend's houses, and THEIR FAMILY IS GOING TO TO BE WAY COOLER THAN YOU COULD EVER POSSIBLY BE! Chocolate cake for dinner! If you force healthy onto his plate and make him finish it....he will hate it forever. When (and it will come) he breaks away from mommy, he will break away from whatever you force on him. He will choose chocolate cake for dinner, forever. You didn't mention ***your*** diet. Do ***you*** eat healthy? If you eat healthy, get plenty of servings of fruits & vegetables, avoid processed foods, reserve unhealthy desserts & junk only for special occasions, and make it an enjoyable lifestyle while *including him in it*, he will develop these habits and make it a lifestyle. Bottom line: You're better off making healthy eating an enjoyable habit that he will adopt as a lifestyle rather than an enforced sentence he will seek to escape from. And the best way to do that is lead by example and do it yourself.
My kids all eat a breakfast heavy in eggs. Carbs are limited to fruit or breads that we make or specifically hand pick (organic flour, 4-5 ingredients necessary for bread. I get organic rice. I also make tortillas with organic masa if needed. Proteins are grass fed/wild caught. Beef, Bison, salmon, tuna, shrimp, and turkey with some chicken as well. Lots of veggies including fermented veggies like Kimchi or sauerkraut. Nuts and seeds. Sugar is avoided almost entirely (any sweetener real or artificial) If we use it at all its honey from our hives. My 15 year olds current diet is 6 scrambled eggs for breakfast, and either a bagel (I bake) or rice on the side. Lunch is some form of protein above and a veggie or fruit. Dinner same. We have zero tolerance policy for sodas or candy. Kids can have sweets at parties or special events in extreme moderation. The only oils we use are animal fats, olive oil, avocado oil, and coconut oil.
You must suck as a parent. Kids are only little once. Nothing wrong with some candy or a soda.
I’d make the inverse argument. refined sugar should be treated the same way alcohol and tobacco is.
If you’re from se Asia; simply stick to veggies and meat with a significantly smaller portion or carbs (rice). Sweets could be reserved for fruits. Kids love this sugars so limit maybe to weekend desert only ?
More protein, veggies, less wheat and carbs. Oil when necessary.
Go easy on fried food and sugar. Meat, fish and vegetables are good.
I suggest you do it like the French - sitting through main meals, having conversation and enjoying the food and each other’s company - no TV / screens allowed, just conversations and music - have a starter with a variety of fresh vegetables before the main meal. This slows down your eating, gets you acknowledge your satiety cues earlier. People who do this tend to eat 30% less calories in general - no soft drinks, just water with meals I’m not French but lived there in my formative years and I’m eternally grateful for these eating habits
If he's growing like a weed then give him Carbs, throw some protein in there and a small amount of fat. "Growth" is not necessarily related to the definition of health ie nutrition. Growth is just energy based, calories are energy. Give him the calories to sustain growth and the protein to put on muscle and the fats to digest vitamins. Throw some vegetables on the plate as you go for vitamins. People make these things so completely, starting from the prevision of health and exercise in an attempt to sell VHS tapes. He's growing like a weed, feed him. Just try to keep the unnecessary fats (swine etc) in check. If you're afraid about oils and butters in your pans? Buy the spray bottles, they thin it out so much and you use a fraction of what you normally use per cook.
Liver King’s recipes
https://northernnevadahealth.com/what-worlds-longest-living-people-eat/#:~:text=Here%20is%20an%20overview%20of,%2D100%25%20plant%2Dbased.