Episode 7: Protein Needs for Kids: Culture versus Science in Pediatric Nutrition

Protein is everywhere in kids’ food—but how much do children actually need? In this episode of The Lunchbox Reformation, I explain pediatric protein needs from ages 1–8, why toddlers often get enough protein without trying, and how adult high-protein trends can create unnecessary stress around kids’ eating.

NEW COURSE! "Read the Pattern: Feeding Your Baby 0–4 Months" — because a healthy relationship with food starts earlier than most people think. Course Link!

Transcript

Actually a lot of families are doing better with feeding their kids now than what they got as nutrition growing up. And I applaud that. I just want to kind of look at the fallacy here of focusing on protein being the only

Welcome to the Lunchbox Reformation with Dr. Liz. This podcast is for folks who are creating better nutrition for their kids, better tired of the whiplash of nutrition claims and diet culture influence. You're reading labels, paying attention to ingredients, but you still doubt yourself. And for good reason, food goes deep. And often we fear making costly mistakes that as parents we hope to prevent.

If you're ready to explore the ins and outs of your child's actual nutrition needs and nourish the whole child from the inside out, hang with me, Dr. Liz Daniels. I'm a board-certified pediatrician plus registered dietitian. And we're going to dig deep into real-deal nutrition science, honest talk about barriers to health, and real stories that I help address. So let's dig in.

Hey guys, thanks so much for joining me today on the lunch box reformation. I am excited to talk about today's podcast. You guys, I've actually written this podcast like probably four different times, re-recorded it, gone back and edited, and I have so much to say about it. It's going to be really hard for me to simplify this down into a single podcast. So there may be some addendums and adjustments along the way because I just have so many feelings about this one, particular topic. and it is the crowned jewel of the current nutrition world protein.

Okay, so I am going to talk today about protein needs in toddlers all the way up through about eight. I'm going to talk about what they actually need, what gets in the way, what our common missteps are in understanding kids' nutrition needs. And I'm going to really you know, also talking about certain eating patterns.

I'm going to give you a sample menu of a child in my clinic and, and sort of what I hear the parents say, And how can we actually make that a little bit better? And you know what, guys? The answer is probably going to surprise you. So I want you to listen through to the end and just make sure that you get this because it's one that I talk about every single day.

And guess what? Sometimes I end up talking about it even like multiple times with the same family because one time it just doesn't sink in all the way. And if this ends up being a podcast, you have to listen to a couple of times. So be it. And I think it's really important.

I hope that it leaves you encouraged. I hope that it leaves you feeling a breath of fresh air. And like you can compare yourself to, you know, somebody else or to what picture perfect thinks, you know, you think it's picture perfect a little bit less. So without further ado, let's dive in.

All right, so part of what made me want to even start all of these conversations and start this podcast is that I noticed I was having the same concerns being raised over and over and over at visits with families. So I'd hear this at the one year old visit, at the two year old visit, at the three and the four, all the way up until kids were really like middle school age from parents on a daily basis.

And if you think about this, like it took me, I think, too long to finally say, I've got to just address this because it's such a repeated conversation. And the issue here isn't that parents are the problem. The issue is that our messaging is so loud right now about protein that it gets really confusing because it's all about adults.

And I want to dive into what it is that kids actually need because this is really unique. Now, I'm going to kind of go backward a little bit and just give a little bit of reference to why even the conversation is so loud about protein.

When I was training as a registered dietitian 20 years you know, at the time, our calculations that we would use to calculate a sample diet for somebody. And this is general population would be, you know, we have certain metrics for how many grams per kilogram of body weight for carbs, fat, protein, depending on your age, depending on what's going on medically with you. And generally, it was 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight per day was needed for protein needs. In order to meet your protein needs, that was the goal.

then we had this like huge obesity epidemic that began an overlapping time. Over time, study after study was starting to analyze, you know, a lot of comparative data between is a calorie, really, just a calorie. Are there keys that we can sort of hack in you know, metric of satiety signaling?

