French Kids Eat Everything: How Our Family Moved to France, Cured Picky Eating, Banned Snacking, and Discovered 10 Simple Rules for Raising Happy, Healthy Eaters
Written by Karen Le Billon
Narrated by Cris Dukehart
4/5
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About this audiobook
French Kids Eat Everything is a wonderfully wry account of how Karen Le Billon was able to alter her children’s deep-rooted, decidedly unhealthy North American eating habits while they were all living in France.
At once a memoir, a cookbook, a how-to handbook, and a delightful exploration of how the French manage to feed children without endless battles and struggles with pickiness, French Kids Eat Everything features recipes, practical tips, and ten easy-to-follow rules for raising happy and healthy young eaters—a sort of French Women Don’t Get Fat meets Food Rules.
Karen Le Billon
Karen Bakker Le Billon is a professor at the University of British Columbia, and was named one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 in 2011. A Rhodes Scholar with a Ph.D. from Oxford, she has published five academic books and Getting To Yum, a guide and cookbook on taste training for kids. She and her family divide their time between Canada and France. Her website was named a Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution Blog of the Month.
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Reviews for French Kids Eat Everything
128 ratings13 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Superbly written! Kept my interest all the way through; at no point did I become bored. This book is a fascinating account of a family that moves to France for a year and quickly realize they must acclimate their children to eat the way the French children do. This is a fascinating snapshot of French culture centering around food and family and pleasure. I would give it 10 stars if I could.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5If you're the proud owner of a finicky, picky eater this book is for you. It is full of sound advice on how to add variety to your kid's (and maybe your own) diets. It is deeply challenging to the North American standard diet and views about food.
We've added three new main courses to our family's food repertoire (or rotational rut as I've grown to understand it) before I even finished the book. I feel well armed with the knowledge needed to continue on the venture of widening my children's food horizons even more. I highly recommend. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I'm beyond the years with kids that might be picky eaters but read this book as part of our "Travel by Book Month" for our bookclub. What a great approach to get kids to eat better. There were some obstacles, but all rang true from what I watch parents do now when too busy to sit and make sure kids eat what they should. All new parents should read this book.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The author moved to France with her husband and young kids and was shocked by the culture's different approach to food. Below are the 10 rules she created to help change her own family's eating habits. 1) Parents: You are in charge of your children’s food education.2) Avoid emotional eating. Food is not a pacifier, a distraction, a toy, a bribe, a reward, or a substitute for discipline. 3) Parents schedule meals and menus. Kids eat what adults eat: no substitutes and no short-order cooking.4) Food is social. Eat family meals together at the table, with no distractions.5) Eat vegetables of all colors of the rainbow. Don’t eat the same main dish more than once per week.6) For picky eaters: You don’t have to like it, but you do have to taste it. For fussy eaters: You don’t have to like it, but you do have to eat it.7) Limit snacks, ideally one per day (two maximum), and not within one hour of meals. 8) Take your time, for both cooking and eating. Slow food is happy food.9) Eat mostly real, homemade food, and save treats for special occasions. (Hint: Anything processed is not “real” food.)10) Eating is joyful, not stressful. Treat the food rules as habits or routines rather than strict regulations; it’s fine to relax them once in a while.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What a gem of a book! In a world of fast food, internet and cell phones at the family table, Karen Le Billon takes us into the hidden world (at least to Americans) of french family life. A place that might remind today's septuagenarians of their youth. The french take their dining very seriously, Le Billon skillfully takes us through the intricacies of the french family meal cycle, meal planning, the importance of involvement of the family in food choices, and (sadly) perhaps the greatest insight into some of the core problems behind America's obesity epidemic. You will feel the little squirms of American children (and their parents) uncomfortable in the new social fabric their new home in of rural France. You will cheer the small steps and revel in the transformation of one American family on a cultural and transforming adventure. and you will learn why your children (and you) can eat everything.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Nice comparison of parenting styles in France and Canada. It is well written, very human, in an first person educated tone that feels like sharing between friends.Actually the book is such a smooth reading that is recommendable beyond parenting, as a cultural study contrasting both sides of the Atlantic.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This was a delightful little book. It was written by a Canadian who moved her family to her husband’s small hometown in France when her two children were little. Surprisingly, a large percent of her culture shock revolved around food and food education for children. Expectations in France were very different for toddlers and children than they were in North America. The author shares her journey and revelations through amusing and easy-to-read anecdotes.
