Staying ‘Well Nourished’ with Georgia Harding

Tracey:
How do you get your kids to eat healthy and stay well nourished? According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ latest national health survey, 94% of Aussie kids aren’t eating the recommended two daily serves of fruit and five of vegetables. Even more alarming, more than a quarter of Aussie kids aged five to 17 are now obese or overweight. So, how do we get our kids to eat the right foods?

Tracey:
Hello, I’m Tracey Challenor and in this Life Education podcast, we go on a search for answers to those questions. I’m joined by Georgia Harding, naturopath, mother of two, author of several eBooks on healthy eating and creator of the popular website Well Nourished. Hi Georgia. Thanks for joining us.

Georgia:
Oh, thanks for having me, Tracey.

Tracey:
Well, let’s get into the nitty gritty of healthy eating. Most of us learned about the healthy eating pyramid at school, which basically says that 70% of our diet should be plant-based foods like vegetables, fruits and grains. Why are so many people struggling to get enough fruit and veg in their diet?

Georgia:
Oh gee. I think there are several reasons really. I think that obviously time seems to be one of the biggest pressures that most parents experience. A lot of working families and they turn to convenience foods because they feel that they’re quicker and easier, but I think that if they know how to cook and that’s one thing that I think we’ve lost over the generations is that ability to throw a meal together quickly and easily. Because we do have access to these convenience foods that in the past my mother in law for example, would have to have cooked for her eight children-

Tracey:
Wow.

Georgia:
Night after night because she had no other option. Whereas we have options these days. So, you know, as I said, we’ve had this growing disconnect. I think food marketers have done a great job at telling us that cooking is hard and time consuming when I personally don’t believe that, that’s the case. And that’s kind of one of my missions with Well Nourished is to really teach people that cooking can be simple and quick and easy.

Georgia: There is some planning and some organisation around cooking and eating well. But you know, there also is with exercising regularly or getting to work on time and getting kids out of the door. We manage those things because we plan for those things. So, I think that if we can learn to plan for cooking and eating well, that, it becomes more possible and much more convenient.

Tracey:
And it’s worth it in the long run, isn’t it?

Georgia:
Absolutely. I think that the more we cook and eat well I think the more healthy we are, which means more productivity, less time off work and school. The rebound effects I think are long lasting for that for that time investment that you make at night perhaps.

Tracey:
Georgia, we’ve got so many fad diets now and all these social media influencers and celebrities. There just seems to be a lot of misinformation about nutrition these days. As a naturopath, does that frustrate you?

Georgia:
Oh absolutely. Yeah there is. People have just really lost touch with just the basic information that they need to eat well. Generally, when there is someone talking about food and perhaps trying to push a particular agenda, there’s always a sales pitch attached and people have to bear that in mind, really. One thing I know for sure is there’s no one diet that suits all. We’re all very individual. We all have individual requirements. Really, the most important thing that all of these diets really push at the end of the day, they all agree that we need to be eating more fruit and vegetables. And that’s the message that you really need to take from these diets. And as I said, just understand that the rest, they’re trying to make money from them unfortunately. That basics of what we should be eating has really been lost along the way. And yeah, it’s not as difficult as what a lot of these marketing companies, a lot of these celebrities are telling us it is. Really, we need to be just eating food as close to its natural, whole food state as possible. And if we do that, we’re in a pretty good place I think, health wise.

Tracey:
And your website, Well Nourished has certainly struck a chord with a lot of people. You’ve built a real community. What inspired you to share your passion for health, food and healing?

Georgia:
Yeah, well I worked as a naturopath in private practice for many, many years and worked as a lecturer at a couple of universities in Perth actually. I was a little bit frustrated because I was only able to really reach people that could afford to see a naturopath particularly, this was 20 odd years ago so it was a fairly kind of exclusive practice, much more than it is these days, but yeah it did frustrate me that I could only reach the people that could afford to see a naturopath. And I really wanted to share my passion for food and healing with wider community. So, seeing that whole food eating amongst children. My children were kind of almost a bit freaky in a way because they’d go to school with these whole food lunches and they’d be picked on and laughed at. And I can remember my son coming home and saying, “Everyone says I eat grass,” because he had something leafy and green in his lunch box. And yeah. So, I was really motivated just to try and make whole foods normal and to help parents raise whole food loving kids as well.