And are there certain nutritional parameters that we can see that will trigger weight loss or impact, rates of obesity with adjusting the macronutrient profile, whether that's, know, low carb or low fat or high carb versus low carb or high protein versus low protein. Right? There's a ton of studies that we're going on all during this time that I was in training.

And a lot of our observational studies would look back and say, okay, in total, like we know that obesity risks seem to be impacted by certain diets. Like, for example, the Mediterranean diet and then you look closely at the Mediterranean diet, it tends to have a little bit higher protein, but in general, it's relatively moderate fat, but the sources of those things were a little different from the Western diet.

And I think the takeaway is that in general, the Western diet is just over calorie. And yes, it has a lot of ultra-process foods, but the ultra-process foods tend to impact satiety signaling. And so then I'm really, really oversimplifying this, you guys, but then the next kind of through line that seemed to be really popular and substantiated both in animal and in adult literature was that potentially a higher protein diet could impact satiety or fullness.

And then that enters part of this diet craze of like, gosh, we've got to get high protein, high protein, high protein, because it really impacts our fullness. And that is kind of the primary goal plus if you have a higher protein diet and you sort of shift the macronutrient profile, you will decrease the ratio of carbs because if you're keeping total calories the same and you turn the dial up on protein, then you naturally will turn the dial down on the easiest lever, which is carbohydrates.

And then a lot of our food products are shifted to mirror that. They're all just trends, and the only reason food companies which I don't think are evil, by the way, they are literally trying to sell their products. And what are they going to sell? Well, whatever you want to buy. So it's this like circle here that if we are going to be focused on protein, then that's what the manufacturers are going to produce.

And then therefore that's what you are going to purchase. And so it's just, it's this cycle that sort of repeats it. I'm going into a little bit of a rabbit hole here, but really what I want to summarize is that our culture in the last 20 years has been making this very consistent creep towards being protein centric.

As a method to address satiety and obesity signaling, and it's not the only way to do this, but it's really an easier way if our foods come packed with protein and then. So if we can be really protein centric, then it sort of, it kind of gives easier way out than simply just saying lower your calories.

And that is a common misconception. So that I think a lot of people take is that if I eat high protein, then it's going to be lower calorie or it's going to be healthier for me. And so it just gets a little bit complicated here, but as a result, I think a lot of parents also really want to set their kids up for success.

I mean, don't we all, like that's what we want is we want for our kids to be able eat food freely without feeling like they're making really unhealthy choices as adults or that they're hurting their bodies because of what they prefer to eat or you know that they're carrying this guilt and shame about their food choices or their body. We don't want our kids to experience the struggle that we have over food, but I have some really bad news.

I'm sorry, but I think they probably will no matter what we do, because we live in a world where access to food is pretty good. Like most people have a lot of trouble finding always the healthiest options, we're not in a shortage of access most of the time.

And what I'm trying to get at is that generations ago this was a very different conversation, even a generation ago this was a different conversation, but our kids will probably have their own struggles with food that we can't prevent completely.

So what I think our shift needs to be is understanding what they need and it's our role as parents to model healthy behaviors but not to set them up for perfection or optimize it in such a way that they never have struggle. I think that that is setting us as parents up for too much pressure that is not really attainable.

What do I mean by this? I mean that there are so many people in Instagram or social media or TikTok that are trying to show you what you eat in a day and how I get my kid to eat this thing, and it's perfect because I do this. Or you shouldn't be giving your kids french fries and you're a terrible parent because you're giving them all this crap.

And I think that that's just really that shame is the same kind of shaming that we're already used to, but it sells. Like just like the Doritos sell on the aisle faster than the snap-peak crisps are going to Like we're wired to do this and and so I think just in the way that we're trying navigate this landscape for our we have to think about what is it that we really need.

Yes, we need fruits and veggies. Yes, we need positivity in her life. So so where am I going with this? Well, where I'm going with this is that like I want to reframe what it that we're doing versus what we actually what our kids actually need.

