It should come as no surprise to anyone that knows us that food is an important part of our lives. I love to cook, and we both love to eat. It would make me happy if we could raise a kid who was willing to eat lots of different things and also understood that not all her food comes in pre-packaged, highly processed form. In an effort to educate myself on how that might be accomplished, I recently read French Kids Eat Everything, by Karen Le Billon.

It is not my intention to write a full review of this book. Instead, I’d like to make note of some of the things I found interesting.

In this book, Le Billon proposes 10 food rules that are meant to help raise happy, healthy eaters. Some of these seem like they might be good advice for the rest of us as well. The need to offer a variety of foods and cook whole foods as much as possible has already been on my mind.

One thing I found interesting though is that the French believe that teaching a kid how to eat is as important as teaching grammar or math. They consider it the parents’ job to ensure that their child knows how to eat properly. The parents, not the kids, are in charge of deciding what will be eaten and when, and contrary to what seems to be the norm these days, snacking is kept to a minimum or eliminated altogether. It’s okay to feel hungry between meals; it helps kids to learn to listen to their bodies, to understand when they need food and when they do not.

Early in their budding eating careers, kids are offered a variety of foods, to the point of having pureed “soups” thinned and served in their bottles. If something is pushed away a time or two, the parents simply keep offering the foods noting that the child just hasn’t tasted it enough to like it yet. They’re training their children’s palates. I personally don’t know if I will have the patience for that, but it’s an interesting notion regardless.

Offering treats as a reward or withholding food as punishment is simply not done. Eating is not to be considered an emotional affair. Meals have a logical progression: first the salad, then the main course, then the dessert. Instead of threatening to not serve dessert to convince a kid to eat his vegetables, it’s simply not possible to serve dessert till through with the main course.

Families eat together in France, and they converse at the table, generally taking their time to get through a meal. Food is not mere fuel. It is enjoyed and discussed, lingered over. Le Billon points out that it’s not just eating that the kids who share a meal with grown-ups are learning, it’s also the art of conversation, what the news of the day is, how to disagree without being offensive, how to be polite. They’re learning to enjoy the meal. Also, taking things slowly and savoring their food allows them time to realize they’re full before they’re completely, gluttonously stuffed.

I want to try some of these things out and see if we can raise our kid to be a good eater. Those who are already parents are probably laughing at me right now, and I’m sure I’ll learn the hard way that she may sometimes have a stronger will than I do. For now though, I’m going to stick with the notion that we are in charge of making sure she learns how to eat well. We’ll just see how it goes.