Balance in Food

Recently, we have been reading Magic Ramen - The Story of Momofuku Ando as a bedtime story. My 5 year old daughter loves that book because she loves ramen, she loves the pictures, and it is an interesting story about how someone persevered to invent something they were passionate about.

In the story, Momofuku Ando didn’t know how to make ramen noodles and needed balance in the recipe to have the noodles stay together without falling apart. Even though my daughter knows what balance meant, she didn’t quite get the way the book was using it because to her, balance is staying on your two feet without falling.

I explained that sometimes balance is having the right amounts of something. When we have balance in food, we can create what we want. When we have balance in our diets, we tend to give our bodies the best chance to stay healthy. Balance is really important and after explaining that, she understood it. It’s always interesting to hear how kids are interpreting something because I forget that they are applying what they know to what they are exposed to. While they aren’t wrong, it always keeps me on my toes to check to see if they understand something even if it’s a word or concept we have already come across.