Tracey:
Oh, your lunches look amazing. I’d love you to come to my place in the morning and pack my school lunches. I need some inspiration. At Life Education we have a big focus on nutrition. Our educators teach children to recognise the difference between everyday foods that we should be eating most of the time and sometimes foods that are okay every now and again. But it is a challenge for parents, isn’t it? You mentioned earlier that relentless junk food marketing that kids are exposed to.

Georgia:
Yeah, it is. It is so tough. And unfortunately, it seems like, as I said with that example before, whole foods have become hippy or you know, unusual to kids. It’s like, unless food is in a packet, a lot of kids don’t recognise it as being something that is edible or palatable. And it’s a real shame, you know? Yeah. The food marketing companies have done an amazing job of brainwashing our kids into eating these foods that they’re producing. And also, convincing parents that they need to buy these foods for their kids and that they’re actually good for their kids which in very few cases they are. So yeah, it’s a real shame.

Tracey:
So true. Well filling the shopping trolley is a bit of a minefield, too. You try to choose the healthy options, but so many foods have added salt and sugar. Parents are busy. We can’t spend two hours in the supermarket reading every single label. Do you have any practical tips on how to get the healthiest foods into the trolley and what should we really avoid?

Georgia:
Yeah, look, I always advise people to shop the periphery at the supermarket.

Tracey:
Okay.

Georgia:
By that I mean you walk into most supermarkets, they’re all laid out in a fairly similar manner. You’re walking through the fruit and vegetable department and the fresh meat department. Obviously, that’s where I’m hoping that you’re filling the majority of your trolley. Then you scoot across the back and perhaps pick up some dairy and cheese and those kinds of things and then toilet paper on your way out. On the far side. And then you know, obviously you’re going to be turning up the aisles for olive oil and perhaps some spices and condiments and nuts and seeds and stuff.

Georgia:
But yeah. Look, with picking, like looking at labels, I usually recommend that people perhaps pick a product that they’re consuming a lot of and really put that under the microscope. So, say for example, a family that are buying several loaves of bread each week and they’re wanting to make the best possible choice in bread, you know? Yeah. Spending five minutes just working out what the best choices are and that are available to them in their local supermarket. I have a brand of yoghurt that I love. Natural, has no added sugar, has no additives or nasty preservatives or anything. And that’s what I go with each and every week. So, once you do that groundwork, it’s not time consuming. But yeah, to start with there is a little bit of groundwork.

Tracey:
You just sort of lock in your grocery template if you like.

Georgia:
Yeah, exactly. Absolutely.

Tracey:
Breakfast cereal does my head in because I try to buy the sugar free options, but sometimes you get home and you taste it and you try it and it’s just so revolting. You can taste how much manufactured sugar has been added and corn syrup and things like that, which we know are not great for us.

Georgia:
No, that’s right. Yeah. Yeah. The breakfast cereal, again, we’ve been marketed to that breakfast has to be cereal. And I always challenged that mindset in that breakfast can be whatever you like really.

Tracey:
Bowl of fruit and some oats, I guess.

Georgia:
Absolutely. But even you can stretch it even further. I can remember a young fellow that came to see me as a patient and his mum. He had a lot of health problems and really had no appetite for food and his mum was really concerned. He particularly really disliked breakfast. Hated all cereals and he hated toast and all the normal things that we would think of for breakfast. And one thing he loved eating though with soup. So, I just told his mum to make up big pots of soup, freeze them in jars, get one out each night before you go to bed and the next morning just heat up a bowl of soup. And it was amazing how quickly his health improved just from getting in a few extra serves of vegetables and he just actually having a good start to the day he really started to thrive. So yeah. I know a lot of people really struggle with that mindset change because we are so educated to think that breakfast has to be eggs, toast, cereal, those kinds of things. But it doesn’t. Leftovers are great for brekkie.

Tracey:
What a great idea. Who says you can’t have soup for breakfast?

Georgia:
Absolutely.

