Thank Hummus


When moving through challenging times, it is often recommended to write a list or a few paragraphs of gratitude to switch around the route of thinking that can set in.  Among many other foods, I thank hummus for the sake of Julia.  If one thing is happening through the process of nutrition re-education for Julia, it is the expansion of palate.  A kind of pickiness and tight routine had limited calorie intake for sometime for her.  As Julia is a prototype of a 13-year old calorie burning machine – 93rd percentile in height, growing two inches in a year, athletic, exerciser, and a full-time thinker – the fact that she has always also been picky did not come in handy at all.  Given the choice, she might discount hummus as odd, not tasty, unusual in texture, not digesting properly…you name it; not given the choice, well, hummus isn't too bad, is a strong source for protein, some fat, fiber, and vitamin C.  If a kid doesn't know or understand about the breakdown in contents and how the growing body needs these things, he or she relies strictly on the taste test and we all know the likely results.  As a parent, it's naturally not an easy sell to say "hummus or bust."  And yet, in these exclusive cases, that is what must be done.  Julia has been eating five or six meals a day now for three weeks and has handled them all.  Dairy in small

doses has become a possibility again…"yogurt's pretty good!"  Yesterday, the anticipated snack of

 raisins and pretzel twists was welcome.  Pizza night two nights ago, although still not a favorite, (extreme cheese) was done.  Now there is the possibility of a future weekly pizza night because we have seen it done.  Waffles, pot roast, Chinese wraps with hot sauce, pot pie, what have you, all done.  The children obesity epidemic in America (75 percent all American children) has left naturally thin girls on their own a bit in terms of health education and understanding what is happening at such a time of body growth and personal change.  What we thought we knew intuitively still stands as sound, but the great reversal in logic might best be sounded for Julia not as much in the time-tested saying "eat your vegetables," but instead "eat your fat sources!"