NEW: Plant Yourself merch designed by my daughter, Yael Zivan.

PYP 123: Dina Rose on Helping Parents End the Food Fights

dina-roseDina Rose, PhD, grew up in a household rife with dysfunctional lessons, attitudes, and behaviors related to food and eating. Her mother struggled with food and obesity, and ultimately died of obesity-related illness when Dina was 5 months pregnant with her daughter.

Dina did not want to repeat history, so she dove into the question of how to teach kids to eat healthy and develop a positive relationship with food. Her background in sociology allowed her to step back from the parenting fads of the moment, and look at the big picture issue of socialization: how we pass values and habits and mindsets to our children.

die-hard-buildingWhat was obvious from the start was, we’re doing it all wrong. Parents who know the difference between healthy food and junk food still end up giving in, giving up, and negotiating every bite like it was the entire building of hostages in Die Hard.

Or enforcing their iron will on every meal and turning family time into bitter, glaring battlegrounds (Howard sheepishly raises his hand and owns this one).

Dina’s book, It’s Not About the Broccoli, turns all this around with grace and common sense. It’s fantastic, and I hope every parent of an infant, toddler, or child gets the message.

not-broccoliDina is not a nutritionist, so her views on healthy and unhealthy are fairly mainstream, rather than reflecting the plant-based evidence I share so abundantly on this podcast. But that didn’t matter to me, and it shouldn’t matter to you. The principles apply, and perhaps even more precisely and usefully, when you want your kids to adopt a whole food, plant-based diet.

Because this information is so powerful, and because so many parents struggle with this issue, I predict that this interview will quickly become the most downloaded and listened to of the entire Plant Yourself Podcast catalogue.

In our conversation, Dina and I discuss:

  • her journey of discovery (and the incredible nugget she found buried in the fine print of a US government website)
  • the problem with the “nutrition mindset”
  • the difference between “winning the meal” and building healthy habits for a lifetime
  • the nutrition traps that parents fall into
  • the danger of being a “hunger avoider” parent (and eater)
  • the surprising problem that comes with knowing developmental psychology
  • the difference between tooth brushing, bath time, seat belts, and food
  • why we should focus on taste rather than nutrition in talking to our kids
  • why kids rely on two phrases to gain control over their food – “I don’t like it” and “I’m not hungry” – and how we can expand their eating vocabulary and influence their behaviors in a more honest way
  • the principle of proportion
  • the principle of variety
  • the principle of moderation (the good kind)
  • why the supermarket now reminds me of Amsterdam’s Red Light District (not entirely safe for children 😉
  • the dangers of making healthy versions of common junk foods (i.e. plant-based pizzas and cookies) – a perspective that really challenges one of the plant-based community’s staple strategies
  • and much more…

Enjoy, add your voice to the conversation via the comment box below, and please share – that's how we spread our message and spread our roots.

Links

It's Not About the Broccoli – on amazon

ItsNotAboutNutrition.com – Dina's website

The Pleasure Trap – by Alan Goldhamer and Doug Lisle

Bonus book that I was thinking about but didn't bring up during the interview: Punished by Rewards – by Alfie Kohn

Dr Howie Jacobson

This podcast is a labor of love and a way to give back to the world that has given me so much. That's why there aren't any sponsors (except me :).

My day job is helping leaders and their teams master their mindsets to remove all obstacles to heart-centered high performance.

Here are three gigs that I do:

1. Executive and Senior Leadership Mentoring and Facilitation

I work with high performing executive teams in organizations — and executive teams that need to become high  performing. My focus is mindset mastery, because it’s our mindsets that either support high performance or get in the way.

At this level, everyone’s got the skills and experience to excel and contribute at the highest level. What holds people back is mindset stuff: specifically the triggers that get them out of creative engagement and into fight-or-flight defensiveness.

My practice is all about teaching people to respond differently to those triggers by updating old maps — essentially removing the glitches that the triggers grab onto.

2. Executive Coaching: Quick Wins for High Performance

I work with individual executives and leaders, one on one. The program is called Quick Wins for High Performance, and what we do is, we work strategically on one or two areas that are holding you back and keeping you from performing at your best.

We reverse engineer the presenting problems — too much work and not enough time, underperforming employees and teams, maddening organizational inefficiencies, etc — and identify and rewire the suboptimal mindsets that are behind those problems.

