How to Raise a Mindful Eater: 8 Powerful Principles for Transforming Your Child's Relationship with Food

by Maryann Jacobsen

Raising a Mindful Eater in a Mindless Eating World

Whether your child is obsessed with sweets, a big (or small) eater, or you simply want to avoid future eating problems, you are in the right place. In How to Raise a Mindful Eater, family nutrition expert Maryann Jacobsen shows you step-by-step how to nurture your child's emerging relationship with food. The book pinpoints 8 Powerful Principles that give you the best shot at raising a mindful eater, someone who listens to their body, eats for nourishment and enjoyment, and naturally eats in moderation.

The book will teach you how to:


Encourage an Internal Approach to Eating: Discover how to structure meals, set limits, help children eat based on internal cues of hunger and fullness, and pay attention while eating.
Balance Food for Nourishment and Enjoyment: Find lasting ways to make nutrition rewarding, sweets less desirable, and eating well a pleasurable experience.
Teach Body Appreciation and Self Care: Uncover secrets to teaching body appreciation, dealing with weight issues, combating the media's Thin Ideal, and nurturing self care.
Ensure Mental and Emotional Happiness: Escape barriers to raising mindful eaters such as stress, poor self-regulation, dealing with difficult feelings, and a lack of connection between parent and child."

Genres: Parenting, Nonfiction, Food

213 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2016

About the author

Maryann Jacobsen is a registered dietitian, family nutrition expert and independent author. She blogs at MaryannJacobsen.com, and is author of several books including From Picky to Powerful, How to Raise a Mindful eater, and her latest, My Body's Superpower: The Girls' Guide to Growing Up Healthy. She is co-author of Fearless Feeding .

Maryann is determined to break down the health-related barriers families face, which she believes has more to do with mindset and missing information, than time and skill. Her books help fill in these missing gaps so healthy habits are enjoyable and doable for the whole family.

Reviews

[Katharine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a FANTASTIC resource for all parents. I’m an RD (and mom!) and a huge advocate of Ellyn Satter’s division of responsibility with feeding- this book not only supports those principles, but does it in such a relaxed, easy-to-understand manner- and is just as packed with excellent supporting research and sources. I think this book actually does a better job of breaking down difficult topics, like weight stigma and the food-emotion connection, and it’s very compatible with the Intuitive Eating/HAES paradigm. I would recommend it to any parent or RD who works with children/families. I really enjoyed reading it, and I picked up lots of new tidbits to use personally and professionally!

[Kate Pratt · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few strong aspects, but most points were from more compellingly written original sources. In short, this just wasn’t as useful as I was hoping it would be.

I also strongly disagreed with a few points.

[Eszter · Rating 5 out of 5]

very practical

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

While we were already doing a lot of the things the book recommended, there were definitely still things I learned. Good principles for both kids and adults.