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Stop Pressuring Me To Harm My Child

By Eliza Bicknell of Lotus Petal Yoga

Since I became a mom nearly 4 years ago, I have worked hard to provide the healthiest and most nutritious diet possible for my young son.

One ting I never expected as a parent would be the pressure to have my child eat junk food. Complete strangers, acquaintances, friends, even close family members all putting on the pressure to eat the crap. The crap like hydrogenated trans fat, sugar, candy, soda, fast food, junk food, packaged food. Its tradition you say - you can’t have Christmas without cookies or go to a ball game without hot dogs or a birthday party without, GASP, cake. Says who? Why are so many people threatened by a healthy diet and lifestyle? The experiences I have had with this make me angry, bitter and a bit concerned. Sorry if that comes across in writing this.

My 3 year olds preschool teacher told me that I would have to give him candy on Halloween, there was just no other way. Excuse me? My son told them he doesn’t eat candy and got toys, stickers, and pencils instead, which he loved and is still playing with today. A good friend of mine scrunched up her face and said ‘poor thing’ when I mentioned that we were having vegetable stew for dinner. Is that to make my son, healthy, happy and active and never sick feel deprived why do such a thing? Then there’s the lady at the bank or the hair cut place offering a lollipop or all of those kid menus that serve nothing but artery clogging fried animal products or cheese and sugar. Is this really what we want our kids to eat? Why are there usually no healthy options in sight?

So you say your little kid eats a diet of only French fries and chicken nuggets and won’t eat any vegetables, yeah, he just doesn’t like them, so it’s easier to give him the packaged crap and carry on. That’s fine for you, just don’t ask me to follow suit. A few years down the road when your kid has ADHD or is over weight, you have only yourself to blame. Then as an adult you’ll hear them say (like so many of my friends), I wish I ate better as a kid. Or gee, I just can’t stop this addiction to soda. Or why is it so hard to lose weight or gosh darn it, I have high cholesterol and heart disease, maybe I shouldn’t have eaten all that fast food and corn fed antibiotic and hormone ridden cheap meat.

I believe diet is responsible for all of the chronic diseases of ‘affluence’ that we suffer from here in America and thousands of scientific studies support this idea. You can stop and reverse diabetes, heart disease and even cancer with a whole foods plant based diet. By feeding my child the way I do, I hope to create a lifetime of healthy eating habits, a long life free of debilitating disease.

I know that no matter what I do, the crap is out there and in time my son will not only be exposed to it, but pressured by all sorts of people to eat it. For now, while he is young and while I can, I plan to give him the healthiest start to life possible. So next time you want to offer up some of those refined white flour, trans fat, sugar ridden things you call cookies, think twice, not everyone eats them or appreciates it. And don’t feel sorry for my son because he isn’t getting to eat them.

Contributor's Note

I have read hundreds of books on diet and nutrition and am a bit obsessed with it. I am sorry if I offended anyone with this article. I would highly recommend The China Study by Dr. Colin Campbell as an excellent source on the latest scientific research connecting diet to diseases.

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Like you I believe diet has a lot to do with many diseases we experience. I also believe however, the air we breath, the water we drink, and other lifestyle issues are factors as well. Genetics is part of the puzzle too; we metabolize things differently, some of us manufacture more cholesterol or less insulin than others, etc. But, all of that aside, I think you're right to be concerned. So many dietary preferences are based on aquired taste. A love of sugar, high fat foods, processed foods, etc. come from years of eating it. We are basically weaned on it. Not acquiring the taste would be much easier than trying to "break the habit". Moderation is something many of us fail at implementing.

YOu are right, so many dietary preferences come rom from years of eating. I never developed a taste for soda for example because I never drank it as a child. I ate few sweet things so dont have as large a sweet tooth as many. I am hoping this holds true for my son and tht he retains a taste for healthy things.

Cudos to you Lotuspetal for standing up for what you know to be true in your heart for the health of yourself and your child. I have to laugh since I too raised my kids as you are and have so many memories of people trying to "slip" my kids junk without me noticing and being blown away when my kids didn't want the junk! Once my kids hid a case Pepsi that their grandmother drank and she was so not amused. My kids were genuinely concerned for her health though and pleaded with her to stop. We in the U.S. suffer some of the worst health on the planet and can't seem to understand the old adage "You are what you eat!" Good intel!

Thanks for your comments, they make me smile. I love how your kids were concerned for the health of their grandmother drinking pepsi! I am glad you had such success and hope I do to.

Well, you are right of course, technically. But there is physical health and there is mental health. It is pure torture for a small child to be ridiculed or avoided by his peers because he won't - or can't - fit in. Fitting in to the greater social group is important, and failure to do so will cause a lot of psychological problems in the present and future, and I'd say those problems are greater by far than those caused by an occasional soda or candy bar. Here's what I do: At home we eat only wholesome food free of salt and trans-fats, cooked from scratch by me. Vegetable stew is on the menu, and the kids are used to it and eat it happily enough. But when we socialize, or go out, they are allowed to pig out on junk food. At birthday parties they tuck into chips and cake just like all the other kids. At Halloween they go nuts with candy. So far this system has worked beautifully, my kids are healthy and they also fit into society.

thanks for the note! I do know what you are saying with the fitting in to society and all. I want my son no feel he fits in and not feel deprived. I hope to give him good information so he can make decisions when he is older and faced with situations like parties full of junk food. But I also feel that there is so much wrong with the typical American diet that its ok to start to try to make some changes in the system. if we can give out stickers and toys instead of candy than why not? Halloween can be about more than just candy in years to come. With all the diabetic kids around here this change has already started to take place.

Great intel, Eliza.
One of the worst practices is the issuing of meal credit cards for the children in school. They then make their choices from those food they like and not what is healthy.
Five, seven,ten,and twelve year old children aren't the people to trust, with their health.
Thank you for sharing.
Frederick

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