So right now what we often are buying when we're looking in the chip aisle or the snack aisle is we are seeing labels full of protein this protein that it's one of the first words you can see on granola bars for kids on your macaroni and cheese on your milk your anything you want to buy most of the time it's highlighting protein.

And I don't think that that's inherently wrong, but I think that it almost reinforces this pattern, especially when the label has green on it. I'm picking on specifically like the croaker line has a line of, you know, simple truth foods that's all protein and everything has green labeling on it.

And that's not wrong, but it really reinforces this pattern that that is healthy. And that's what need to offer our kids because I think the messaging comes down to well, then our kid will be full if they have more protein. If they get protein, then they're going be focused. They won't be as moody. They won't fall behind in school. They won't have a meltdown in the middle of the store because they're not actually hungry.

I think people confuse kids having normal behavior with, it's just their blood sugar calvo. I don't think so. just stick with me. Okay.

The protein that you give your kid isn't going to change their behavior. If your kid is not being adequately nourished, yes, that's important. But if they have fruit at breakfast without a protein, I don't think it's going to make or break their behavior. The behavior is usually a developed mental. The protein is not usually the problem.

What do I mean by this? I hear this all the time, you know, and what I mean is that our kids are amazing. And they are not broken. The literature out there on satiety signaling and glucose management really does support that carbs with protein together are really helpful, and that having protein with your carbohydrate as opposed to just having an apple, having something that has protein and fat with it like cheese with your apple is great in helping keep that a little bit more stable than if it was just carbohydrate alone.

That's kind of the idea, and that is, by the way, nothing new. That has been understood for a long, long time.

What has happened is that the conversation around this means that anything you want to eat, it's much easier to take a behavior like I want to eat chips, and then purchase the chips that have protein isolate added to and say, "Well, now I can have my chips by themselves, and I don't have to change the behavior, the food itself has protein in it, I don't have to feel guilty eating just chips."

The behavior didn't change. The food product itself changed, and then we get frustrated at being processed. You can't have more than worlds. You have to kind think about it from that bigger perspective of like your protein chips aren't going to save you, and I think in the same way, there's a lot of messaging that if your kid has protein with their meal, then it's going to impact their emotional behavior, and that if they don't have protein with their food, then they're just going to be hungry and moody and irritable and unfocused, or they're going to have a tantrum in the store because you didn't give them protein in their breakfast, and somehow that's a morality issue as a parent that you then chase of, "Well, I got to make sure they have protein so that their behavior is better," so that their focus is better.

That's how I'm going to address their intention or their impulsivity. It's really easy to make those claims, but there's really not substantial literature that that is what is going to move the dial. Our behaviors and our behaviors are what need to mature, not just the food.

I think the messaging here is the issue, and that's what I take grief with. It's not necessarily that there's protein added to food that's a problem. I think that it is reinforcing that somehow if you just change the food, then everything will be better. It's the behaviors that really shift those things.

I think right now in our very high protein, low-carb, parental nutrition culture, It implies that as long as you get protein in your diet, you're going to be able to lose weight, or you're going to be able to feel full for longer. But that doesn't necessarily lower total calories, which is actually how you lose weight, or actually how you maintain your weight maintenance that you need.

And so, I have a lot of feelings about this because I think that the messaging does the same kind of good food, bad food conversation that we actually want to avoid with our kids.

So many parents really want to set their kids up for success, and they want their kids to do really well when it comes to eating healthy. And I think by and large, actually a lot of families are doing better with feeding their kids now than what they got as nutrition growing up. And a lot of that has to do with education.

Some of it has to do with food actually improving in some areas. I also think that this is our intention is really poured into it because we also as parents were most of us products of diet culture. And we very much want to reject that and don't want that for our kids.

And I applaud that. I just want to kind of look at the fallacy here of focusing on protein being the only solution. When in reality, I think that real solution is a step back, observing what our kids are doing really well, and setting up the environment for them to be successful.

let's look a little bit deeper into what a kid actually needs. Okay. So I'm going to break this down age groups. Okay.

