9: Plant Based Eating for Kids with Kelly Jones, MS, RD, CSSD

Kelly Jones is a board-certified specialist in sports dietetics and owner of Kelly Jones Nutrition, a performance nutrition and nutrition communications consulting company and private practice. As a nationally recognized sports nutrition expert, Kelly’s expertise is highlighted in national media outlets, broadcast television in various markets, and she has appeared on CBS mornings. 

Kelly relates to the need for practical tools that support physical performance and wellness as a former Division-I swimmer, a business owner, and busy, active mom. 
Kelly also founded Student Athlete Nutrition, which provides practical,
evidence-based nutrition programming and resources to student-athletes who lack access to in-house sports dietitians and performance nutrition programs.

In this episode we discuss:

• Kelly's journey to cutting out meat and becoming a flexible plant-based eater
• How she feeds her two boys in a flexible, "plant-based way" and how other parents can talk to kids about plant-based eating without it feeling restrictive
• Nutrients of concern and supplements needed on a plant-based diet
• Plant-based meal and snack ideas, and tips for packing school lunches
• Ways to add in nutrients and optimize absorption of key nutrients with a plant-based diet
• Key pantry staples to keep on hand
• How much protein kids really need, and how to get protein on a plant-based diet, for kids and adults
• How to start eating more plants and plant-based swaps families can make

Transcript

Sarah Schlichter (00:01.274)
Welcome back to the podcast everyone. We have a special guest here today who is actually a good friend and colleague of mine, someone I very much look up to in the field of nutrition. So I will let her go ahead and introduce herself.

Kelly (00:16.312)
Hi everyone, my name is Kelly Jones. I am a board certified sports dietician, but I'm also a mom of two little boys. One just turned seven, the other will be four very soon. And I have found that even though I work with professional athletes and consult with some big corporations, some of my favorite people to connect with are fellow moms and people who are trying to maintain their own high-ish level of fitness, we'll call it.

while also raising active kids and just living busy lives and trying to ensure that everyone's eating well to have the energy to do everything we want to do.

Sarah Schlichter (00:56.824)
Yeah, and I think it's so cool the realm that you cover with professional athletes and high school collegiate athletes, but also this newer, newer to me at least, focused on active kids. So I think that'll be interesting to explore today with some plant-based patterns and how all of that works out. So can you share a little bit about your personal history for becoming a plant-based eater and what that looked like for you?

Kelly (01:13.57)
Yeah, awesome.

Kelly (01:23.438)
Sure, and even the term plant-based, I want everyone to know too that I look at that as a diet based in plants, mostly plants, not necessarily vegan. It can be vegan for some people. feel like there's a big spectrum that plant-based can cover, and I think that's important for people to recognize they can come in open-minded to a conversation like this and see that it can fit into a lot of different lifestyles. But I will say that growing up, I didn't think a whole lot about

the fact that eating something was eating an animal or, you know, just the big picture of how things worked quite as much as most kids don't unless they're taught about it or exposed to it. But I know one thing for sure is I never liked beef, is that it would be steak night and I'd be like, no, I don't want to come to the dinner table. Like it was the one thing that I was just like, I absolutely don't. Or, you know, if we went and, you know, stopped for fast food, I was like, there's no chance I am getting a burger. Like that would never cross my mind. So.

without thinking about the background of it. It's just something I never really enjoyed was the beef side of things. I ate tons of chicken, fish, like my family just did not incorporate a whole lot of, and I introduced it to myself more, I'd say in college as a nutrition student thinking, oh, this is supposed to be good for me. I should probably try it. But it wasn't until grad school where I actually had a roommate who

did understand a lot more about the food system and kind of expose me more to that side of things. We'd started to go to farmer's markets together on the weekends. And I started to read a little bit more about the food system. And just, think my awareness in general of environmental wellness started to develop at that stage of life too. And I started to think more about kind of farm to table, what's happening along the food chain from farm to when food gets on my plate.