Tracey:
Well, the Life Education program helps kids make the connection between eating a healthy diet and how that affects their bodies. Their ability to concentrate, their mood and energy levels. Has that been your experience, Georgia? That when children understand the reason for good nutrition, they’re more likely to want to make good choices?

Georgia:
Oh, absolutely. Food education is just absolutely paramount to children actually making good food choices. And I think rather than a lot of parents attempt to tell their kids to eat something healthy because it’s good for them. And really, unless a child has been really unwell in their lifetime, they don’t understand the concept of healthy. And a lot of kids don’t want to be good, they’re not interested in what’s good for them. So, I always recommend that parents appeal to their kids’ sweet spot. So, kind of almost marketing to their children the way that the food marketers do. If I was trying to tell my son, like when I was trying to convince him to eat leafy greens for example, he wanted to be better at sport and faster and stronger. So, they’re the words that I would actually use when I was explaining foods to him, you know that this spinach is going to make you super, super strong. Super fast when you play footy.

Georgia:
My daughter on the other hand, very vain. Cares a lot about the way she looks. Always loved her long golden locks. So, anything that I spoke to in terms of it being, she’s not a fish lover so I always talk in terms of fish being awesome for keeping her hair nice and shiny and healthy. And her skin clear. And that’s enough to get her over her dislikes of fish most of the time I’d say. Not all of the time, but most of the time.

Tracey:
Trying to make it relatable, isn’t it?

Georgia:
Absolutely. Yeah. You need to find that sweet spot that really matters to the kids.

Tracey:
A lot of parents would be familiar with the daily battle of the school lunchbox. There’s nothing more frustrating than food coming home uneaten. How can parents get their children to enjoy eating healthy food and actually eat what’s being packed in the lunch box? I mean, you talked about some great advice there. Are we packing the wrong things?

Georgia:
Look again, I really aim for whole foods. So, foods that aren’t packaged. My kids’ lunchbox generally has a serve or two of fruit. I always aim to have a couple of serves of vegetables. They enjoy carrot sticks. And vegetables can be however a child likes to eat them. They can be cooked, they can be boiled. Whatever actually is enjoyed the most. It doesn’t have to be a particular way. But I’ll have like a main portion which will be either leftovers or meat and salad roll for example. Or fresh rice paper rolls. And then I usually do have some sort of treat that I have baked myself. And I generally bake in bulk. So, I’ll bake on a weekend for an hour or so and bake a couple of different things and put them in the freezer and they’re packed from frozen.

Georgia:
But to get the kids to actually eat it, there’s a couple of important things. I think that you shouldn’t surprise them with a new food in their lunch boxes. You do need to kind of discuss with them the sorts of things that they want to eat. And again, explaining to them how important fruit and vegetables are. Again, appealing to that sweet spot.

Georgia:
I found that parents who join forces with say a friend’s parent to pack similar things really helps as well for really resistant kids. Particularly when they’re little. So sometimes I would talk to one of my kids’ best mate’s parents and say, “Hey, how about we pack a carrot each week? The kids can compare the size of their carrot and they can eat their carrots together.” So, using that peer pressure.

Georgia:
Also getting teachers on side is important. Asking your teachers when the kids are little, the kids love their lunchboxes to be noticed by their teachers if they’ve been looking delicious and healthy. I found as they get older, they don’t like this so much. So, that’s not something you’d employ as they’re older. They like to kind of fit in a little bit more if they’re older.

Georgia:
But the other thing is that I set expectations for my kids. They know what’s in their lunch box when they go to school. And I do expect them to eat what I packed because I hate food waste and I spend good money on the food that I pack. What they don’t eat at school, they will eat in the car on the way home within reason. Obviously, if it’s gone soggy or gross in some way, then I’m not going to force them to eat something like that. But you know, yeah, I have expectations around food and I think that helps as well.

Tracey:
I once found an uneaten lunch that had been there for six weeks over the school holidays.

Georgia:
Oh my gosh.

Tracey:
It wasn’t pretty.

Georgia:
No.

Tracey:
Getting back to the magic two for five. Two pieces of fruit and five veggies a day is the recommendation to get the nutrients and fibre that we need, et cetera. What tips do you have for getting more vegetables onto the dinner table and making them more appealing for kids? I mean, we can’t make broccoli look like pizza, so what do we do?