So in a toddler, one to two, they actually need 1.1 grams per kilogram per day, you and I, as adults, our current literature says 0.8 grams per kilogram a day. Most of us are eating what the newer culture is saying this, you know, and some of the literature is really supportive of for weight maintenance is saying closer to, you know, 1.6 to 2 grams per kilogram a day. Okay. So way more.

But when you look at this the kids, they're so much lower, so about half. Okay. Like they're doing really well with just this. That translates to in a 1 to 2 year old, 1.1 grams per kilogram a day based on their current weight, a 1 to 2 year old, really translates to about actually 13 to 15 grams of protein a day. That's it.

I'm gonna translate that into food If you think about milk, milk is about 1 gram of protein per ounce. And if they're drinking two cups of milk, you are meeting all of your protein needs. Okay. Really amazing.

Now, we're gonna go to a two to three year old. Two to three year old, their protein needs actually come down just to smidge 1.05 grams per kilogram per day. And based on their weight and growth, their growth actually slows down in that age group, they only need about 15 to 18 grams a day. Really impressive. Guess what? Not that much different.

And guess what would meet their protein needs for a day? You guessed it. Two cups of milk. Okay.

Four to eight year olds, they need about 0.95 grams per kilogram per day. Now, that translates because they've accelerated and their growth a little bit. That is a little bit wider range and that depends on their size and that's going to be somewhere between 20 to 35 grams of protein a day. Most of those needs, if they're still drinking milk, at four to eight years old, most of their needs are going to be met still with two cups of milk a day.

So, what I'm trying to get at here is their protein needs as a is achieved with a lot less than our protein needs are if you're eating in this protein-centric world. And in contrast, I just want to talk a little bit about growth because the protein gets all the but kids really don't grow on protein. They need that for laying down tissue, but do you know what it means to be able to synthesize new proteins and synthesize new muscle tissue? Do you know what you actually need? You need a ton of carbs, and you need fat. You need all of those things together.

So, let me just compare this a little bit, okay? Stick with me. I'm going to go through some math, but I really think this makes so much more sense when you see it all together. A toddler if they need about 13 to 15 grams of protein a day, okay? One to two-year-old, 13 to 15 grams, hold and stay with me. Their carbohydrate needs are actually 130 grams a day. So, literally 10 times the amount of to fat, okay? 10 to 1. That's their ratio that they really, really need. Okay?

And you and I as adults right now and are again in our current model, it's closer to one to one. that we are trying to get. Okay? So kids genuinely need a crap ton more carbs than we do. Like they genuinely need that for growth, for tissue development, for energy, for body temperature, for, you know, all of the metabolism, for all of this brain development, your brain needs so much glucose. It does, it genuinely does. And putting a toddler on a low carb diet is not good for them, okay?

Now, the other part of this is as I think you about fat. So it's about one to two. So for every one gram of protein, they need two grams of fat, about 30, 35 grams of fat per day. Now, ideally, this fat is going to be actually in some polyunsaturated fatty acids. Please don't give your babies sticks of more on that another day, but it is just really valuable to recognize that their growth and development cause their macronutrient profile to be very different than yours and mine.

I'm going to say that again. About 13 to 15 grams of protein for a toddler, about 130 grams of carbs and about 30 grams of fat. You and I as adults are going to be looking at something wildly different, meaning they need for most of us somewhere around the same amount of carbs as you and I do. Yeah. Yeah, but drastically less protein.

Okay, so let's go on to preschoolers. Now, this is, this shifts a little bit, and as I mentioned before, preschoolers need somewhere around that one gram per kiligrometer body weight and they're going to need about 15 to 18 grams of protein a day. Their carbohydrate needs are going to be pretty similar and the fat is pretty similar.

Their carb needs come down just a smidge, about 8 to 10 times more carbs than protein. Okay.