Um, and I feel like a lot of people might experience something like that at different points of their life. For me, it was while I was in school for nutrition too. And I had the ability to start reading research papers, not just, you know, a blog or watch a documentary and really truly understand it. And so for me, starting to eat more plant-based at that time became a little bit more of, um, introducing more foods and more variety, having a little bit of thought about the environment, but then also animal welfare too. So, um,

Kelly (03:46.028)
you know, starting to think more, well, if I'm going to eat chicken, want it to be chicken that was pasture raised. And I know that it grew up in a better environment or, know, more certified humane type of things too, even though, you know, I know people can slap labels on everything. I started to learn more about, if I'm going to buy poultry, I want it to come from this farm where I know that the chicken was an occasional life. And I don't think that that needs to matter to everyone, but for me, it started to matter. And that kind of started the process of

also incorporating more plants and eating less of those animal products too. And then I continued to learn more about seafood and some is more sustainable than others. I did have a period of time where I was eating entirely vegan and then learned that it was easier to do before having kids. And I would incorporate eggs and fish here and there, but eat probably 90 to 95 % plant only foods until...

you know, I needed things to be a little bit more convenient and was thinking more about muscle mass and strength and things like that as I aged and just the ease of incorporating more protein for those reasons too. So say it's evolved over time, you know, I first started to think about environmental wellness and animal welfare. I guess at this point we're like 16, 17 years ago and it's taken on different shapes and forms as my life has taken on different phases too.

Sarah Schlichter (05:11.072)
Yeah, and I think it's great that you've been open to that change and not just been so rigid along the way. So now that you have, yeah, and now that you have two boys, I'm curious, I'm sure it's evolved a little bit over those seven years, your oldest just turning seven. What does that look like for them? How do you explain this way of eating? Do they have curiosity towards animal foods? Yeah, I'm curious about what that looks like.

Kelly (05:16.814)
For sure. It's important, I think, for everyone to be open-minded with it,

Kelly (05:25.251)
Yeah.

Kelly (05:36.352)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I don't know that we ever really made it a point to say like we eat this way and we don't eat another way and there's any reason behind it. I just have always, I probably taught them more than I was taught at a young age and I kept just being a dietician about, you know, the process of food getting to your table and understand going to farms and farmers markets, of course, when I wasn't necessarily doing that as a kid. My husband also, I will say,

eats pretty much plant based too, not just because that's what I'm cooking at home, but he has a lot of heart health history with heart attack. His mom had cancer twice. And so he thinks a little bit too more about the potential connection between excessive meat intake and saturated fat and how that could affect his health. So even when we're out at restaurants, he's seeking out more plant-based options too. And it just, I think just feels normal for them.

For Cooper, he's my older one, we would offer things like chicken and turkey here and there when it was available and other people were eating it. And I feel like most toddlers go through a phase where they're just like, absolutely not the texture of that's weird. I don't want anything to do with it or a lot do anyway. And so he was one of those kids that just wasn't into it. And he'd be more likely to just shovel a handful of lentils in his mouth at the age of one than ever go for the chicken.

He was always exposed to eggs and so it was something he liked a lot more when he was younger and will have once in a while now. Fish is, he's never really been a fish guy, but it is offered. He is the type though who has just kind of learned on his own that he understands, well not learned on his own, he's decided for himself that he doesn't want to eat very many animal products. Whereas my younger, I don't know that he fully understands everything yet, but.

he will eat chicken, he will eat turkey, have no problem with it. He doesn't yell at us for eating fish like my older one does. So he like really sees that connection. And I do think that that's something that I did want them when they're at the appropriate age to understand and be able to make that decision. Because for me, it was like, you we eat chicken, I don't think about the fact that it's a chicken when I was younger. We call beef, beef and pork, pork and not the name of the animal. So I just, when Cooper was a certain age, it was okay, you know.

Kelly (07:56.502)
This is a meatball, it's beef, and that is a cow. And I just wanted him to know that so that he could really make that decision for himself. When they're younger, I don't think that you need to do that if that's not important to you. But them not ever coming to a point where they were like, wow, I never realized that's what I was eating and that's something that I care about. So that's just something that he's been aware of. I remember he was not even two years old watching Sesame Street.

and Cookie Monster and Gonger went to the dairy farm and they were milking the cows and he was mortified. He was like, what are they doing to the cow's mom? I was like, well, that's how they get the milk out of the cows. He's like, well, I don't want to drink the milk. And there's, again, you make the decision as a parent, how much does this mean to me? How much weight do I give them and what they're thinking about it? But from then on, I've always just let him remember and recognize this is cow's milk or this is cow's cheese and this is plant milk or plant cheese.

And he eats tons of cheese now and that's not a problem for him. But, you know, I wanted that curiosity to be something that we were honest about our answers to and let him kind of evolve and decide what he wanted to do on his own.

