It was my wife's idea and we thought we should categorise the foods by "roughly how often you should have them" instead of labelling them "good or bad".
Our 3 kids are various ages of teenager, one of whom struggles with restricting food. I find myself saying “your body needs food” more than I wish I had to. In terms of nutrients, we talk about it being important to eat different kinds of food (ie, we stopped buying cup noodles because that was all you were eating and that’s not good for your body). And once, to our carb-loving oldest: “If you like pooping and want your body to continue doing it you need to get some veggies in there.”
As a pregnant woman, this was a timely read because I have been thinking about this a lot lately. Both extremes can be so harmful to kids. I like the idea of talking about how our bodies need some foods more than others. I also really like the idea of being intentional about when we eat less nutritious foods (going for ice cream or baking cookies), rather than just having those types of foods around the house. As a 33 year old, I have to do that for myself. Whenever we have any quick snack foods in the house, it is consumed immediately, while our more nutritious foods sit in the fridge, uneaten.
1000% agree with this. The pendulum swing drives me NUTS. It's really wild to me how much social media lacks nuance and makes absolutely no mention of the processed/junk food industry, as you mentioned. These companies literally created foods, in a lab, to be as binge-able as possible so people would buy more (which lines their pockets), with no regard for human welfare. (I feel like I'm wearing a tin foil hat when I point this out, but many of the companies making processed food ALSO own diet companies/sell diet products.)
I think we'd all do better with the more moderate, factual messaging you suggest, where we talk about how all foods can fit, but, well, you kinda need to incorporate nutritious foods so your organs don't shut down. (Side note: I really wish we had good nutrition classes in school in the U.S.)
The lack of nuance is so hard to tackle and I know how complicated it is for all of us! That's why I hope to try to break some of it down here :) I also wish we had better education in schools.
I have 3 young daughters and we have “sometimes” foods and “everyday” foods. Seems to be working so far.
Makes sense to me!
Love this neutral language!
It was my wife's idea and we thought we should categorise the foods by "roughly how often you should have them" instead of labelling them "good or bad".
Our 3 kids are various ages of teenager, one of whom struggles with restricting food. I find myself saying “your body needs food” more than I wish I had to. In terms of nutrients, we talk about it being important to eat different kinds of food (ie, we stopped buying cup noodles because that was all you were eating and that’s not good for your body). And once, to our carb-loving oldest: “If you like pooping and want your body to continue doing it you need to get some veggies in there.”
LOL, “if you like pooping…” I mean, case closed! What a strategy.
Haha--my niece would subsist exclusively on popcorn if my sister let her!
As a pregnant woman, this was a timely read because I have been thinking about this a lot lately. Both extremes can be so harmful to kids. I like the idea of talking about how our bodies need some foods more than others. I also really like the idea of being intentional about when we eat less nutritious foods (going for ice cream or baking cookies), rather than just having those types of foods around the house. As a 33 year old, I have to do that for myself. Whenever we have any quick snack foods in the house, it is consumed immediately, while our more nutritious foods sit in the fridge, uneaten.
I totally get it <3 I'm glad it got you thinking about your own language with your own family.
1000% agree with this. The pendulum swing drives me NUTS. It's really wild to me how much social media lacks nuance and makes absolutely no mention of the processed/junk food industry, as you mentioned. These companies literally created foods, in a lab, to be as binge-able as possible so people would buy more (which lines their pockets), with no regard for human welfare. (I feel like I'm wearing a tin foil hat when I point this out, but many of the companies making processed food ALSO own diet companies/sell diet products.)
I think we'd all do better with the more moderate, factual messaging you suggest, where we talk about how all foods can fit, but, well, you kinda need to incorporate nutritious foods so your organs don't shut down. (Side note: I really wish we had good nutrition classes in school in the U.S.)
The lack of nuance is so hard to tackle and I know how complicated it is for all of us! That's why I hope to try to break some of it down here :) I also wish we had better education in schools.
Love this! My kid just started eating solids and I’ve been struggling with the language. This helped a lot!
I’m so glad you found it helpful, thanks Mariana!