In this article, chef Susan Teton Campbell shares about feeding kids, including farm-grown foods, car snacks, and more. Susan is a food evangelist and author of “Raising a New America”​​and co-author of “The Healthy School Lunch Action Guide.”

Kevin: Tell us a bit about your experience working with schools, working with children. What is a good way to start introducing these foods to children?

Suzanne: When I worked in the schools, that was in the 90s, so I think it depends on the children. I think it is very important that children start at an early age with only food from the land and not from the factory. I have neighbors who will stop at McDonald’s for treats for their children. They will say from time to time. It’s like the kind of deal. They’ll come home with these sugary colas and all these kinds of things, shakes. They are everywhere. They are so amped up.

I raised a son who had a lot of problems with allergies and concentration and all the things we now call ADHD. He’s grown up, but these things, that’s how I first learned that food could be so powerful. If parents think a little is okay, I really don’t think more is. The children being born into the world today are not as strong as they were 20 or 30 years ago. Every generation we get a little weaker because of all the environmental influences and everything else. I think it is absolutely vital that your children start out on a very healthy diet. I would definitely include a cultured food in their diet. If they’re young and you’re raising them on a good diet, their training will be much stronger and much better able to handle more junk food as they enter a larger and more expanded social life.

I know it’s a problem with many parents. I know it is very difficult. My friends make sure to sit down for dinner every night, even though they sometimes do these other things. In general, their children eat dinner every night and have that family time. I think that is also very important.

I highly recommend a cultured meal. If you don’t have time to make them, make sure they get probiotics in pill form or in some form. Now there are many products on the market.

The other thing is that I don’t think parents should push their kids so hard and make them finish all their food. Most children don’t need as much food as people think they do. They will let you know when they are hungry. So you always want to make sure you have nuts and seeds and things like that in the car or a little packet to go, so that when you go out and the kids are hungry or your blood sugar is low, you always have fluids. and you always have maybe some dried fruit and nuts and seeds for them to snack on. You’ll find that if they’re really hungry, they’ll grab it and eat a handful and then they’re done. They don’t need as much food.

I think as long as you have good, healthy food in the house, if you really don’t want to eat your broccoli, then don’t make it.

The thing is, eventually they will. The things I eat now, I never ate when I was a kid.

And I don’t like to go into vegan, vegetarian, low-fat, high-fat. I’m really just trying to educate people to eat from the land and not from the factory. If people really want to incorporate animal foods into their lives, what I’m saying is make sure animals are as healthy as they’d like to be.

If you’re going to drink milk or eat cheese, just make sure. I’ve found in all of my research and just by looking at families, if they eat animal foods and eat other really healthy foods from the earth, they’re generally doing pretty well. It’s the worst factory junk food and highly processed food and all the chemicals.

Kevin: I’m not ethically opposed to dairy or eggs, but I read something like The China Study and said, what’s the answer? You know what I mean? Do you have any idea about that?

Suzanne: I think the answer is not so much from them. A lot of these diets, low carb diets or whatever, make you eat salmon every day or eggs every day. I think if you eat an egg a week or so, it won’t be a big deal. But I agree, I think we are much better off with a more vegetarian diet. But a vegetarian diet doesn’t mean you’re eating a lot of starches.

Kevin: Good.

Suzanne: This is why I am a true advocate of trying to inspire people to eat more vegetables. Not as many beans, but more lentils, chickpeas, and mung beans. These things are really good food. All these high quality alkaline vegetables and grains and food grown. If you are going to eat foods of animal origin you should do so in more moderation, which is how centenarians do. They have about 10-15 percent of their diet is some animal protein. It is a very small amount. They can take a piece of meat and make a stew and maybe you have two bites of meat. That’s all you really have because it’s enough.