Sarah Schlichter (09:03.428)
So it sounds like you've kind of, like you said, instituted this atmosphere of curiosity. So it's there. If you want to learn about it, we can talk about it. If you want to try it. And it sounds like Cooper, especially if he's like at a birthday party or somewhere, he would just feel comfortable himself maybe choosing the natural plant-based or vegetarian option since he seems to prefer that.

Kelly (09:11.832)
This is...

Kelly (09:22.808)
For sure. Yeah, and I will say like most parties now because he eats cheese, like every party you go to pretty much they're serving pizza at a birthday party, right? So that's not really a problem for him. But we have a great group of friends in our neighborhood where there's like 12 kids. We're spending like every weekend together and we're always, you know, having meals at different people's houses. And when we're at home at my house, if I'm making, you know, nuggets and fries for the kids, I'm doing like Applegate.

chicken because it, the chickens are raised a little bit better, I feel better about it. And then Cooper has his Beyond Tenders because that's what he prefers. And I will say it's exposed to other kids too to be like, let me try a plant nugget. And again, they're then being more curious about some of the plant foods, which is not just, you know, a processed frozen nugget, but other things that we offer too. And then when we're in other places, you know, sometimes I may bring an extra option just in case they don't have something that he's comfortable with. But

For the most part, feel like even if he were not following a more plate-based diet, different kids are picky for different reasons. So I feel like a lot of parents are in tune with that and have other options available sometimes too.

Sarah Schlichter (10:32.983)
Yeah, and it sounds like you've cultivated a very safe environment around it, which is great. He can communicate with you. You can communicate with him. So, yeah, that sounds really helpful. I'm curious now, maybe some of the listeners are kind of wondering, okay, I want my kids to eat more plants in general, but I don't know what to do. What are some go-to plant-based snacks and lunches? If I'm not doing like chicken nuggets or beef sticks in the lunch, like what are some things I could do for my kids?

Kelly (10:40.024)
Buh-bye.

Kelly (11:02.572)
Yeah, so from a meal perspective, I will say we do a lot of peanut butter sandwiches, but I'm very like from a very young age, my kids were eating whole grains and they don't complain about it. And I think it's just a matter of that's what they were always offered. And so we have more like white bread outside the house or sourdough is in a different format. So it's not usually something that they have as a sandwich. So I'll do like

the Ezekiel brand or Food for Life brand or Dave's Power Seed for the bread. And that's five grams of protein per slice, plenty of other nutrients and peanut butter. And then sometimes I'll do like hemp seeds inside. So it's a little added nutrition that kind of just puts them over the edge for certain healthy fats and proteins and things like that. Another thing that they love and actually is really easy to throw in a lunchbox too, if your kid's school is not nut free, is cashew cheese.

So cashew cheese quesadillas, there's like a spreadable cashew cheese from the brand Miocos that we get all the time. We have a Wegmans nearby, so it's easy to get there. And that's one of my kids' favorite things to have. And we get from Trader Joe's, like the corn and wheat tortillas that have a little more protein and then variety in the grain that they're getting too. And then we do the cashew cheese and it's like, make a couple of those, throw them in a lunchbox with sides. Smoothie bowls are big at home.

where it's, okay, let's make sure we have a solid smoothie. It's not just fruit and like almond milk, right? We're doing soy milk in there for the protein as a replacement for dairy milk. We're making sure that we also add in some veggies. And if your kids are not gonna eat a green smoothie, then throw in some cauliflower rice, because it blends up real easy when it's frozen. And then we're tapping that with things like nut or seed butter and like a higher protein granola from Kind or Trader Joe's and

that's an easy throw toget they get excited about th Greek yogurt that actually sugar and my kids still l some sprinkles in some time like a little more fun an then it's a plant based k

Sarah Schlichter (13:08.62)
Is that a soy-based yogurt, the Kite Hill one, or is it cashew?

Kelly (13:15.692)
either pea or soy protein, I can't remember. it's something that, so I've always had issues with dairy myself. And that's part of why, even though they'll have dairy, soy milk just always been the thing we have in the house. And it's easier to just have, you know, not seven different kinds of milks in the fridge. So same thing with yogurt is a lot of times I'm buying the plant-based yogurt for me, and they have the bigger tubs that we can all share together. They do also drink kefir though, which I think is a great addition to

anyone's diet who does not have sensitivities to dairy. even if you do, the probiotics in there are great for people who might be sensitive to milk, let's say. So that's something they include a lot of too, that not necessarily plant-based, but still vegetarian, right? I will say too, something to think about, and I know that you wanted to talk a little bit about nutrients today too, but I always want them offering all of these things, have a vitamin C source.

help with iron absorption. So because Cooper especially is not eating poultry ever, he's definitely not touching beef, the absorbability of the iron that they're getting may be lower from plant foods and from animal products. So by having vitamin C there, it can actually increase the absorption of iron by four to six times. And so it's always strawberries or kiwi or citrus or the younger one will be more likely to grab a green veggie that's

Vitamin C rich than Cooper well a lot of times, but anything like that, peppers are a great addition to ensure that you're kind of pulling that all together for nutrients that could be lacking in some plant-based diets too.