And then as you get a little bit older in that early childhood range, this one is actually going to be pretty similar. So kids that are 4 to 8 are going to be doing about 20 grams protein a day and they need really about 200 grams of, like 160 to about 200 grams of carbs a day. And their fat needs actually are pretty high too. So a bit on around 40, 45.

So your ratio is still going to be there. So like protein to carb is still pretty close to one gram of protein to 10 grams of carbohydrate. And then your protein to fat needs are going to be about 1 to 2. So protein is 1 gram fat to.

So when you are looking at a label, okay, and you're looking at, for example, a cereal or granola bar and you kind of just do some quick math, I tend to encourage families to think about this in the standpoint that like we actually do want these higher carbohydrate ratios than protein and fat.

So in I think the message here is that our kids really need a lot more carb and fat to grow than we give them credit for. We think that there are these like fragile beings that if they don't have protein with every meal, it's just going to be And I don't think that that's true.

I think that they're actually much better at glucose regulation protein signaling than synthesis than you and I are they really aren't fragile.

Now, is it ideal to offer both of those? Absolutely. So if I'm building a for a toddler, I am going to be putting carbs, protein and fat on their plate. I'm never going to just offer one thing unless I don't have any other options. We're out and about or you know, but in total, if I'm making their plate, what I am responsible for is the parent is building the plate with the right ratio, offering it to the child, taking a step back and observing what they do and noticing.

So let me walk you through that. If I'm going to build a plate for a toddler, I'm going to put things on there that are going to have like all of that. So maybe that looks like in my toathers often they want, you know, things sort of segmented on their plates.

Maybe that looks like a little bit of toast with some peanut butter or some hummus spread on it. So we have some fat, some carbohydrate. And then maybe I also have hardwilled egg beans or I've got something else on their plate that's going to offer and round that out.

Maybe that means I'm going it'll offer them a meatball and some spaghetti. But I'm not going to put meatball first spaghetti second. It's actually going to be spaghetti first meatball second. Right.

Like I think that takeaway here is that our kids really need so much balance in terms of carbohydrate and protein together, then just protein centric foods.

So I want to kind of explain this a little bit more in detail with an example because I think that that kind of drives home this point.

So I had a family who, you know, wanted to dive deeper into their kids nutrition because they were really worried that their kids' pickiness was interfering their ability to protein. And we had learned that this kid over time was really struggling with hunger signaling and satiety signaling.

So there were some behaviors there that really needed some attention, mom didn't even notice that because really the focus was just I'm just worried they're not getting any protein. Okay. That was, that was the through line.

And so we took a little bit deeper look and it was pretty amazing because when I looked back at it, I just want to walk you through the day, like a day in a life of this kid.

Okay, so on this one particular day, they had some errands to run. So they were out a little bit. They started out the morning with like a cliff kid protein bar, they had a fruit cup, and later that day, they ran by chick filet, they grabbed a small French fry, the kid only ate like half those. How to yogurt tube as well didn't want any of the chicken nuggets that were offered. Okay.

Then later that day, they had some pasta, butter noodles, a piece of fruit, a small cookie, like a pre-packaged small cookie, and then a package of goldfish and a package of applesauce, all like kind of throughout the day.

And later again for dinner, the kid wanted pasta noodles and half a container of blueberries, the loves blueberries, and a beating of banana and sugar free popsicle.

In total, looking at that at first glance, I think most parents would be like, oh my gosh, where is the protein? They didn't eat the chicken nuggets, oh my gosh. And they wouldn't eat any of the meatballs that I offered them at dinner time. And they didn't want anything else other than just the cliff protein bar. That was the only source of protein that I saw in their whole day according to the parent. And this isn't uncommon.

Okay. Now, when I actually analyze this, this is going to shock you. Okay. This kid ended up having in total for that day about almost like 1500 calories, had about 45 grams of yeah, little over 200 grams of carbohydrate, about 30 grams of fat, about 16, 17 grams of fiber.

For this child's age, the protein that this child actually consumed was about double what they needed. Double.

