Episode 14: Katie Kimball: Healthy Kids Cooking

Food should be your first medicine!

I think this topic is SO important, and I know when my kids were young I didn’t put enough effort into their nutrition. But as an acupuncturist, the first thing you learn in Chinese Medical School is food is your first medicine!

I think all areas of medicine are beginning to realize this!

To talk about why kids eating healthier and getting them in the kitchen is so important is Katie Kimball, the national voice of healthy kids cooking is a blogger, TEDx speaker, former teacher, and mom of 4 kids who founded the Kids Cook Real Food eCourse, recommended by The Wall Street Journal in 2020 as the best online cooking class for kids. Her blog, Kitchen Stewardship helps families stay healthy without going crazy, and she’s on a mission to connect families around healthy food and teach every child to cook as part of the Kids' Meal Revolution.

So, why do we need a kid’s meal revolution? Well to start it’s in part due to the shift in our culture that kids should eat differently than adults. 

We look at school lunches, and they continually get worse. The standard is set at practically fair food - but yet this is what we’re nurturing our kids with every day. 

In the restaurants, markets, everywhere,  it’s this bland, highly processed food. 

When are our kids supposed to form their pallets? When do they switch from chicken nuggets and french fries to food that nourishes their bodies?

We as parents need to push against the bar that says do it quick, easy, way,  and just be happy that kids are eating period. NO!! That is not ok!


Everybody can win and build good habits young - preventing all of these chronic diseases that plague the adult population. 

The younger the child the better. 

Katie talks about how she offered a free cooking program during the 2020 lockdown. 

She believes learning the skills over recipes is so important. She started giving her son a dull butter knife at age 18 months! Parents are overwhelmed now, and the time to take to teach your child how to cook - when you yourself might not know how to is so important!  

Katie gives you easy, actionable steps that make this possible.

It does not have to be overwhelming!

Katie is giving us a 3 step process she uses for kids who are ‘selective’ eaters, or, and she likes to say, still learning to eat. 

Katie is also giving us tips on what ages can start doing what tasks in the kitchen, and more!

Enjoy!

You can find out more about Katie by visiting her website here.

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julie hatch