That is not what most people would unfortunately call a snack. You are more the exception than the rule.
We clearly disagree here - do you have any scientific studies you could cite which show your assumption ?
Thatâs the ultimate obesity issue - the question is how much increased snacking over the last several decades has contributed to it
A Google search yields countless articles citing studies showing that forcing children to eat food they dislike creates an unhealthy relationship to food.
Also, many people eat horrendously unhealthy meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I have never eaten at a fast food restaurant, but a fair percentage of the human population does so regularly.
I see mainly opinions from many people but hardly any studies which can be taken serious (a general problem with many food studies, e.g. is fat good or bad etc. as most food related studies are either underpowered, have not meaningful endpoints, selection biased etc.).
This is a longer and interesting read:
I think the approach of getting kids involved with the food - using all their senses - might help engage the picky eaters.
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I have just read the first three references to see their study design and power - none of them are coming even close to have reasonable meaningful data which can be in anyway generalized. Your article uses references with studies of 27 kids to correlate and come up with generalized assumptions which has very little to do with serious science but more if the need to gets grants for the next study - unfortunately a common issue in a lot academic research (far beyond just food science)
kids often make a list by looking at things . . .
itâs like many adults . . . âI hate xxyyyzzz!â
Q: âEver had it?â
A: âNo.â
once in a restaurant I was chowing down on fried calamari - our youngest (a pre-teen then) asked what it was . . . I answered itâs a bit like chicken. so⌠she started scarfing it down. after dinner, as we were walking out to the car she sidled up and said âDad, that really wasnât chicken, was it?â
she loves the stuff to this dayâŚ
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That is not what most people would unfortunately call a snack. You are more the exception than the rule.
We clearly disagree here - do you have any scientific studies you could cite which show your assumption ?
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I can say that adding hemp hearts to certain baked goods/pancakes does sneak some protein stuff through the wickets in a way that is positive. Same with using protein pancake mix which is basically buckwheat stuff. Thereâs areas where itâs not noticed but it can help in everyday kind of stuff. Adding an extra egg to things for kids. Blending the spinach into a pesto with olive oil and garlic etc and coating the noodles so its not obvious itâs a vegetable but itâs really a lot of it, using higher fiber stuff.
I donât think being deceptive is in play here, just finding ways to make it more healthy and still taste good.
other healthyish things that our kids enjoy are seaweed snacks (mermaid chips!).
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No, no, no and no. Once you lose someoneâs trust, it is nearly impossible to regain it. My husband, who is relatively open minded about food, has boycotted cheddar for about 40 yrs and many other cheeses for 30 yrs (has gotten more tolerant in the last decade), because his parents ONCE lied to him about a food heâd eaten that made him sick, when they tried to give it to him again after.
In my limited experience, if you offer children a lot of variety, and make it ok for them to like or dislike things as long as they try, then they wonât typically have such a strong visceral reaction to anything. If they HATE something, itâs probably because someone else forced their will on them and they felt no control or agency.
Then there is also the issue of food allergies, which one of my kids happens to have. Anyone that lied to him at any stage of his life about what his food might contain could have sent him to the hospital or worse.
This is no joke. Be honest. Let people decide what they want based on true information. Childhood deficiencies in dietary this or that can nearly always be addressed with a different food or a vitamin supplement.
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Oh, yeah - rebranding!! Anything remotely Asian is called stir-fry around here. It can be Chinese, Thai, Korean, etc., but if it involves cut-up meat, vegetables, and sauce, and is served with noodles or rice, I call it stir-fry. I do this for simplicity for both my 11yo and husbandâŚ
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I would agree with this approach, but with a caveat. If my peeps donât have strong feelings about some ingredient, then I will throw it in here and there for some extra nutritional punch without feeling like I need to do full disclosure. And I rarely if ever give them a full rundown of all the ingredients in their dinner that nightâŚBut if I know they dislike something, I will NOT sneak it in.
For me, if you set a plate of something in front of your family and you feel guilty about not saying whatâs in it, then youâre doing something you shouldnât be doing.
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I have always added veggies⌠zucchini pureed into tomato sauce. Spinach into the ricotta for lasagnaâŚeven when cooking only for myself.
I had to for my meat and potatoes ex who would set our youngun up with his rants about not liking vegetables, and was on various health related meds. Kiddo wanted to be like dad, soâŚ
The youngun now eats and enjoys a lot of vegetablesâŚand I never lied, although from time to time it was a sin of omission rather than deception.
When we were kids, my sister and I were each allowed one food that we didnt have to eatâŚhers was mushrooms, and mine was beets. Coincidentally she married a guy who has a legit mushroom allergy, and I now really like beets once I figured out that frozen and canned are not the same beet, er beast.
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My cousin remembers how when they were visiting our house and he said he was hungry (hoping for candy or cookies or something) my father would give him an individual box of raisins. (And after my cousin finished it, my father would refill the box from a regular sized box of raisins, because my parents werenât the sort to pay extra all the time for individual boxes! Those boxes looked pretty beat up after a while.)
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My mother used to strain my brotherâs orange juice (he didnât like âpiecesâ), and pick the lima beans out of his mixed vegetables. But she also catered to my grandmotherâs wishes/needs (no onions in her chopped liver), and my fatherâs (no mayonnaise ever, and if the rest of us had salmon croquettes, he had plain salmon). In general, though, everyone ate whatever she cooked, because she pretty much cooked what everyone would eat.
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Mom loved walnuts in her chocolate chip cookies but I donât. So sheâd make two batches. We all feel we have/had the best mom and I respect that but unfortunately for everyone else, I did. 
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Itâs critical for parents to identify a family long term eating âbig pictureââand give everyoneâincluding the kidsâa role. Make it a challengeâand make it fun! Think in terms of months or seasons rather than days or weeks.
If a family member is unhappy with an entree, let him or her campaign for an alternativeâor accept a compromise. These things can be worked through as discoveries rather than penaltiesâor things to avoid.
Separate thread for significant others? 
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