What Troy eats on a random DAY 1 (in Thailand)

Hello my Lovelies!

I have decided to do a series of posts about what my kids eat daily to discuss more details about nutrition and choices. For now it is easier to share this for me on the blog, but soon I hope we can also make for you some videos too.

troy (4)

 

Here is Thursday’s menu:

1. Breakfast: 4 medium Banana smoothie with kale, chia, coconut sugar
2. Second Breakfast – 10 peeled and sliced rambutan fruits
3. Lunch – approximately 25 pieces of rambutan, it takes a while for him to eat it.
4. Snack – a spoon of sliced almonds (must be crunchy or he won’t eat them)
5. Dinner 1st course – rest of the rambutan (about 15 fruits)
6. Dinner 2nd course (about 1 hour later) – few steamed string beans with sliced tomatoes. He usually eats one thing first and then the other, without mixing. He also ate about a tablespoon of plain rice. When it gets cold he doesn’t want any cooked food anymore.

My kids can set an example for parents who struggle with picky eaters. All three of them have unusual sensitivities to touch, smell and appearance of food. They do not eat some of the foods because of the specific smell or consistence. It can be very challenging at times. I must say it is getting better and better as we progress with the diet. It must have to do something with the condition they used to have and their immune system is over-reacting, causing the specific respond and behaviors. Diet is fixing those issues slowly and I can see the change in them, trying some new foods is easier and their selection increases.

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First up is TROY.

He is 2 years 4 months old today. He is still eating a little bit differently than my older kids, simply because he is still very small and his chewing abilities and tastes are less mature. He was fully raw from 13 months old for about 6-7 months and I started to give him small addition of steamed veggie or starches when he asked for it, but the percentage of cooked foods in his menu reaches no more than 5%. He is still too little and doesn’t eat typical salad at the evening. He eats his greens in smoothies. He likes to eat every type of food as a mono meal so far, even for smoothies he chooses only one type of fruit with greens. He started to eat a little bit of cooked starches few months ago, but in really small amounts, like a spoon of rice or 1/2 potato. He is not much into cooked foods anyway.

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He usually loves his smoothies in the morning and for dinner, he likes sweet and juicy fruits to enjoy through the day and snacks on seeds, but not much. I have a little bit of a dilemma with him, as he is not into fatty foods at all. He used to eat a half of young coconut per day or a quarter of avocado, but he refuses to eat those right now. He also is not going to drink his smoothie if I add some fat in significant amount. So the only fats he is eating are some seeds in crackers, dehydrated young coconut meat (I discovered this as an option that interests him), little amount I sneak in his smoothie, like 1 walnut, 2-3 almonds, teaspoon of chia or flax, 1/8 avocado, 1 spoon of fresh coconut meat etc. I need to be very careful and do not exceed the amount that he likes in taste. Avocado much changes taste of banana smoothie, so the key for me is to go little and steady over the entire day.

troy (1)

He also has “seasons” for his favorites. When he finds the fruit that suits his buds at the moment he is going to eat mostly this one for a few days or even a week. He usually keeps the green morning smoothie routine, but for the whole day he asks for the same thing over and over again.

troyCurrently we are in RAMBUTAN season, which is correct, because it is at it’s peak in here. Rambutan right now is very sweet, very juicy and tastes really good. He is eating about 2kg per day (weight in shells). When this “season” continues he is eating much more calories per day than usual. After the “season” he slows down on calories and eats much less per day until another discovery comes along.

troy (9)

Before rambutan, about 2 weeks ago he was on pineapple train, eating 2 medium-large pineapples daily. I think it is quite natural and makes a total sense. He is not overweight from eating so much calories, but he is also not a skinny baby. He has a bit a tummy and round face, but his legs and arms are thinner, he looks just perfect for his age.

Here is the table of calories of what he was eating yesterday, copied from CRON-O-METER.com:
(there is no choice of fresh raw rambutan, only canned, but the difference would be about 40-50 calories less than fresh based on this amount):

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His calories are great, lets look at the nutrition charts, also copied from CRON-O-METER.com:

Screen Shot 2015-07-03 at 12.23.55 PMI do not want to go into so much details, but lets focus on three things, that I widely explained in my eBook “The Fruit Cure”, just to compare with common beliefs:

1. protein – Troy was eating FRUIT for ~ 95 % of his meals and if you look at the recommended standard dose of protein per day, he GREATLY exceeded  this amount. Not only this but all of the required amino acids are met above 100 of recommend amount. I can’t imagine how much protein are eating people on standard diet, when most of the processed foods are packed with protein, however I would still doubt their quality and variety. Fruit has very little of protein, just 5-10% of calories (which is about 1-2% of content) but from eating much of fruits we collect a great amount of very good quality, plant sourced protein, that body absorbs so well and also tolerates well.

2. fats – there is a deficiency on Omega6, he may catch up on those the next day, but he generally eats less fatty foods, so if you add a half avocado here and a little some sunflower seeds, the nutrition for this daily menu would be perfect. We are working on it and progressing slowly. The other thing is, that standard recommendations for fats are much higher than it supposed to be according to 801010 book (with adjustment for children 0-10y.o.), so probably we are good as well.