Sarah Schlichter (14:50.574)
That's a great point. And I love how you brought up the whole grains because I think people, sometimes even dieticians, myself included, we tend to forget that they are providing protein and protein just seems to be the macronutrient that people are obsessed with. And whenever you hear plant-based vegetarian, even like the first question someone says is, well, where are you getting your protein? So I think just that reminder that you said with the whole grains, you know, if you're having a sandwich, there's 10 grams of protein before you even add the peanut butter or the hemp seed.

Kelly (15:10.318)
Mm-hmm.

Kelly (15:17.857)
Exactly.

Sarah Schlichter (15:18.904)
or anything like that. So that's really helpful and it can be a great way to get a variety of grains in the diet as well.

Kelly (15:24.536)
Totally, and that extends even pasta for dinner. People are like, I can't just give him carbs. There's eight grams of protein in a cup of regular pasta, not just protein pasta.

Sarah Schlichter (15:31.48)
Right. That's before you even do like the lentil or bean type pastas. Yeah. Do you feel like your kids even, and this might be a hard question to answer, but do you feel like eating the way that they do has made them more adventurous and like less picky or selective?

Kelly (15:36.254)
Right, exactly.

Kelly (15:51.82)
I think it depends on how you look at it because I think some people could look at Cooper and say he is picky because he doesn't want to include animal products, right? He doesn't eat as much veggies as I wish he did, but he'll eat them incorporated in things. So he might not want to eat lettuce most of the time. He will have one crunchy lettuce that is in like a hydroponic brand. can't remember the name of it right now, but there's one lettuce variety that he'll actually snack on. like carrots are his favorite vegetable.

He'll eat the outside of cucumbers, interestingly, and does not want to explore much past that in terms of eating a vegetable on his plate. But if we're putting it in a smoothie, he doesn't care and he's like, yeah, there's spinach in my smoothie. I will gladly drink that. Or there's cauliflower in this or that. Or we added spinach to muffins or pumpkins in here. He will have all of it and he's not afraid of any sort of vegetable or trying new things if it's the taste and texture that he's looking for. So think that's important too with kids, plant-based or not, that

Sarah Schlichter (16:22.349)
Just this year.

Kelly (16:49.262)
We let them explore different types of vegetables and in different forms to help them become more adventurous. Even like there's undercover snacks. They're like those crunchy quinoa chocolate bites. I don't know if you've had those, but we'll get those right and united. And they have like the mini ones that we'll get at home and they'll have like the dark chocolate covered quinoa. And I'm like, yeah, so you like quinoa. And I know he doesn't want to take a spoonful of quinoa, but

Sarah Schlichter (17:03.844)
on the plane, they serve one airline, right? I forget which one.

Kelly (17:17.846)
in the future, he'll probably be more likely to do that because he knows it's something he's already eaten, you know? So he's adventurous in some ways. Like he will cut up a block of tofu and eat it raw, right? But that's normal to him, just like eating chicken is normal to another kid. So I think it just depends on how you look at

Sarah Schlichter (17:36.878)
And one point that you talked about that I wanna expand upon, which I love, is that it sounds like you're not hiding the vegetables. Like you're telling them, here's the spinach we're putting in our smoothie or the cauliflower, and you're not trying to trick them into eating them.

Kelly (17:47.042)
Great.

Kelly (17:50.36)
Totally, and I will say I did that with them from a young age, so I think it's easier for me to keep doing it. If you've never done that with your kids and you're like, we're gonna put spinach in the smoothie and you're gonna eat it, they're gonna be like, what are you talking about, mom? So it might not hurt to the first time, you know, put it the frozen cauliflower and after they drink it, be like, so here's what you just had and say it in not a big deal kind of way and then they'll learn, okay, there's frozen cauliflower in my smoothies, whatever.

you might want to approach it slightly differently when you're getting started if this isn't something that you've done before.

