Kids & the Impact of Nutrition on Resilience with Registered Dietitian Jessica Rusch
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Our guest on this month's podcast, Registered Dietitian Jessica Rusch, suggests we view our kids, and ourselves, as premium cars that need premium gasoline when it comes to thinking about nutrition. She shares some great tips to help us do this even with those picky eaters or kiddos with nervous stomachs.
Jessica Rusch's love for food and nutrition developed at the ripe age of 14. At this time, she started to become aware of nutrition labels, read up on nutrition articles, and became involved in sports. Jessica realized the amazing impact nutrition had on the way you think, feel, and look, and thus developed a strong interest in this field. It only made sense for her to carry this passion over into a career.
Jessica attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and graduated with a
Bachelor of Science in Food Science and Human Nutrition in May of 2008. In 2009 she completed her required dietetic internship through Texas A & M University at Kingsville and completed her Masters in Clinical Nutrition at Rush University in December 2023.
As a dietitian, Jessica gained experience in facilitating nutrition research studies, conducting one-on-one nutrition sessions, volunteering at youth diabetes camps, developing and completing educational seminars, coaching, leading nutrition classes, and the list goes on!
Jessica's passion for food and the effect it has on our lives continues to fascinate her on an everyday basis. Her goal is to share this love and passion while helping others learn the positive impact of good nutrition to reach their health-related goals!
If you would like to learn more about Jessica's background, check out her LinkedIn profile at:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicaannerusch
Instagram Pages referenced in the interview:
https://www.instagram.com/feedinglittles/
https://www.instagram.com/mymunchbug_melaniepotock/
https://www.instagram.com/kids.eat.in.color/
Thank you for listening to the Raising Resilient Kids Podcast where we provide parents, teachers and coaches with ideas and strategies to help kids and teens build their resilience and achieve their potential in a healthy, fulfilling way.
It takes a village to raise a healthy, resilient child and this podcast gives you, as members of your village, tools to do exactly this.
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Episode Transcript
Jeannie: [00:00:00] Our question of the month is how important is nutrition in strengthening mental health, building resilience in youth, and I've never been more excited or more relaxed for a conversation that we're going to have with one of our guests because we have my best friend here to answer it.
Jesse: Yes, I'm so excited to be here,
Jeannie: We live across the country from each other, so we don't get to see each other that often. So when we wanted to have Jesse on as a guest, it was like, this is perfect because I we get to have a great guest, but I also get to have a conversation with my best friend.
So Jess, what do you, what do you think for that question? How important is nutrition in strengthening mental
Jesse: for sure. Yeah, I mean, it's obviously what we're putting into our body, like food is fuel. , and I've used this analogy before too, but I feel like you have to kinda look at our bodies as , premium cars. You wanna put that premium gasoline in your car because you wanna operate well, you don't want a lot of trips to the doctor.
You want to avoid diseases or complications and that kind of thing. It's really important, , starting early with like good habits and stuff, because I do see that a [00:01:00] lot where people are later in life. It's like, they're trying to reverse all these bad habits. It's like if you had established that at a younger age, then you won't be dealing with all these problems later in life where you're trying to like get on a better diet.
I think, you know, with kids too, it's like there's just so much research to support what they're eating really affects them. just how mentally, uh, physically they operate. , and even socially,
When I think about mentally, there's something called like the gut brain barrier.
Even like so having breakfast in the morning there's just research to support that you just concentrate have a meal in the mornin on an empty stomach. And then of course, f If you want to do better in sports, you got to fuel yourself properly. You're going to be faster. You're gonna, , be able to, again, that mental connection.
That's, that's so important too. You have to mentally be there to concentrate. So if you're not fueling yourself properly, you're not going to have that in sports or just any kind of functioning during the day. And then there's that social aspect. I just, I really believe [00:02:00] that family should sit together, have a good meal.
Um, have that sort of that, uh, connection at meals. A lot of times that's the only time during the day that people can sit down with their kids when they're so busy is like with that meal. So that is a chance to let your hair down and actually connect with your family members over like a good meal. So I just feel like nutrition just plays into so much mental, physical, social.
It's very important.
,
Tom: It is important to have. Breakfast. But when you've got kind of a nervous stomach, if a kid's got a nervous stomach and they've got, you know, a big test that day, um, a, you know, a presentation they have to do, like, how do,
you balance that?
What's, what's your suggestion for those situations?
Jesse: Sure. Yeah. I mean, when there's no appetite kind of there, one thing I would recommend is a lot of things you don't necessarily feel like sitting down for like a huge meal, but even something like a low sugar, like protein shake, just something you can sip on just to get a little bit of nutrition in you.
I feel like that would go, um, a little bit farther than having nothing at [00:03:00] all. You can make your own protein shake or you could buy like a pre made one, as long as it's, you know, got a good balance of stuff going on in there. so that could be just something to like step on slowly just to get some kind of nutrition in.
I don't necessarily want someone forcing themselves to eat if they're going to
Jeannie: Sure. Sure.
Jesse: because of that. But, um, yeah, I would say something like that would probably be a good go to
Jeannie: Well, and even then, something like that, a kid could maybe have that on the car ride to school.
Jesse: Exactly. Yeah. Cause the worst thing you would want to be is like in the middle of a test and your stomach's like grumbling then at that point. , so just trying to get some kind of like nutrient dense food in your system, smaller amount of like a high calorie packed with a little bit of nutrition.
That's my best recommendation kind
Tom: that makes complete sense. I wish I would've known that back in grade school, high school,
because it was, you know, you'd get in the test and you'd be like, I'd be like dead tired. I'd just be just drain because I hadn't had anything, but then when I did try to have a big breakfast, you know, my stomach was bothering me.
So that's, yeah,
Jeannie: . Think about it. Tom, [00:04:00] you would have gone to Yale or Harvard had you just known just to sip on a
protein shake. 4.
Tom: lot of, Oh
Jesse: Hey, I, but like, I've come a long way because I used to eat Pop Tarts as a kid. I could probably put down five like long John Donuts as a kid with chocolate milk. So like I was not the example of like what
Jeannie: Well, but that's a good thing. You are proof that like, listen, the goal as a parent is you want to provide your kids with the best foundation possible. But the reality is that sometimes that's not going to happen and that you can find interest in it later in life as you have to go like, okay, wait a second, maybe five
long John Donuts. Isn't the best decision. I'll go with one, or
Jesse: Right, exactly.
Tom: Yeah. Um, speaking of five long John donuts, what if you've got a kid who only eats donuts? But what if you got that picky eater? So, so I have one of my kids is a picky eater and she is officially an adult and she is still at 18 a picky
eater. Any suggestions [00:05:00] for
Jesse: that can definitely be hard. I mean, I obviously, I have two kids, so I totally get the struggle. The struggle is real. Um, so again, it's, it's developing those habits like early in life, really trying to work with, you know, a toddler and introduce a lot of different foods. One thing that really stuck out with me when I learned about pediatric nutrition is that it takes about 13 times for a child to like try something before they completely dismiss it.
Also tastes change. Like, you know, one week I'll buy like something for my daughter and then she'll eat it for that entire week. And then the next week she's like, I don't want to have anything to do with it. But then she'll come back to it eventually. So it's never just like dismissing a food completely.
I think kids just get finicky and they're fickle and they change their minds and they want something
different. , I also believe in, , setting like a good example as a parent, obviously you don't want to be telling your kid what to do, and then you're like, You know, behind their back,
Jeannie: You're eating the
Jesse: fast food or something like
Tom: Yeah.
Yeah.
Jesse: Exactly, but that also goes to say, too, I think, involving them in the [00:06:00] process of planning meals and even shopping, like having your kid come with you to, you know, pick out foods and things like that to try. That kind of empowers them a little bit.
Um, it makes them feel important and part of the process. I'm not against also sneaking in foods into like, you know, sometimes foods. So like I used to put cauliflower rice in my daughter's like Mac and cheese, just to kind of get a vegetable in, , spinach is another great thing where you can like sneak that in, like you could, pulverize spinach in a protein shake and you can barely taste it.
, finding other ways, like protein pasta is great for that reason too, where if you're looking to get extra protein, like there's a lot of like, um, products that add a little extra protein.
So I'm not against that either. I think also not putting foods on a platform either. Like, , you'll get a cookie after dinner. If you finish your dinner, it's kind of like, if you set out the cookie with that meal, it's not like putting that cookie on a platform. And I think also eating together, like I said, [00:07:00] that's huge as a family. If you're all eating the same thing, you're demonstrating that you're eating it as well. So they're not going to be as resistant if you all are eating different things. , I would say making sure you get a multivitamin in just to cover all your bases too.
Um, and then, you know, I'm also a fan of, Your kid likes a certain vegetable, really lean into that vegetable. Um, maybe try different ways to prepare that vegetable. That way the, it makes it more interesting so you're not eating the same vegetable all the time, but maybe trying to find different recipes to sort of mix it up.
Jeannie: I like too what you said about, you know, the, the modeling but the grocery shopping. Again, I'm not a parent and I, I don't personally like to go grocery shopping. I'm sure going with a child like adds an, an amount of stress that is at times unbearable, but I will say I have. Plenty of childhood memories, being really young, going to the grocery store with my mom.
There is something that is memorable about that, and I can imagine as a kid, if my mom was like, okay, well, here, like, let's pick out some things that you might think that you want to eat.
I do [00:08:00] feel like that would be really empowering and memorable,
would make me feel like an adult. And so that is an, it's an interesting
suggestion that, you know, for that day that
maybe you're feeling a little more patient, you're like,
I will bring my child with me to the grocery
Jesse: Yeah, exactly. Because I can't say like when we go to the grocery store, my kids are like, Oh, grapes. Oh, cantaloupe. Like, they're like, like
Tom: Well, going back to the Pop Tart thing, that's what, when I brought this, my daughter with me shopping, I always said, we get it, it has to be on the list. You could pick one thing that's not on
the list. And it was always
Pop Tarts. It was always Pop
Jesse: that's funny. Yeah. I think that's important too. Because again, I am not perfect by any means as a parent. Like I feel like it's a struggle day after day. And I think it is a fine, it's like a balance. You have to really balance. , I always go by that 80, 20 rule, like 80 percent of the time, try to stay on track.
20 percent of the time, allow yourself a little bit of freedom because I definitely don't want to be that parent where I'm depriving my kid of something. And then they're [00:09:00] going to a friend's house and they're like, Oh my gosh. And they like eat about
Jeannie: Yes.
Jesse: they've never had an Oreo in their life.
So it's also, you know, having that fine balance of just letting them have a little bit of freedom. So I love that you said that because it's like, okay, well, like, You know, we have a grocery list. We want to stay on track, but, you know, have something fun included as well.
Jeannie: I think to the modeling that you said, and this made me think of , our mom and dad, who Jesse knows very well. And I think about like when I was a kid through college, Jesse can attest to this, we lived together. I was so messy. I was busy and I would be really cluttered.
My room would be a mess and my mom always had a clean house. And now as an adult. I'm far tidier and far cleaner, so much less cluttery. And I, and I really, I attribute that to the fact that my mom modeled that.
Jesse: , I will say like, especially with teenage years, cause I know, , Tom, you do a lot of work with like teenagers and stuff too. So it is having that healthy relationship with food too, [00:10:00] because I feel like I kind of borderline dealt with like an eating disorder.
So that was like, Such a hard time in my life, I feel, um, like just kind of falling into that peer pressure of body image and all of that and not having the best relationship with food and not even really knowing what to do in terms of nutrition. And so I don't like labeling foods like good, bad foods, because I don't want that to be like, to kind of lead to those like bad behaviors or like some sort of like eating disorder like that, where it's like, Oh, you can't eat that.
, that's a bad food versus, you know, . I like the idea of like sometimes food, always food, like kind of a good spin on it.
Tom: I like that
sometime.
Always. That's a great idea. Any, any resources you have that
you recommend? Any websites, books that parents can
Jesse: Sure. Yeah, I wish I could give you guys like great books, but as a busy parent I don't get a lot of reading time. social media I feel like is obviously it's It can be kind of crazy, but in terms of good [00:11:00] resources, I'm all
about Instagram, following good quality
people on Instagram that have the credentials, obviously, they offer like quick tips, very visual, , they, you know, that you could read their stories to like, they'll be like, Oh, this is having to do with like, Proper eating hygiene, how to get your kids to eat vegetables.
So it's a great thing to follow. So there's definitely a lot that I follow on Instagram, like Melanie Paddock. She's great. She offers a lot of great tips. , there's another one, Jennifer Anderson, hers is called kids eat in color. So they just offer a lot of great tips. , they're registered dietitians.
My favorite one is feeding littles. , which is, , a dietician and she was working also with an occupational therapist. So I think that relationship is really cool where you get like sort of that nutrition knowledge. But the occupational therapist comes into play where it's like something as simple as
Your kid, when they sit down to eat, like their feet should be flat on the floor. They should be in a proper [00:12:00] chair, for example, because that, , allows them to focus better and they're not like messing around and like trying to adjust in their chair because they're uncomfortable, like just simple tips kind of breaking it down.
So having them as a team, I felt like this is the best Instagram.
Jeannie: Well, I always say that I would never want to be like a doctor or a nurse because all my family and friends would be , calling me like, Oh, I, you know, have this illness.
Like, can you tell me what it is? And I've come to learn over being friends with Jesse for so long in this becoming her profession that I would also never want to be a dietitian because all of our girlfriends, we have a closed group. There's five of us. We are always asking Jesse questions about like, what is this?
Should I eat this? What can I do to lose weight? Thank goodness you love it. And I, we're on a big text thread. We text pretty much every single day and text about all different kinds of things. Four of them are moms. And so I get to read a lot of questions that they're asking back and forth about all the things about the kids.
But recently one of our girlfriends did reach out to Jesse about replacements for yogurt. And so it got me thinking about this question about, [00:13:00] are there certain things that you look for? Like when you're purchasing foods for your kids, you know, what do you kind of
aim to find?
Jesse: I'll be honest. I don't have a huge, uh, like list. Like when I go to the grocery store where I'm looking where, oh my gosh, I mean,
there's so much to look at, but I would say the added sugar is definitely something I do look for. So the added sugar is like a recent thing that has been added to labels because there's naturally occurring sugar and then there's sugar that's like added by that company for extra flavor
so I'm so glad that they started adding that because I didn't want people looking at fruit and being like, Well, this has sugar in it. Like it's bad. It's like, no, even milk has natural sugar in it. Any kind of starch is going to have natural sugar in it. So it's that added sugar that I'm like always looking at.
Definitely don't want to exceed more than like 20 percent of the daily value of that added sugar. So that, that can be tricky. I'm not going to lie. , so cereals, I definitely pay attention with that. Yogurts. , I'm trying to think of like some other things, a lot of bars out there too. I feel like have a lot [00:14:00] of added sugar in it. , so you just have to be kind of looking at that and, That leads into the next thing that I would say too, to look for is looking for products that just have very wholesome ingredients as much as possible.
Like I think of the bars now, like one bar that I always give my kids is Lara bars because it's like, four ingredients in there.
And then I also like to look for fiber.
I think a good rule of thumb, if you're looking at Uh, any kind of starches or products like that, , three grams of fiber or more per serving, , is a good way to go about it because that just keeps, I think kids sometimes deal with irregularity in terms of like bowel movements and stuff. So if you
can kind of get that fiber in, I feel like that is just great.
So yeah, I'd say, you know, whole foods are always better, but that again can be very challenging with kids, obviously. So, , just trying to, you know, look for those alternatives.
Jeannie: Awesome. Jesse, you're the best. I
say it all the time. One of the smartest people that I know in her field.
And I just appreciate you sharing your expertise with our listeners. [00:15:00] And it was really
good to see you the early this morning.
It's, you should do this all the time.
Jesse: It was so fun! I know! Seriously, I would love to! This is really fun, so thank you so much for having me.
Tom: Thanks Jesse.