3. vitamins and minerals – most of them are supplied daily, when he will eat different fruits on the next day the proportions on vitamins and minerals will change and balance over time. Vitamin D is absorbed from sun, so it is zero from foods as well as B12.

I will do the same analysis for 2 more days for Troy and I will move up to Travis and Maya, to compare and see how the values change. Let me know your thoughts and please ask questions and also suggest what else would you like to know. Let me know it this was helpful.

For some reason I got challenging kids. Raising them is not an easy job, not many know this better than me. But facing this everyday for many years already has given me an experience and knowledge that I will be sharing, because I think it has happened for a cause. Somehow we are overcoming this, which is why I want my struggle to become your strength. 

Happy reading and see you on the next blog on Monday, at about the same time.

Yours, always,
Ullenka

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In my ebook I explain most aspects of nutrition very well, using comparisons and life situations, with all the details, I addressed also most common concerns. The eBook is available here:

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7 Responses

  1. Hi! I just recently found your blog and I’m finding it very interesting. Beautiful family. I noticed in your two posts about your son that he’s getting enough iron. Do you have any knowledge on what fruit or veggie (or whatever) that is supplying that mineral? I’m curious because my son is a picky eater and that is one mineral I’ve been concerned with. Thanks! 🙂

    1. Hi Stacy!
      As far as iron concern it is a mineral presented widely in all leafy greens, especially concentrated in their stems, so blending them in smoothies is a key. I also think that seeds and nuts are a good source. But most important is to deliver vitamin c at the same time, to let hemoglobin link iron molecule and deliver it to the system. I hope I did not mix up information in this process, but I do not have time to double check, so if you want try to read about this in Wikipedia maybe. Green smoothies in my opinion are the best to meet his needs. Try to start with 1 leaf and increase within time as he will become to love the taste more and more. And welcome to my blog 🙂

      1. Thanks so much for taking the time to reply!

        Yes, the vitamin C with iron rings true with me too.

        I do not use instagram so I cannot follow your journey there. So forgive my ignorance… what about raw veggies? I know some veggies are better cooked due to the goitrogenic substances and oxalic acid. Do you steam or cook veggies before consumption? Do you only eat certain veggies? Only in smoothies?

        1. Hi,
          It’s ok. We eat mostly only leafy veggies raw, but kale or spinach only sometimes. Other veggies I steam but not every day. We eat raw carrots, raw radish, raw beets, raw onion (only grown ups), scallion, celery, some herbs like cilantro but all in moderation. In smoothies and salads all to our liking. I have included few chapters of very precise recommendations on all the choices for fruits, vegetables and other foods with detailed explanation why, in my eBook if you may need it at some point. Kind regards, Ullenka

  2. Loved this Ulenka, thanks so much for doing this. I look forward to reading about Travis and Maya’s diet as well.
    I love your books and will refer many people to them – as before i had nothing to show people when i would tell them about your children and how well they are healing and growing.
    Much love to you all and now i have to go catch up on all your videos!
    Love to you all xox

  3. Hi. You are lucky to live in a place with so much fresh fruit to eat. I live in a sub-tropical part of Mexico, so local fruit is available all year long. Even Rambutan 🙂 We are not 100% fruits and veggies, but ever since reading about your daughters struggles, I’ve really pushed for my kids eating all the fresh fruit possible. Does your daughter have any food allergies? Mine can’t do tree-nuts, peanut, certain seeds like sesame & flax (or eggs and wheat). Oatmeal gives her a stomach ache I think it triggers the yeast in her gut.

    As for the Omega-6, do you have chia available? It packs an omega punch and luckily my daughter isn’t allergic. Plus right now it’s pretty cheap here (last year the price was 4x as much).

    Also, I wanted to mention that the daily vitamin RDA should only be taken with a grain of salt. I don’t know if the RDA are based on the USDA, but the amounts they claim are based on the amount needed to prevent diseases such as scurvy. The body actually needs a lot more. Also, as for Vitamin-A, since your child is obtaining it from plant sources, it’s actually beta-carotene. And the body converts beta-carotene to Vitamin-A only as needed. So there is no problem with 1000% RDA levels. If that was obtained from animal sources, then that would be a different story as you can actually get very sick.

    Anyhow, I look forward to reading your books when I am able to purchase. Thank you!

    1. Thank you so much for a very detailed response. Yes, living in here is an advantage on quality and prices, as well as availability of many kinds of fruits. Maya has several allergies, but I think it is getting slowly back to normal as she can eat small amounts of nuts without reaction. We use chia as well as flax and other seeds.
      This is great as that you could change some of their habits this early, it will last for life. I see how my kids have changed since we have started. They even talk about their food choices and discuss the meat eating, Travis is missing it a bit, but Maya explains to him and I know it is a need for protein or fats, so right away I get him some young coconut or sunflowers to munch on and he is ok.
      As far as levels, if its coming from natural sources the body gets rid of the excess without any problem. On standard diet the body usually fights with amount of protein we eat and that creates all sorts of problems.
      When you get your eyes on the book, it’s all there, but I’m sure you know so much already.
      Ullenka

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