Sarah Schlichter (18:24.282)
Totally, and I was talking to someone the other day, maybe it was a previous podcast guest about, I like to think about it as like short term and long term. So as parents, obviously we want our kids to get nutrition. We want them to eat a variety of foods. And in the short term, sneaking the spinach and the muffins and not telling your kids, you know, you might feel good because they'll eat it. They're getting nutrients, but in the long term.

you're not really showing them that there's other ways to enjoy those fruits and vegetables. Whereas if they can make it with you or see or know like, those chocolate chip muffin tubs spinach, maybe spinach isn't so bad. I feel like that can be kind of like the long-term habits that we want to cultivate and show them.

Kelly (18:50.274)
Exactly.

Kelly (18:56.878)
Success.

Kelly (19:03.296)
Absolutely. Same like making energy bites. That's another standard snack that I'll make all the time. There's a couple of recipes I rotate through, but you know, my standard ones that are oats and there's like a half a cup of ground flax in there. Like he's been dumping the ground flax in there since he was a kid. So don't make it seem like it's some weird health food. Just be like, and then we have flax when we bake. Like it's, you know, a normal thing, is kind of the way that you can explain it.

Sarah Schlichter (19:23.994)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I love that. Do they like to help you in the kitchen, the boys?

Kelly (19:30.488)
Cooper, he has to be in the right mood for it. I feel like he's just at an age where he's so active and he gets home from school and especially with the weather getting nicer, he just wants to run outside and maybe go play baseball with his friends or explore in the backyard. And then when it's time for dinner, he'll come sit down. Other days, he wants to be a chef and make breakfast for himself. So I think you have to catch him in the right mood and not force it sometimes too.

Sarah Schlichter (19:55.308)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, my almost Cameron's gonna be seven in like two weeks because her and Cooper are pretty close She has lost some interest because again, I think she's getting all these new interests But my four-year-old would help me any time of day mom Can we make muffins today? Like she is so interested and I love it and I hope it stays like that forever

Kelly (20:00.504)
Yeah.

Kelly (20:10.081)
Yup.

Kelly (20:14.07)
Yeah, same with Carter. And I will say we think about like kids being more adventurous to we switch the preschool that Carter was at from the one that Cooper was out until kindergarten in the fall and they actually serve meals. And this was part of my decision in switching them to their. I think that people think that nutrition is so much about controlling food and making sure that you're the one providing certain things to your kid. And I will say that it's a place that does offer more nutritious meals than I think a lot of other daycares or preschools might.

but he comes home and he tries all of these things because his friends tell him to. And so I think that also has helped him a lot. He's in an environment where I wasn't the one providing the food every day like for Cooper and he's exposed to whatever they're feeding him and other kids are having a good influence on each other to try new things versus the bad influence, which I think is what people fear sometimes too.

Sarah Schlichter (21:06.65)
Totally. And I've been in that boat, one of the pre-K that my two youngest go to. They do serve food and we actually do half days now, so they're not staying for lunch, but they were. And everyone thinks about, they're just serving XYZ high sugar foods, which may be sometimes, but also they are serving, they have regulations. So they are serving like nutrient dense options too. And I think the power of a group can be really helpful in just.

Modeling and seeing other people trying things that maybe they wouldn't even have tried at home. So yeah, that can definitely go both ways

Kelly (21:38.646)
Yeah, totally. And so now he comes home and he's like, mom, can we make this or can we have that for dinner when it's something that we didn't have in our rotation before? So I think it helps everyone's variety, really.

Sarah Schlichter (21:47.258)
Are there any myths about plant-based eating that you hear a lot or that you'd like to kind of set the record straight on? I'm assuming maybe the protein part, but curious to hear from your perspective.

Kelly (21:59.258)
Yeah. Yeah, I mean, probably number one protein. Two, think people think that it has to be highly processed all the time and that that's the only way to get in nutrients that you need. But I will also say three, but you know, I'll go through all of these is some people thinking that you can get everything that you need on a plant-based diet without supplements and that's also not necessarily safe. So I guess we can start with the protein.

There's definitely, I'm a big protein person, you know that. I talk about getting enough protein all the time. I'm not as concerned with kids getting enough protein usually because their needs are so much less than people assume. Like you said, getting 10 grams of protein in two slices of bread and then adding peanut butter, even if it's just a tablespoon, that gets you to 14 grams. That's more than enough at a meal for kids, not necessarily adolescents, but definitely for kids.

