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Sarah Remmer, RD

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Raise your hand if you’ve got a “beige food”

Raise your hand if you’ve got a “beige food”-loving kid 🙋🏻‍♀️🍞

What I mean by “beige food” is white, starchy carbohydrate-rich foods such as bread, pasta, crackers, or rice. Guess what? I am raising both hands high because, although I’m a dietitian mom, I have 3 kids who have gone through beige food phases (and still do, on and off). Am I stressed or frustrated about it? Not even a little bit. Here’s why…

🥖 It's totally normal for kids to love white, starchy foods above and beyond other foods. These foods are often soft, neutral-tasting and uniform in texture, which appeal to kids’ palates.
🥯 These foods are actually quite nutrient-rich! In particular, wheat-based starchy foods like bread and pasta not only provide fuel and energy for kids, but they are also a source of dietary fibre and protein (if you are serving whole wheat or whole grain varieties) and are enriched with essential vitamins and minerals like iron, thiamin, riboflavin and folic acid (if serving a white version). This means that contrary to what you might think or hear, these foods are in fact nourishing. Learn more about wheat nutrition from my friends over at @whataboutwheat
🥖 They are affordable, accessible and versatile. These foods offer busy families so many easy and nourishing meal options, not to mention that they are widely available and accessible for most. Speaking of easy meal ideas, I have a blog post featuring 80+ bento-box lunch ideas for school-aged kids here if you’re interested: https://www.sarahremmer.com/bento-box-lunch-ideas/
🍞It’s often just a phase. Remember that it’s often totally normal for kids to go through fussy eating phases where they gravitate towards only a short list of foods for a brief period of time. As long as you’re doing your job as the feeder (providing a variety of foods at appropriate intervals), you’re golden 😉

Allow your child to do their job of eating by choosing which foods they enjoy (and the amounts) out of what is served. Do your best to ride the waves of random and unpredictable childhood eating, and try to focus on creating a positive mealtime environment.
#whataboutwheat #canadianwheat

[AD] Ready to make your new favourite chocolate ch

[AD] Ready to make your new favourite chocolate chip cookies?? 🍪 Trust me – make a double batch because they’re going to fly off of the baking sheet before you’ve even had a chance to try one yourself. They are SO yummy, soft and tender… exactly how a chocolate chip cookie should be🙌🏻

As a registered dietitian I love finding creative ways to incorporate locally sourced nourishing ingredients into my baked goods, like…LENTILS! Lentils are packed full of plant-based protein, dietary fibre and vitamins and minerals. They are also budget-friendly, SO versatile and accessible.

Not only have I included Canadian lentils, but I’ve also used other Canadian-grown ingredients like wheat flour, eggs, butter, and oats. Visit Canadian Food Focus (canadianfoodfocus.org) to learn more about nourishing Canadian ingredients, from farm to fork !

Makes 12 large cookies

Ingredients:
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• ½ cup brown sugar (packed)
1 egg (room temperature)
• ¾ cup cooked red lentils
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup flour (all-purpose or whole wheat are both fine)
• ½ cup rolled or quick-cooking oats
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/3 cup dark chocolate chips (or chunks)
• Coarse sea salt for sprinkling on top (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 375F and line a baking sheet
2. Cook your red lentils as per the package (or as I’ve described above)
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together wet ingredients (butter, brown sugar, egg, lentils, vanilla)
4. To that bowl, add the dry ingredients (flour, oats, baking soda and powder, cinnamon and salt)/ Fold those into the wet ingredients (do not over-mix).
5. Fold in the chocolate chips
6. With a spoon, scoop out about ¼ cups worth of batter (for one cookie) and evenly distribute one dozen onto the cookie sheet. Top with a tiny bit of coarse sea salt if desired.
7. Bake at 375 for about 15 minutes, checking at the 13-minute mark (as some ovens are hotter than others). You want your cookies slightly under-baked. Enjoy!

