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The other day a bunch of us mothers from my daughter’s daycare got together to talk about our hectic lives as working mothers and of course, our kids. The conversation quite naturally veered more towards the latter, specifically on how to ensure that our kids get a balanced diet. As a group, we lack time owing to our extremely busy schedules. It is a fact we have accepted and have to live with. That being said what came out clearly in our conversation was that one of our top priorities still was ensuring that our kids eat right. Well, that shouldn’t really be surprising as we are still mothers after all.
But how do we ensure that irrespective of the paucity of time or our hectic schedules the health of our kids is not compromised?
Well, trust me, this is one question that never has a satisfactory answer for us mothers. When I was growing up, I remember my mom making different items for breakfast, lunch and dinner for us every day. I never realized how much time and effort was required until I became a mom myself. Because I cannot do it myself. When I shared this with those mothers that day, I found consolation in their support. They told me how even they constantly experience this guilt of choosing something which they haven’t prepared from scratch for their kids. The sad thing is that it is often women who chastise us for choosing the easier alternative on busy days. But, as mothers, we don’t really care what others think of our cooking skills as long as we manage to feed our kids well, keep them healthy and safe. And we know a balanced diet paired with lots of activity is the key to good health. In fact, there is no ‘healthy’ or ‘unhealthy’ food as long as everything is consumed in moderation.
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As we discussed the topic of meal plans, the topic of Maggi Noodles came up, one mum shared some nuggets of information with us. And I share them here for the other mothers who might be reading this:
To have a balanced diet, you need calories from carbohydrates (50-60%), about proteins (10-15%) and fat (20-30%).
In a pack of Maggi, there is around 12g of fat which is just 1/5th of your daily dietary requirement. This is even less than in common items like a cheese sandwich.
But that’s not all she did a little more digging about Maggi:
A MAGGI Noodles cake goes through 5 step cooking process before they are packed. At first, they are steamed – very similar to the process of making Idli. Then they are baked. The 3rd step involves quick frying of about a minute and a half which reduces the moisture in the noodle & cooks the noodles cakes enough for them to remain stable for several months before they reach consumers. This also ensures that you can cook your MAGGI noodles in boiling water for just 2 minutes. Finally, after drying & cooling the noodles are packed.
Moreover, she too had grown up having Maggi, as we all did, in moderation, of course. So, what her mother had chosen for her couldn’t be bad when had in moderation.
Everyone has a different understanding of what is good and what is bad. As mothers, we need to make decisions based on the information available and our instincts.
Now I might not have the time to chart out all this every morning but I try. I don’t have the time to cook a five-course meal every time for my daughter but I’ll do the best I can in the limited time that I have.
What do you do to ensure your child’s nutrition?