The book goes through a series of 10 French eating rules that she observed while in France. Since they are listed on the back cover, I don’t mind sharing them with you, but I do encourage you to read the book on your own for all the details.
1. Parents: You are in charge of your child’s food education.
2. Avoid emotional eating. No food rewards, bribes, etc.
3. Parents schedule meals and menus. Kids eat what adults eat. No short-order cooking.
4. Eat family meals together without distractions.
5. Eat a variety of vegetables.
6. You don’t have to like it, but you do have to taste/eat it.
7. No snacking. It’s okay to feel hungry between meals.
8. Slow food is happy food. (Eat slow).
9. Eat mostly real food.
10. Eating is Joyful ~ Relax!
I enjoyed reading this book, and it was quite thought provoking. I am guilty of a lot of things she mentions are “standard” in America — especially the emotional eating and snacking. I have recently been trying to “undo” a lot of unhealthy eating habits in my children, and I feel like this book has given me a few good places to start. I even copied several of her recipes, which she shared toward the end of the book, to try with my own children. 5 of 5 stars. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vancouver native, Karen Le Billon relocates with her family to her husband's home town in France. She, along with her two young daughters and her North American sensibilities, quickly runs against the prevailing French attitudes towards food, eating and child rearing. While she rebels early on, she soon learns the wisdom of the French philosophy, which is happy to share with her readers. Many will question if these rules are so much 'French' as just common sense approaches to eating. Either way, much contained here is sensible advice. The contrast between her own attitudes and experiences and those of her newfound friends, neighbors and family leads to much entertainment and humor. I particularly liked that she ends her tale back in Vancouver. We are treated to her struggle to apply her hard won lessons to her old snack-driven, chicken nugget ridden world. The book ends with some suggested tips for applying these lessons or 'rules' to children of various ages.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5French Kids Eat Everything is a well-written book that describes the differences in food culture between France and the United States and it's impact on feeding kids. I have generally found books that criticize American child-rearing practice tedious and unhelpful, yet because the author grounds in her work in the cultural/economy structures that support French parents, it was enlightening and Inspiring. I also appreciated the suggestions and advice given by the author and eagerly read about the changes this family to more healthful eating.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A very interesting book. My sympathy for what a parent has to face trying to teach healthy eating habits to their children today. I also think this book would make a wonderful addition to French class to help students for French language and culture understand the French perspective.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Karen Le Billon shares in this intimately written memoir the ups and downs of a North American mother confronting the opportunities and frustrating challenges of French food culture. She is interested in sharing specifically how she adapted and how her children adapted to a set of cultural practices very distinct from American practices when it comes to eating. First and foremost, the French eat for pleasure. Americans eat for health. This simple dichotomy results in drastically different approaches at the dinner table. The French pride themselves on their interest in eating everything, a skill developed at the earliest age and supported by exposure to all manner of tastes and sensory food experiences. Parents say children don't like food simply because they haven't learned to like it yet. French parents emphasize the joy of eating, the pleasure of sitting at the table for long periods in good company, and a well developed sense of taste.This book provides relief for American parents concerned about what our children eat. It opens up a new approach to eating that involves both the parent and child in the discovery of how we eat and what makes eating pleasurable. By focusing on the how, rather than the what, the French take the anxiety out of eating and focus on the reason why we eat: to celebrate life.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Great review of the french approach to loving food and schedulding meals.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5TERRIFIC!!!! Where and how did we go wrong with the entire eating "system" that has become what IS in North America? I am so completely impressed with how beautifully Karen describes her complete turn around and then adaptiveness when she returned to Canada. This is a book every new parent should have as a present and parents with older children need it to realize where they are and how they can change. Karen, you have made a wonderful place to start!