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Over the course of my obsession with food and weightloss, I think that I have read just about all literature and heard every line about how to achieve wellness. A comment today sat me on my arse and made me think hmmmm.
What was that comment you ask? It was a reply to a post on an online forum about healthy eating that told the poster if she wanted to ensure her diet was healthy, then she needed to go through her cupboard and fridge and throw out the junk. That wasn’t the mind blowing statement. This was: If you think it’s bad for you, then you shouldn’t be giving it to your kids either.
MIND BLOWN
We have it ingrained into our head that the kids need to eat healthy blah blah blah but whenever mummy or daddy goes on a diet, they don’t eat the same food because we don’t want to have to ‘punish’ them or deprive them of anything.
I ask you this however. What are you really depriving them of?
By removing junk food as a staple food item you are depriving them of the likely hood of being an overweight adult, of having high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes 2, heart attack…the list goes on.
Doesn’t seem so bad now does it?
Wow, that is pretty mindblowing. What an excellent leg up you are giving them in the world by teaching them healthy habits to take into adulthood. Personally I like junk, and I like healthy food. I eat on the go alot. But when I’m at home I like to make healthy food. I’m going to start really thinking about what I am eating though.
It is true that there can be hypocritical reactions to kids diets, as if children will never eat a salad or vegetables. Or whatever it is that Mum/Dad feel is best while they’re on their path to getting healthy. When I was a kid my mom put food in front of me. If I ate it then I was full. If I didn’t then I went to bed hungry. The end. There was no requesting different food or getting chicken fingers every night because that was the only thing I ate. Kids can be overly coddled these days and it makes me sad for the parents, those kids who only get what they want all the time are the ones who will have to take care of them when they’re old. And if they decide they don’t want to, well, you get my point I’m sure.
Anyway, discovered you at purebloggers. You’ll might cringe at my latest post but I hope you have a chance to poke around over at my blog too. Enjoying yours!
My son eats what’s in front of him or he goes to bed hungry as well. My mum used to cook 3 different meals to accommodate everyone’s different preferences. That is something that I do not intend to start anytime soon.
Everything in Moderation is the key. It’s ok to have junk food and completely cutting it out of their diet doesn’t do anything for them as we all know that once we aren’t allowed something, then we crave it.
A friend of mine is raising her kids vegan, and they don’t even look at food that if off limits. They don;t crave it, they do not know it. Though her husband… he craves:)
I totally agree about not feeding your children food that you is ‘bad’ for you, whether on a diet or not. I reach a new dilema though, while sitting here this morning reading your blog, I am helping myself to my third bowl of homebrand frootloops that I bought for myself the other day. Meanwhile my boys finished their much healthier cheerios earlier. I don’t do diets but rereading this makes me wonder how I can retrain myself to not eat food I don’t want my children eating.
And yes, I do believe that we do crave those things we never really had when we were younger. I had no idea that frootloops, nutrigrain, cocopops even existed until I was 9 as we just never had them, rarely had softdrink until highschool and cordial was only occasional too. And lollies, don’t get me started on them. It isn’t that I eat them all the time, it is more that when we did occasionally have them, we didn’t get many – and now I will eat them til they are gone because I am the boss and I can :/
On another note, I don’t think that feeding your child Macca’s every meal will make them eat really healthy when older, and even if they did, they haven’t had a very nutritious childhood.
So I guess as said above, everything in moderation and try to teach your child along the way why you only buy nutrigrain a couple of times a year and why they should make a healthier choice more often.