In total, I will say this child is the older age, right. So a little bit bigger, not our two year old obviously. But it was really impressive because it first glance hearing all those foods, you probably thought, yeah, I don't see the protein in there. I would be worried about this kid too, but this kid had double the protein they needed.

And the reason here is not because they had protein pasta, it's not because they had extra protein cookie or because there was some protein isolate mixed in with their applesauce. Interestingly, it's because all of those things that we think about add up.

So the goldfish, the noodles, the even even the things like the cookie and the french fries, the yogurt tube, the course, the cliff protein for all of those actually had protein in them. And it's much less. We kind of don't think about it because it's not the primary nutrient in that food, but it does add up in time.

Now, how could we make that a little bit better and what was that kid actually missing? Well, this day wasn't terribly uncommon for this kiddo. I tend to, you know, I had tracked a couple other days in there and they could really love blueberries. They could really love this pasta. And the take home here was actually that these were things that were going pretty well.

Now, I'm going to analyze this a little bit more deeply. And I just want you to know that what we saw consistently is that the issue wasn't protein. It was actually vitamin D in calcium. This kid was quite low in vitamin D in calcium. there had been a shift because they had been drinking way more milk than they needed to. And so it was an intentional redirection of meeting to get less in there.

And so the answer here in the way that we could address this was actually to replace the cliff bar with believe it or not. Milk and cereal in the morning for breakfast. Why did I do that? Because the milk offered vitamin D in calcium and the cereal actually offered iron. which also happened to be a little bit low in this kid's diet.

And guess what? He ate it, and he enjoyed it. And we actually got closer to meeting his nutrition needs.

This is an example of ways that I help families navigate these questions. It's not just throwing a statement at them and saying, "Don't focus and don't worry about protein." It's looking at their actual diet with a little bit more nuance and saying, "How can we support you and your kid right now in a way that isn't as stressful as you think?

It's not rewriting his whole diet. It's not changing everything about what you're It's looking at what's going really well and saying, "What can we tweak? What can we do that is reasonable that your kid will actually do?" And then you feel like, "Okay, I get to worry about that less," and now we can focus on the behaviors that we really need to focus on.

It really makes a difference when we can take that stress down. And I think that's true for a lot of families that I work with where if we can get a little bit more detailed information, then that can make a difference.

Now, what's another way that I could have addressed that? If the kid didn't want cereal and milk, well, we were doing pretty well yogurt, but what if we added something like pudding in there? I know that sugar, but you know what? That actually provided protein and carbohydrate, depending on which one we're getting.

And then what if we also considered whole grain crackers that have seeds in them? Those are a fantastic way to get that in, okay?

Also, really valuable are the fortified grains that sometimes we poo poo or the crackers that we say, "Oh, those are processed and they're terrible." Well, they actually offer some important ingredients in there that you overlook, right? Like zinc and salineum. They're in our seated grain breads.

I also want to kind of go through another little example or scenario because I think it adds value to the conversation of saying, "Well, what else can we do instead focusing on the protein?" Well, it's not just the protein, it's actually the quality of the protein that makes a difference. And what I mean here is that not all protein is the same.

And I think this is why parents care, right? Because you know that for you, you hear that a lot, that you want high quality protein, you want good protein. And kind of means something a little bit specific.

In the nutrition when I think of a quality protein, I actually think of at offering all essential amino acids. There's 20 amino acids that are essential a lot of the times foods will have some but not all of those.

And if you pair them with a complimentary food, then you'll add up to all 20 of those amino acids, which are essential for life.

If in a day you don't have all 20 of those amino acids, like this kiddo, if he didn't, for example, have the yogurt and made the entire day without having all of his essential amino acids. Because he ain't nothing but crackers one day, you know, or just blueberries one day, then what ends up happening really a whole lot of nothing. It's when it's chronic that you start to see some challenges there.

So let me give you some examples. A quality protein that has all essential amino acids is essentially an animal source. So fish dairy products, eggs, those are going to have all essential amino, 20 amino acids in there.

