Some of you know that i lost 55 pounds this spring on a ketosis diet. In that time, I've been obsessed with reading the EatingAcademy.com by Dr Peter Attia. It's amazing nutritional information.

This week, he wrote an article answering a common question he gets: What does he feed his own 4 yr old daughter.

eatingacademy.com/personal/hey-peter-wha...es-your-daughter-eat

A good, balanced article. One thing that seems pretty clear: sugar is bad stuff and kids get way too much of it. But I like that he acknowledges that kids are kids.

Whole fresh foods, lots of fruits and veggies, lean protein. Get fish into the diet early.

Thanks for posting this, T.Low.

That's a well written article.

The approach we've taken with our son is, "he eats what we eat". We tried making baby recipes (pureed peas, steamed carrots, etc), but it never really seemed to take off for us. Starting at six months, we just fed him whatever we were eating - cut down and mashed into appropriate serving sizes, of course.

We're not as disciplined as the author of the article when it comes to ingredients, but we're pretty close. We have about 75 square feet of vegetable garden in the yard. We buy a lot of our groceries from the farmer's market and we minimize our intake of processed, prepackaged foods. We buy our meat (grass fed beef, and pork) from a local farmer as well, and since we buy it in bulk (we buy beef at "1/8th of a cow", and pork at "1/2 of a pig", and jam pack it in our freezer), the cost isn't as outrageous as you'd expect.

Since he eats what we eat, our son by default has those dietary practices as well. I think he gets pretty good nutritional intake for a 22 month old. He'll eventually have some fast food or junk food - you can't keep your kids locked up in a vacuum chamber - but I think you can set good habits at a young age.

Edit: A long time ago, I was at the laundromat, and I remember watching a young mother feed her toddler a glazed donut (with sprinkles) and a big gulp full of cola for breakfast. For some reason that image has always stuck with me.

Edit #2: I do love me some potato chips, though. I guess that's why I'm not a syndicated health columnist...