And I will say you look at the guidelines and you'll see like extremes either you have to get protein in for your kids or well, three year olds only need 13 grams a day or four year olds only need I think four to nine, it's like 19 grams a day is the number they'll throw out there. But just like for adults, that's kind of the minimum to prevent deficiency, right? And so I think we also need to consider for me, especially I consider for my kids, their mood, how they're going to feel throughout the day, their energy balance throughout the day.

And getting a little bit more, I find is helpful for my kids, but you could still do that with plants if you need or want to. So I'm always focused on, know, are they getting a protein source? It doesn't have to be a source of protein. It doesn't have to be tofu or soy milk at every meal. It could be the combo of bread and peanut butter or something like that. It could be a plant-based yogurt and granola, but are we getting enough in that meal or snack? I'm at least offering enough, I should say.

so that they're gonna have what they need to sustain their energy and feel full for long enough. On the flip side, if you have a kid that's underweight, maybe you don't want them to feel super full all the time and you're focusing more on some other nutrients, but in general, you can absolutely get enough protein from plants. I do think it's important that people who don't have soy allergies in their home incorporate soy because it is such a high quality protein in terms of how comparable the amino acid profile is to animal proteins.

Kelly (24:19.662)
and the amount of protein that you get per serving versus some other plant foods. So if you're switching from dairy milk to plant milk and you go for almonds, you're getting a gram of protein versus that eight that you're getting from the cow's milk. With soy, you're getting seven to eight grams per cup. And you want to make sure they're fortifying that with other nutrients too, which is a whole nother thing. But I do think that having that as a good...

go to to add to meals like a glass of soy milk or including that with a cereal if they're having cereal in the morning instead of almond milk and their cereal can really start their day off well. But incorporating beans, that could be hard for some people. I'll say that we, know, Cooper's less likely to just eat beans as they are. But if they're blended into something like we were saying, like we could blend beans into muffins or add it into like a

a sauce or they'll snack on crunchy beans like roasted soybeans or roasted edamame, roasted chickpeas. Like those are all different ways to incorporate more protein if they're not going to eat it in the standard way. But also on those cashew cheese quesadillas, I mentioned sometimes spread some pandory fried beans on it and that's another small addition. So I think just having some of these convenient options, building, you know,

different proteins together in meals can really help you feel like I'm providing them with something adequate. And also just recognizing they don't need quite as much as we always think that they do.

Sarah Schlichter (25:50.938)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I agree. That was a great explanation.

Kelly (25:54.506)
Yeah, the other thing, like I said, is people thinking that it has to be like, I'm always relying on overly processed things. you know, even dairy Greek yogurt is ultra processed. So it all comes down to how many nutrients are you really getting from a food in terms of the processing? But again, relying on some of those whole foods like pulses, beans, and, you know, lentils and, peas and all of those, the whole grains, like we were talking about. And then

I call different things like boosters, like hemp seeds and pumpkin seeds are kind of like protein boosters at meals. Rowing on those things I think can help with getting nutrients into. But that's, I think having some of the fortified nutrients and things that are processed are necessary in today's world to really get as much as you can from entirely plant-based diet, if that's what you're trying to achieve versus including eggs and other foods here and there.

you know, nutrients like B12, vitamin D and omega-3 are my big call-outs that I want people to be aware of that if you're getting a dairy alternative and you're thinking, it's healthier to get the one that's just, you know, almonds and water and the almond milk, well, you're going to miss out on a lot of nutrients there. So I actually want people to look for things fortified with enough B12, fortified with vitamin D.

so that they know that they're getting enough of those essential nutrients for their kids. Because B12, you're not going to find in modern day vegan foods unless you're like pulling a carrot out of the ground and eating it without washing it. So I think that that's an important one to be aware of. And maybe use a supplement if you're not going to be incorporating those types of fortified foods for your kids. And then omega-3, if your kid, and this goes for really anyone. I don't know many kids who do eat very much omega-3 from fish.

plant-based or not, like could be never serving plant-based meals to your kids and there's a good chance they're not getting enough omega-3. So I'm a big advocate for omega-3 supplements for kids too.

Sarah Schlichter (27:55.404)
Mm-hmm, and is that something you give your kids every day like in dropper form or or vitamin tablet type thing?