Georgia:
There’s many, many things you can do. Obviously, role modelling, eating vegetables yourself is super critical. And there’s a lot of research around families that eat together, kids in those families are much, much more likely to have a more diverse palette and to eat more fruit and vegetables. So, that I think is really important. Eating as many meals as possible, actually sitting down at the table and eating them with your kids is just paramount as far as I’m concerned.

Georgia:
Look at cooking vegetables in different ways and adding flavour. A plain piece of broccoli like you said, is just not appealing to anyone, even to a vegetable lover like myself. But you know, seasoning it, adding a dressing or a sauce or even just a little bit of olive oil or butter and a tiny pinch of sea salt can change the way that a vegetable tastes.

Georgia:
I always say to parents, “Just don’t give up.” I know with my kids, say if I roast pumpkin, they won’t eat it but if I make pumpkin soup, lasagna with pumpkin in it or a curry, they’re completely fine with, they love pumpkin soup but yet they won’t eat it roasted. So, you know, presenting vegetables in different ways. If your child doesn’t like it the first time you present it to them one way, try a different way.

Georgia:
I’ve had a friend stay with a very young toddler and I actually was recipe testing for some baby food recipes actually. And I roasted some sweet potato with a little bit of cinnamon and olive oil and just oven baked it, little diced pieces. And I gave it to her baby to eat and she said, “Oh no, he doesn’t eat sweet potato.” Anyway, he proceeded to eat like platefuls of the sweet potato. And you know, we worked out that she’d only ever kind of mashed and steamed it before. She’d never actually roasted it and added in any nice flavours to it.

Georgia:
So yeah, presenting food in as many different ways as possible. You can hide a lot of vegetables in lots of different dishes, spaghetti Bolognese is one of the most common I suppose. But I always advise that as well as hiding is to get that extra nutrition in, it’s also important to present whole vegetables in their kind of whole recognisable form as well because you can’t hide forever.

Tracey:
No. Once they’re teenagers, you can’t still be hiding the zucchini in the chocolate slice can you?

Georgia:
Absolutely. That’s exactly right. And they have to learn to enjoy vegetables in their whole form. And just don’t give up. I’ll say to parents, “You would never give up on teaching your kids to read or write or toilet train. So, please just don’t give up on them eating healthy food.” The more healthy whole foods and fruits and vegetables they eat, the more their palette will actually start to enjoy those foods and it just becomes easier and easier and easier.

Tracey:
That’s right. And nutrition is so important. As we all know, a diet high in fruit and vegetables could help prevent major health conditions such as heart disease and diabetes, obesity, even certain cancers.

Georgia:
Yeah.

Tracey:
Are you hopeful that as a community we can get more kids on a path to a healthier diet and swerve away from this junk food addiction?

Georgia:
Yeah. Look, I think we just need to work together. Education is just so important, both parental education and educating the kids. Community programs like what you’re doing at Life Education, are just absolutely critical. And the power of peer groups. Getting into schools and as I said, giving kids a food education is just so important. It’s what sets them up to be able to have good health long-term. So yeah, as well as literacy programs, we do need programs and education around food. Kids just don’t know how to eat healthily unless they’re taught by either their parents or school. Yeah. So, education is key, I really believe.

Tracey:
Absolutely. Food literacy, I like that.

Georgia:
Yeah.

Tracey:
Well Georgia, thank you for joining me and sharing your expertise and practical tips on healthy eating, and also how to get kids on board with nutrition. I’m not actually the chef in my family, but you’ve inspired me to get a bit more creative with some of my own recipes.

Georgia:
Thanks so much for having me. I hope it helps. I just think that what you’re doing is fabulous with Life Education – it’s just such a great program.

Tracey:

Thanks Georgia

Tracey:
My guest today was Georgia Harding – naturopath and author of a series of eBooks on healthy eating. For more inspiration, have a look at Georgia’s beautiful website, Well Nourished. I’m Tracey Challenor and you’ve been listening to the Life podcast podcast series. If you enjoyed this podcast, become a regular subscriber on your favourite podcast platform and feel free to share it with a friend.

Until next time. Thanks for joining us.