Cars and Nutrition

My 5 year old son C loves carbs. He eats carbs almost every chance he gets. He gobbles his noodles, rice, crackers, bread, and any other carbs first before he eats anything else. Luckily he is a good eater with his vegetables and proteins outside of carbs and I hoped teaching him the importance of eating the other food groups would help.

One afternoon over the weekend, I was noticing C was eating tons of carbs for lunch again. I asked him whether cars just need gasoline and he thought about the question. He has watched the Cars movie enough times to know that cars don’t need just gasoline or else Lightning McQueen would have ended the movie in the first scenes by winning the race. C eventually said he thinks cars need more than gasoline and we had a discussion about things that cars need.

If cars needed a good engine, that’s where protein helps. Protein builds muscles in your body and makes your engine better so you can go faster for longer. Vegetables and fruits help fortify the rest of the car so the frame, windows, tires, and other areas work as intended. If you don’t have a strong engine or you don’t have working tires, your car will break down eventually.

My 6 year old daughter E was now pondering the analogy I was making between cars and nutrition. She started to chime in with her thoughts and how she is a balanced eater, which is very true. C also started to eat more chicken and vegetables as we were talking, so I know the message was working. Hopefully over time, they can hold on to eating a balanced diet and remembering these small conversations about how to build and maintain a healthy car.