In time, you can incorporate these into the foods that they're already eating, and you can find some pretty creative ways to do that. I love doing that.

the other alternative of that is the complimentary ones. So like, for grains like rice and beans or bread and legumes, like peanut butter and bread, or like hummus and crackers, tofu and veggies. These are really good complimentary proteins that went together. They sum up all 20 amino acids, and they are rather

So when our kids are eating pretty much crackers and they don't want to eat some of the other sources of protein that we think of as high quality proteins, it's still okay. Especially if they're drinking milk, especially if they're getting our peanut butters, or our beans, or other components in there that are going to be tandem with our grains.

I think those are really important things to remember, because when I see a lot of kids who, you know, parents will get worried, oh gosh, we're not getting we're not getting enough protein in our diet.

When we sit down and look at it, most of the time, I actually see that they're getting an abundance of protein and where we tend to need to adjust is often in the areas that really surprise parents, kind of like the milk and cereal example, how that would have been one way to make his diet a little bit healthier.

That's why I get so passionate about these conversations, because I think that a lot of parents feel like they're doing a bad job because their kid is doing what they're naturally biologically driven to do, which is eat a bunch of carbs.

And I just want to take that pressure off of you and help you realize that that isn't a failure on your part as a parent. That's not failure nutritionally for your kid. Your responsibility is offering the diversity, putting it out there in the pantry, putting it there on a plate, modeling it yourself, and their responsibilities, whether or not they're hungry, and if so, how much?

Now, the follow-up to that is, what do you do when your kid doesn't eat any of those things? You love them, and you celebrate with a eight, you notice what they didn't, and you keep it really low Easier said than done, I know, I know, I know, and I plan to do a lot more content around that conversation too, because the conversation around our food really, really matters.

But you don't have to fix your kid if they don't want to eat lots of meat. You don't have to fix something in their diet. Your responsibility is what comes in the home and how you structure the meals. Their responsibility is whether or not they're interested, and if so, how much? And you keep inviting that in, right?

Like, have you ever been to a party where somebody made like, okay, I love my friends, but I do have some friends who get really passionate about their new exciting menu or something that they really made, and they want to tell you all the ways that it's amazing, and that's great.

But the longer their conversation is about how hard they worked on that food, the less attractive it feels.

I love my dad, but he did this all the time as we were kids. He would spend hours barbecuing and making honestly the most delicious smoked meats ever. I'm a Texan through and through, and so I definitely love it. But as a I didn't want to have anything to do with it. I was like, Oh my gosh, you're going on for too long.

This sounds like I'm supposed to really like it, and if I don't like it, then all of a sudden there's going to be this pressure, and you're going to be mad at me, and I'm not going to feel good about it. It's going to be stressful, so I just want to avoid it.

And that's what our kids often do when we put pressure on the table, pressure to eat meat, pressure to eat this protein, pressure to do what I'm doing. It's not an invitation, and our kids know that.

my take home here is that if your kid is loving their butter noodles and their crackers, and that is where they're at, remember it's a 10-to-1 for your little kids. They need 10 times the amount of carbs they do For your proteins, as long as you're getting milk in your diet, you're probably hitting the mark.

And if you're not getting milk in your diet, stick around, because I'm going to have more of these conversations, but there's often a way to address that that isn't a re-haul of your whole nutrition or, you know, everything in your pantry. It can come in really small ways,

So here's the question. All right. I think in the day, if you're getting all the protein-added products or you're focusing on protein in your kid, or your kid just like as me, I was a little kid who loved meat. And I really gravitated towards that. Is that wrong? Or is there harm in doing that? I think that's like the other side of this that we need to think about.

there's two answers to this that I would say, "Cos me some pause." Number one, when you look at the nutrition label for, we'll take waffles, for example. Regular, just plain frozen waffles, okay.

And they often get a bad rap because old are processed and that's just not good for you. Suddenly you look at a label that has protein on it and I guarantee you, the majority of parents are going to think, "Oh, that's healthy, or I'll go with that option."

