Kids: Raising Healthy Eaters is Counter-culture :

A recent postcard on art blog PostSecret says: "My biggest fear is that if I have a daughter, she will inherit my eating disorder" (via Starling ).

I will make no bones about this. Raising a child to maintain a healthy body weight AND a healthy attitude towards their body and towards food is tough.

It goes against the grain. It's counter-culture.

New research backs this up:

• Too many kids live in neighborhoods where fast-food restaurants and convenience stores far outnumber supermarkets.
• Physical education has all but disappeared from the curriculum.
• The majority of middle and high schools have contracts with a soft-drink bottling company.
• Then there's the ads: around a quarter of all ads seen by teens are for junk food.

Then there's you: the parent. It seems that everything is against you. On top of this, I believe that any history of disordered eating, dieting, or obesity in your own life - will have an impact on your child's life.

Unless taught otherwise, by default we tend to raise our kids out of our own experiences. On top of this I believe that some traits (such as a tendency toward addictive behavior) can be inherited. I may be way out of line here - I'm just writing out of my own experiences.

A close friend of mine had the "right" food forced on her by a well-meaning parent. That friend developed a full-blown eating disorder that she will battle with for most of her life. I'm not blaming the parent - there are a myriad factors involved.

I want to give a big shout out there to all parents who want to do their best. Stay the course, lay the ground rules. Be consistent. Encourage exercise and good foods. After all - you may be the only person in their life that is doing this. However we can't be there to help them make every decision and there comes a time when you can no longer take the blame for your grown child's choices.

Continue reading »