“That’s what I do in my household,” Alves shared. “When the kids want to have something that’s not good for them, I go, ‘Hey, I’m not going to tell you not to have it. But look at the ingredient panel.’ They go in and they start looking at it and I go, “Well, does it all sound like stuff that you would have in your kitchen? Does it all sound like stuff that you want to put in your body?'”

She recalled sports drinks being on of their first topics of conversation in this vein. “We were talking about food coloring and all of that” and she told them, ‘”Look, ‘Red 40,’ I know it sounds fun, but do you know what that is? Nobody does!” 

So she turned that into a contest, offering a prize to whomever found out what it was first.

And “they still have it,” Alves added, noting that she hasn’t banned red food coloring or other fun, albeit less nutritionally dense, ingredients from the house. Rather, the kids know that, if they want something, they need to be aware of what’s in it. “We’re in no way, shape or form perfect in the household,” she said. “But we try to create a balance with knowledge.”