The work is all about updating your mental maps so your actions and responses are always appropriate, proportionate, and strategic.

3. High Stakes Conversations for Fast Growing Small Business Teams

I help small business teams have high stakes conversations with skill, humor, and grace. When people feel safe, they can do their best, most creative, most collaborative work.

So that's what I do. If you'd like any of those results, drop me a line and tell me about yourself.

You CAN Change Other People!

Well, that's what Peter Bregman and I claim in our provocative book of that title.

What we really mean is, you can bring out the best in the people around you. If you think you're powerless to help people change, it's because you've been going about it the wrong way.

Discover our straightforward, replicable process here: You Can Change Other People.

 

Music

The Plant Yourself Podcast theme music, “Dance of Peace (Sabali Don),” is generously provided by Will Ridenour, a kora player from North Carolina who has trained with top Senegalese musicians.

It can be found on his first CD, titled Will Ridenour.

You can learn about Will, listen to more tracks, and buy music on his website, WillRidenour.com.

Gratitudes

Thanks to Plant Yourself podcast patrons – Kim Harrison – Lynn McLellan – Brittany Porter – Dominic Marro – Barbara Whitney – Tammy Black – Amy Good – Amanda Hatherly – Mary Jane Wheeler – Ellen Kennelly – Melissa Cobb – Rachel Behrens – Tina Scharf – Tina Ahern – Jen Vilkinofsky – David Byczek – Michele X – Elspeth Feldman – Leah Stolar – Allan Kristensen – Colleen Peck – Michele Landry – Jozina – Sara Durkacs – Kelly Cameron – Janet Selby – Claire Adams – Tom Fronczak – Jeannette Benham – Gila Lacerte – David Donohue – Blair Seibert – Doron Avizov – Gio and Carolyn Argentati – Jodi Friesner – Mischa Rosen – Michael Worobiec – AvIvA Lael – Alicia Lemus – Val Linnemann – Nick Harper – Bandana Chawla – Molly Levine – The Inscrutable Harry R – Susan Laverty the Panda Vegan – Craig Covic – Adam Scharf – Karen Bury – Heather Morgan – Nigel Davies – Marian Blum – Teresa Kopel – Julian Watkins – Brid O'Connell – Shannon Herschman – Linda Ayotte – Holm Hedegaard – Isa Tousignant – Connie Haneline – Erin Greer – Alicia Davis – Heather O'Connor – Carollynne Jensen – Sheri Orlekoski of Plant Powered for Health – Karen Smith – Scott Mirani – Karen and Joe Crabtree – Kirby Burton – Theresa Carrell – Kevin Macaulay – Elizabeth Rothschild – Ann Jesse – Sheryl Dwyer – Jenny Hazelton – Peter W Evans – Dennis Bird – Darby Kelly – Lori Fanney – Linnea Lundquist – Emily Iaconelli – Levi Wallach – Rosamonde McAtee – Dan Pokorney – Stephen Leinin – Patty DeMartino – Mike and Donna Kartz – Deanne Bishop – Bilberry Elf – Marjorie Lewis – Tricia Adams – Nancy Sheldon – Lindsey Bashore – Gunn Marit Hagen – Tracey Gulledge – Lara Hedin – Meg from Mamasezz – Stacey Stokes – Ben Savage – Michael K – David Hughes -Coni Rodgers – Claire England – Sally Robertson – Parham Ganchi – Amy Dailey – Brian Tourville – Mark Jeffrey Johnson – Josie Dempsey – Caryn Schmitt – Pamela Hayden – Emily Perryman – Allison Corbett – Richard Stone – Lauren Vaught of Edible Musings – Erin Hastey – Sean Owens – Sagar Naik – Erika Piedra – Danielle Roberts – Michael Leuchten – Sarah Johnson – Katharine Floyd – Meryl Fury – for your generous support of the podcast.

Disclosure

This post may contain amazon affiliate links. I may receive compensation from your actions on such links. It don't cost you a dime, tho.

1 comment on “PYP 123: Dina Rose on Helping Parents End the Food Fights

  1. Thank You says:

    Lots of good information. Bought the book to give to a family member. Hopefully this gift will go over well and they actually read it; and apply it. Kids you know are the future and without good guidance, they will have a much harder life than necessary.

    Thank You

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *