French kids eat everything: how our family moved to France, learned to love vegetables, banished snacking, and discovered 10 magic rules for raising healthy, happy eaters

Moving her young family to her husband's hometown in northern France, Karen Le Billon is prepared for some cultural adjustment but is surprised by the food education she and her family (at first unwillingly) receive. In contrast to her daughters, French children feed themselves neatly and happily—eating everything from beets to broccoli, salad to spinach, mussels to muesli. The family's food habits soon come under scrutiny, as Karen is lectured for slipping her fussing toddler a snack—"a recipe for obesity!"—and forbidden from packing her older daughter a lunch in lieu of the elaborate school meal. The family soon begins to see the wisdom in the "food rules" that help the French foster healthy eating habits and good manners—from the rigid "no snacking" rule to commonsense food routines that we used to share but have somehow forgotten. Soon, the family cures picky eating and learns to love trying new foods. But the real challenge comes when they move back to North America—where their commitment to "eating French" is put to the test. The result is a family food revolution with surprising but happy results—which suggest we need to dramatically rethink the way we feed children, at home and at school. French Kids Eat Everything is a wonderfully wry account of how Karen Le Billon was able to alter her children’s deep-rooted, decidedly unhealthy North American eating habits while they were all living in France.At once a memoir, a cookbook, a how-to handbook, and a delightful exploration of how the French manage to feed children without endless battles and struggles with pickiness, French Kids Eat Everything features recipes, practical tips, and ten easy-to-follow rules for raising happy and healthy young eaters—a sort of French Women Don’t Get Fat meetsFood Rules. Combining personal anecdotes with practical tips and recipes, the author shares her observations on how the French foster healthy eating habits and good manners in babies and children, and tests ten French Good Rules for a family food revolution