Kelly (28:02.388)
I do and so I use Nordic Naturals just because they have well sometimes I'll use now it depends on what I have in the house and what I've been to the store for but Carter will have no problem the ones with fish Cooper some days he's like I'll have the fish oil one and other days he feels like I just want the algae oil one so just know if you don't want to offer a fish option to your kids algae oil is the

vegan option to get enough of the omega-3s that your body can't make enough of on their own from other fats. So, you know, it is something I try to do every day and I will say they're fat soluble. So if we're on vacation and they didn't have it for a few days, I might double up for a couple of days when we get back.

Sarah Schlichter (28:44.076)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, so that was really important to highlight what you said. So the nutrients to focus on you already talked a little bit about iron before and pairing that with vitamin C, vitamin D, omega-3 fatty acids, and vitamin B12. So those are what parents should be thinking about.

Kelly (28:57.638)
huh.

Exactly, yeah, and don't listen to the noise that says you can get everything that you need from a vegan diet without supplements because, you know, yes, you can get everything that you need, but you need that supplement or fortification for sure.

Sarah Schlichter (29:10.84)
And I think that's so important to know. Like we all want to eat more plants and people glorify plant-based and vegan diets, but it is true. Sometimes we do need supplements and there's nothing wrong with that. We want to be eating this variety of food anyway. okay. So you've talked about kind of some of the staples. You add those nutrition enhancements, the hemp, the chia, the pumpkin seeds. What are some top pantry staples that

Kelly (29:17.697)
huh.

Kelly (29:21.037)
Bye-bye.

Right.

Sarah Schlichter (29:36.856)
you find yourself relying on. I've heard you say the corn tortillas, the beans, anything else that maybe people who are considering doing more plant-based things that they should be buying or loading their pantry with.

Kelly (29:41.397)
That's it.

Kelly (29:49.486)
I may have alluded to this already, but soy milk is just a standard for us. So if you're not going to be having dairy milk, I just absolutely think that should always be available. We still offer it with dinner to kids, to our kids, sometimes with breakfast too, if they're not going to have a yogurt or a kefir or something else that's like that. So that is a standard all around just for the nutrition it provides from the protein to the other nutrients already in it to the fortified nutrients too.

I will say, I'm trying to think, vitamin C rich fruits. I know that I mentioned that already too, but I think that that's something to offer your kids at least with one meal a day, if not multiple if you can. Peanut butter might sound silly, but it really is a good nutrient booster for kids and adults, right? Like for me to add to my oatmeal, not just for my kids. So we go through a lot of peanut butter. Yeah.

Sarah Schlichter (30:43.674)
My kids love it. They ask for it at every meal.

Kelly (30:46.58)
Yeah, same. peanut butter, and if you want variety cashew butter, almond butter, whatever, but I feel like it's just such a standard that if you feel like there's a gap in a meal and you need to add something to a snack to make sure they're feeling full enough, fat protein fiber, bam. And then I kind of already mentioned this too, but I do tend to, when I am buying more of our staple snacks, like the crunchy things that kids want to just have available and rely on.

I do keep a lot of pulse-based snacks in our homes. So, you know, again, I mentioned the roasted chickpeas, like the honey roasted chickpeas. I feel like most kids are gonna like those, right? Or there's even a brand that does some chocolate covered. If your kids are like, what are you talking about? You want me to eat a chickpea? Start with the chocolate covered ones. I think the brand's Lebby's. And then they're like, okay, maybe chickpeas aren't so bad. And then move on to the next. But then even some like hippies.

and other like crunchy snacks like that. I get the ones that have a few more grams of protein just for more staying power because that's all they're gonna eat for a snack. I know my kids and they may have a meltdown in an hour if they don't have a little bit more substance in their snack. So those are things I just try to keep on hand. And then certain snacks that I'll make on my own like the energy bites I talked about. Another friend we both have Mary Ellen with Milk and Honey Nutrition.

We make her cookie dough balls all the time. They're like almond flour, oats, some maple syrup. And I feel like those are good things that we freeze and then can pull out and have more staying power around too. So I just gave a bunch more than I think you asked for, but those are just some more things we rely on.

Sarah Schlichter (32:11.78)
So good.

Sarah Schlichter (32:24.058)
Yeah, always helpful. All right, so we've kind of gone through most of the questions. I guess I'll end with you giving advice for parents who want to move, like maybe just some steps to start with. Like you said, start with the chocolate covered hippies. But is there anything else you want to talk about or add in before we wrap up?

Kelly (32:44.696)
think that just in general, know, probably anyone listening to your podcast is going to be coming from a less judgmental place and more of a place before they want to learn. But I think that it's just important, no matter what your kids are choosing to eat, what you're choosing to feed them, what other people are doing that we cultivate an environment where there is less judgment, that we do a lot for more curiosity. I feel like that's kind of what we started the conversation with. And, you know, even when we're around friends and our kids are around other kids.

