If our food habits are learned, they can also be relearned.

But in these vast quantities, the milk leaves children anemic (because calcium in the cow’s milk blocks the absorption of iron) and badly constipated, not to mention at risk for obesity from the excess calories. The constipation and the fact that the milk is so filling leave the children with little appetite for proper meals. As a result, they fail

When a dietician hears the first inklings of “change talk,” says Pearson, he should not hurry the person on to the practicalities of dieting or an exercise program, but try to capture the desire for change in such a way that the patient can hear what she has said. The dietician’s job is not to persuade, but to strengthen someone’s own desire for

Whatever their core condition may be, these children cannot behave at the table because the food is causing them such distress.

When a reward is offered for performing an activity, that activity is valued less.

All the foods that you regularly eat are ones that you learned to eat.

its composition matters not just in the short term but because it forms how the children will eat in adult life.

while the taste for sweetness is innate to all human beings and common to all cultures, when it comes to actual sweet foods—and other unhealthy processed foods—we show profoundly varied responses.

The third—which I’ll call “kid food”—says that children should be fed exactly what they like, no matter how sugary or fake.