Notes for Healthy Kids Quotes

“Being a parent is an opportunity; we must not let it pass. There’s plenty of time to be friends later. For now, be a parent; lead, guide.”
― Rujuta Diwekar, Notes for Healthy Kids

“when children are really small, they want to sweep the floor, swab it, and do saaf-safai as a game, because activity is really attractive and natural to children. Then, over time, they realise that they are growing up in a feudal environment or that it’s not cool to do your own tasks yourself. Basically, they learn organically that you shouldn’t move your body much if you are rich enough to pay someone else to do things for you.”
― Rujuta Diwekar, Notes for Healthy Kids

“and plays on your vulnerabilities — you are not smart or strong or tall enough. Does it claim to be rich in a nutrient or have extra doses of a nutrient? Iron, fibre, protein, vitamin D? Textbook nutritionism (read previous chapter or ask your parents about it once they have read it). Is it giving you a free toy for buying the product or a chance to win an iPhone or an all-expenses paid foreign trip? Illegal in a lot of countries where governments are active in protecting children from the cheap and unethical marketing practices of food companies. Does your favourite movie star or cricketer endorse the product? Truth be told, you are only engaged as a brand ambassador of junk food when you have a fit and agile body. Essentially, it means that you have had the mental and physical discipline to stay away from the very food that you are endorsing. And to tell you a secret, the celebs won’t even consume it on the day of the shoot; they”
― Rujuta Diwekar, Notes for Healthy Kids

“Over the years, i have seen my clients, friends and even family torture their children over food, only to be tortured in return. What was once a joy and an expression of love has turned into a chore.”
― Rujuta Diwekar, Notes for Healthy Kids

“Bramhanda to pinda and vice versa, as the Upanishads explain — all that you see in an individual is a reflection of all that there is in the universe or his environment.”
― Rujuta Diwekar, Notes for Healthy Kids

“If you are hungry post dinner, a glass of milk with freshly powdered nuts, kesar and sugar or jaggery is a great meal, which allows you to have something sweet but doesn’t stimulate you or disturb the natural hormonal cycle and leave you with disturbed sleep.”
― Rujuta Diwekar, Notes for Healthy Kids

“The three pillars for protein synthesis and assimilation are a) frequent and timely meals (those recesses and meal breaks are there for a reason), b) activity and play (especially lost games that challenge the full body strength like kho-kho, langdi, even kandaphodi where you learn to jump over each other’s bodies) and c) regulated, early bedtime. You get these three in place, you get the protein, fuel their growth and keep them disease-free. The rest is just bakwas.”
― Rujuta Diwekar, Notes for Healthy Kids

“Kids who eat ‘boring’ dinners, and eat them early, grow the fastest and stay the strongest.”
― Rujuta Diwekar, Notes for Healthy Kids

“Banana is the handiest, easiest and fastest-acting medicine for hunger, btw.”
― Rujuta Diwekar, Notes for Healthy Kids

“If you came back saying that your friend is going to the US so even you want to go, your parents told you to go to hell. Today, they are looking at EMI options for Miami Disney World.”
― Rujuta Diwekar, Notes for Healthy Kids

“A restricted diet is the opposite of a healthy diet. A healthy diet is a diverse, local (familiar) diet, rich in its nutrient profile and taste; that way it aids in diversity of gut bacteria too.”
― Rujuta Diwekar, Notes for Healthy Kids

“Nutritionism along with nutrition transition leads us to believe that the only way to get enough protein is to eat meat, eggs or gulp down shakes.”
― Rujuta Diwekar, Notes for Healthy Kids

“Courage is not the absence of fear but the ability to overcome it, is the pop version of the same thing.”
― Rujuta Diwekar, Notes for Healthy Kids

“As for all of you who are worried about the hormones in milk and cruelty towards the calf, buy from small farms who look after their cows. And if we had been taught about farming and the basics of agriculture in school, then we would know that if the calf drinks all the milk that the cow produces, it could actually harm him. If you ever visit a farm and observe while a calf drinks off the mother, after a while the cow will push the calf away. This is simply to protect the calf. When it comes to a lactating cow, it’s always two udders for the calf and two for the farmer’s family; the kids will even drink it straight from the udders. This was, and is, a non-cruel, non-harming method for all involved. Indian and African communities knew a thing or two about sustainability long before the word was invented. The ‘untouched by hand’ milk comes from all four udders, so your ‘hygiene’ is coming at the cost of cruelty to the animal.”
― Rujuta Diwekar, Notes for Healthy Kids