Talking to them about how they talk about other kids' food is important too, or how we talk about what other kids are eating to other parents. know, Cooper will sit at the dinner table, like I said, and he'll be like, why are you eating fish? Like, don't do that. And kind of don't yuck, someone else is yum. And I know that for him, it's a, I feel bad for the fish. That's why I don't want you to eat it. But ensuring that he's not saying those things to kids at school is really important for us. And that's not because we don't want other kids to be curious. It's because

we need to respect what everybody else wants to be doing too. So we do talk a lot at home about making sure that we're never commenting on other people's food, no matter what it is that's on their plate or that they're being offered a snack at school or whatever else it is, no matter what it is that they like or don't like, it's just, not our place and we need to respect other people's decisions all the time. And I don't think it's ever too early to talk about that with kids. And I think that also relates to things about body image in kids, never commenting on other people's bodies at a young age, but.

These are conversations that we've had in our house for a while and we continue to have. And for the most part, I know that my kids do respect that in front of other people and they are more likely to just come to us to talk about things when they have questions versus say it out loud to other people. And I think that with the plant-based conversation, that can be kind of important.

Sarah Schlichter (34:32.706)
Right. And that's why I love you so much. You guys can see how Kelly just approaches this with such a balanced attitude and environment. It's it sparks curiosity, but you feel safe talking to her. She doesn't have that restrictive mindset. I mean, I feel like you're not even really labeling it like, yes, eat more plants. We all want to do that. So I really, really appreciate that. So as we wrap up, there might be some listeners who are

Kelly (34:51.904)
Uh-huh.

Kelly (34:55.768)
Thanks.

Sarah Schlichter (35:00.634)
liking what you're saying, like this sounds great, this sounds a little bit more doable, it's not as overwhelming as I thought. Rather than just, you know, going all in 100 % and buying all the vegan, the tofu, the plant-based options, what are some steps they can take to slowly maybe start to take those steps to be more plant-based?

Kelly (35:20.376)
Sure, so I would say pick one food a week to add in, right? It doesn't have to be, we have enough on our plates. We're already going a million miles a minute to try to do everything that we need to do. And if you're curious and you want your kids to be curious, pick one food or even have them pick the food. So when you're looking ahead at the week or even if you don't have the time to plan every meal out before you go to the grocery store.

ask your kids, give them three options. Say, which of these foods do you think would be the most fun to try or the most fun to help me cook for next week? And that can be a good segue into shifting things a little bit for your family if they feel like they're a little bit of the decision maker. And then whether they want to actually cook with you or not, have them come over and see it. And I feel like spring's a great time with this for this with like vegetables and going to a farmer's market and seeing something before it's cooked.

do the same thing with a plant-based food. Maybe it is easier to buy canned beans, which I do all the time, but maybe buy a can of beans, buy a package of black beans, and buy some roasted beans and show them all the different ways that it can look, have them touch it and feel it and understand it. And I think the more they understand, the more they feel like they were connected to it from the start, the more buy-in they may have to try things going forward too.

Sarah Schlichter (36:39.958)
And that doesn't feel overwhelming just trying one new food a week. So that feels doable for all of us out there and who knows maybe it is the chocolate covered chickpeas or the quinoa crisps and then eventually you can take the steps to move towards quinoa. All right Kelly well thank you for sharing your wisdom. We really appreciate it. Can you tell us can you tell listeners where they can find you how they can get in touch with you if they have more questions or if they want to work with you.

Kelly (36:43.32)
Yeah.

Kelly (36:50.862)
Mm-hmm. Little gateway. Yep.

Kelly (37:07.544)
Sure, so on Instagram, I'm at Kelly Jones RD, Kelly just spelled K-E-L-O-Y, and my main website is kellyjonesnutrition.com. I also have another business that focuses on resources for student athletes. So this could be high school or college athletes that you might have, even if you have younger kids that are already getting involved in travel sports, some of the content there can apply. So on Instagram, we're studentathlete.nutrition, and then it's just studentathletenutrition.com.

And if you need to reach out to me directly, just kelly at kellyjonesnutrition.com too.

Sarah Schlichter (37:41.626)
We'll put all that in the show notes so you can find Kelly. She's a great follow. All right. Thanks, Kelly.

Kelly (37:47.512)
Thanks so much for having me.