The Kitchen Makeover

Build Your Kitchen Infrastructure

To make optimal use of your healthily restocked kitchen, you'll need the right equipment. A few suggestions:

• It is a very good idea to invest in plenty of Tupperware or other containers for storage. As you'll be relying less on preservative-jammed, processed, packaged foods and more on fresh foods, you'll need containers for storing them. Investing in a comprehensive set of storage containers will provide an easy means for storing leftovers, snacks for kids to take along with them, and for fruits and veggies. While it's not necessary, you may also want to look into a vacuum-packaging system to keep produce, cheese, and meats fresh and keep dry goods from going stale.
• Take a look at your cooking utensils. Do you have all of the pots, pans, and other equipment you need to most effectively prepare healthy food? These items can be expensive, and the list of things you might need is too long to detail here, but we mention it so you can at least consider what you will use/need most.
• Invest in a few extra cutting boards so your kids can participate in preparing food. Remember to keep the jobs age appropriate (for example: 3-year-olds should only be doing things like tearing lettuce and not wielding knives). The more involved you can get kids in preparing their own food, the more sense of ownership they will have over what they eat, which engenders a sense of responsibility for healthful eating.
• In this vein, buy the kids some aprons so they can really get into the spirit of it. If this seems prohibitively un-cool, have them watch ten minutes of Emeril or the Iron Chef to gain the proper perspective.

Update Your Kitchen Rules

Now that you have made over what's in your kitchen, it's a good time to reconsider how you use it. Many people develop their kitchen rules of use informally, with rules that remain both unstated and unexamined. We advise you to think carefully about how you use your kitchen and even implement some formal policies. Chief among them:

• Eating occasions should be predefined and limited to breakfast, lunch, dinner, and two snacks: one mid-morning and one mid-afternoon. And that's it. If you are eating healthily, there is no reason to eat at other times. Encouraging this regimen will minimize or eliminate "grazing" and eating out of boredom or "because it's there," all of which can have unhealthful consequences for waistlines. Corollary: nobody should be in the kitchen eating between meals.
• Extra credit: All food is eaten in the kitchen or at the dining room table! No food makes its way out of the kitchen to other areas of the house. It is too easy to break the first rule if food wanders outside the kitchen.
• No hidden food! If parents have a habit of hiding foods from their kids (or from each other!), your kids will find it. We promise.
• Keep the kitchen clean and the dishes washed at all times, getting it done immediately after meals. This will minimize the temptation to avoid cooking because of a barrier of dirty dishes.
• The primary food preparer should not be functioning as a short-order cook. Everyone should be eating the same food at each meal (with obvious exceptions for babies, people with food allergies, special dietary needs, etc.). In many families, different meals are prepared or adjusted according to the tastes of each family member. We discourage this, as it encourages finicky eaters and makes it more difficult to develop good habits in your kids.
• Designate one day a week a "treat day." There is no reason to expect dessert after every meal, but it is perfectly fine to have sweets one day per week, and this can even be a good occasion for a family bonding event. This can be either in the home or outside the home (for example: taking your family out for ice cream). We strongly recommend choosing treats with pre-portioned sizes, such as an ice cream cone or a cookie. If you would like to have cake, make cupcakes and don't allow seconds.

We acknowledge that making all of these changes is not easy. But if your family can choose a few to start with and continue to make over your kitchen on an on-going basis, you will reap the corresponding health benefits.