When you actually look at the nutrition labels side by side, there's going to be a substantial difference in the number of total calories in each of those products.

And at the end of the day, if kids having a lot of those products and they eat that at the same volume that they would a traditional product in total, there's definitely the risk that you end up with more calories at a greater nutrient balance than the kid actually needs for growth.

Not all kids are built this way. Some really struggle with their satiety signaling. That's another podcast for another day. I can't wait to get into it. But this signaling for hunger and fullness is something that kids actually struggle with a lot earlier than a lot of parents may be recognized. But that can be a troublesome.

And in other words, some kids just don't have a very good off switch. And if we're focusing on these products for them, there is a chance that they end up getting more nutrition than they need in general and we're actually increasing their risk for obesity.

That's one of my pauses. That's one of the things that makes me just not always feel like it's the best option, If you're comparing frozen waffles standard to protein frozen waffles, okay?

Here's the other side of the coin. If your kid does have an off switch, and they're like gobble gobble gobble, I'm going to eat that and then I'm all of a sudden done after three or four bites. Potentially that's actually a better option for them.

However, if they're in that spectrum where they're kind of limiting and it's hard to get them enough calories, and sometimes I do see this in toddlers where they are just so busy, so so busy that they don't want to sit still to eat. They don't want to, you know, be captured during that meal time. They only want to have a bite in the move and a bite and then move.

In some of those scenarios, you're actually shifting the macronutrient dial so much more towards protein that you are missing the opportunity for the carbohydrates that they need.

For example, in some of the standard crackers and breads that a lot of toddlers really, really like, yes, they are processed. Is that what we need all kids? No, is it great to have whole grains? Yes, but some of those crackers, especially packaged foods that are convenient and easy to take on the go, they've all been fortified with B vitamins.

They've been fortified with a lot of the other important nutrients like iron and things that our kids actually need.

And so the challenge here is that if they are really full on these protein-heavy foods, then there's potential that they're not actually going to have as much appetite for the fat and the carbs that they really do need, because it does slow down some gastric emptying and can impact their hunger and fullness cues a little bit.

So at both of those extremes, either overnutrition as a result of these protein-heavy products or fueling towards primarily more protein we're shifting in that macronutrient balance in a way that sort of shifts their micro-nutrient goals from being met, because bear in mind that the other, the alternatives, like the regular pastas, the regular things, a lot of those are going to be enriched with those micro-nutrients that you might actually need more of in those younger years.

And so I just, I like to be balanced as much as possible. And I think that the key here is knowing what situation your kids need best. And that's a little individual and unique.

So really and truly like my hope is that this conversation has caused a little bit of relief at least when you go down the aisles of things that your kids want versus the things that you want for your kid to have.

It's not always wrong to have things that are that are somewhat processed. Sometimes our kids need that. It's not always wrong to have the protein whatever product that you that you tend to like. Flavor is important and if that's your preference, that's okay, too.

I just like to bring into this conversation that our kids have different needs than you and I do. And it's okay to have different nutrition goals within your home.

How we frame the conversation and how we provide expectation around the table really carries a lot of weight.

So once again the invitation is for you to provide a balanced meal and for you to offer it and model it yourself with loving and kindness towards your own body and your own goals and let them choose what they're ready for. And in time those behaviors will adjust.

Promise we'll get into more of those conversations the podcasts mentors but really and truly there shouldn't be a tremendous pressure on your shoulders to get a lot of protein in your kiddos in order to help them grow really well. Our kids are so smart. They know what they need a lot of the time.

So sit back, watch them and be surprised and share with me what those are. I'd love to hear it.

If you like more of this content please follow, subscribe. leave a rating or review for me as well. I would love to know if there are more things like this that you'd like to hear about and it really helps.

The more you share it really helps the more families just like you find this podcast and find this content so they can walk through their own days with a little bit more Thanks so much for listening. We'll see you guys next week.