#lovelentils #lovecdnfood #lovecdnfarms #lovecdnrecipes

Have you used these terms to describe foods with y

Have you used these terms to describe foods with your kids? 🙋🏻‍♀️ If so, don’t feel bad. I have too! And transparently, I still catch myself sometimes. But I’ve really really made an effort not to, for a few reasons:

- These terms have been created by or co-opted by diet culture, in order to shame or place guilt on a person for eating them or wanting to eat them.
- these terms tend to create unwarranted fear and anxiety for kids around food
- they are thrown around arbitrarily and often unfairly, creating value labels for foods (which can become self-labels too)
- they’re abstract terms that don’t even make sense to kids and just cause confusion
- they perpetuate diet culture, weight stigma and fatphobia
- they’re unnecessary.

Instead, just call foods by their name. Serve a variety of them. Create a positive eating environment. Talk about the physical properties of foods and explore them in a positive way. Encourage intuitive eating ❤️

For more on food neutrality, see this blog post here:

https://www.sarahremmer.com/what-is-food-neutrality-and-why-is-it-important-for-your-child

Girls as young as 6 years old are showing signs of

It’s back to school time and as a dietitian and

It’s back to school time and as a dietitian and mom of 3, I’ve partnered with my friends at @whataboutwheat to make your lunch-packing experience as seamless and under-complicated (is that a word?!) as possible! In other words, let’s give ourselves a break as parents and keep school lunches simple 🙌🏻

Enter: Sarah’s rule of 4!

I always include 4 key items in my child’s lunch, and then after that, fill in the gaps with extras if needed. My rule of 4 is as follows:

#1: Something with colour (aka a fruit and/or vegetable). These can be fresh, frozen or canned (whatever works best for you). Fruits and veggies contain dietary fibre, vitamins and minerals and they add a punch of colour to your child’s lunch 🍓

#2: Something for energy: Carbohydrate-rich starchy foods like bread, tortillas, and pasta are not only going to provide your kids with fuel and energy, but also dietary fibre, vitamins, minerals AND … pleasure (let’s be honest). Whether they’re whole grain or white, they’re ALL good. In Canada, white, wheat-based foods are always fortified with essential micronutrients like iron, niacin, riboflavin and folic acid, so your kiddos aren’t missing out! 🍞

#3: Something with staying power: I always include a protein-rich food to help my kiddos feel fuller longer and extend their energy levels. Things like leftover or deli meat, Greek yogurt, cheese, hummus, or seeds are some of my go-tos 🧀

#4: Something snacky: This can be a granola bar, crackers, dried fruit bar, a cheese string, homemade energy bite or muffin 🥨

Oh, and as a bonus, I often throw in something sweet, just because!

To fill in the gaps, you can add more of any of the above (for example, I often include at least one fruit + one vegetable) and maybe an extra starchy carb or protein-rich food. It’s up to you! 😉

Don’t forget to get your kiddos involved in some of the decision-making, because this will help to nurture their relationship with food, and increase the likelihood that their lunch will actually get eaten. 😘

#whataboutwheat #canadianwheat #canadianfarmers #backtoschool #schoollunch

As a dietitian Mom I want you to know that you’r

As a dietitian Mom I want you to know that you’re not the only one feeling confused and overwhelmed in the grocery store. There are so many choices, and it can be hard to know what to focus on when it comes to providing the best nutrition for your family. Not to mention all of the misinformed and conflicting messages that we’re bombarded with in the media every day and food and nutrition. Oh, and on top of that, just how pricey food is these days! 🤑

One thing I want you to be very wary of is the “non-GMO” stamp that you may see on food packages. This stamp can be very misleading, as it’s sometimes found on foods that do not and would not ever contain GM crops, to begin with. It perpetuates diet culture and creates fear and confusion around GMOs – not what we need! 😓

Genetic modification is just one form of plant biotechnology which helps to create better crops that are good for farmers, the environment and consumers. GMO stands for Genetically modified organisms. They refer to crops that have been developed through genetic engineering or plant biotechnology, allowing scientists to introduce a desirable trait (or eliminate a harmful trait) in a crop – let’s say enhanced nutrition, insect resistance, disease resistance, or drought tolerance. It can help to decrease food waste and has helped make agriculture more productive, efficient and sustainable🌱

Now, whether you choose to purchase GM foods or not is completely up to you and your unique situation. No judgment either way! Those who choose to avoid GM foods can purchase organic, but you can rest assured that GM foods are as safe as those developed through traditional breeding 💕

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