ISO hardcore, totally biased toward whole food, fun for kids nutrition program?

[SonshineLearner]

Hey There, My mom was the health nut when I was younger :) I completely understand your daughter :) I started babysitting, got extra money.... and bought candy bars every chance I could ... It MIGHT have helped, if I understood that feeding your cells now, set them up for health... (and less cancer) later. That's what I'm going to try telling my family... as we're going towards an even "healthier" diet. I also think it'd be helpful to find a "candy" that she can have. If she likes dark chocolate... a piece every couple days or so can help cut your "want" down. I think you have to talk it through and compromise... without her feeling deprived. It may be sorta like tv... you want your kids to have some exposure if it's really important to them (depending on your beliefs) but you don't want them watching 24/7 :)

[missmoe]

Just wanted to let youi know that I grew up with a mom that provided me with 100% natural whole foods diet. If we couldn't grow it, one of our neighbors did. Our meals were a meat (we raised ourselves), two hot veggies (which we grew), a salad--during the summer, a fruit (most likely canned from our neighbor's orchard), homemade bread, and milk( which, yup, came from our cows). It was a great way to grow up.

 

Yet, all of my brothers and I bought junk food with our money. Cold cereal, chips, soda, ect. I remember we wrote our names on the foods and were allowed to keep them on top of the fridge. :)

 

I went to college and lived on lots of junk as well as lots of produce. I got married and experimented with mixes. But as children have come, I right back where my mom was. We eat as much natural whole foods as we can without having the same resources my mom did.

 

My point is that keep teaching by example and let your daughter have some freedom when she goes out of the house. Most likely she will end up back where you are when she's older. My kids eat what we have at home, but I know when they leave the house that's not always the case. But my kids are surprised by how some of their friend's families eat/ They think it's great they get to eat like that as a treat, but acknowledge thatthey wouldn't like to eat everyday. So talk, talk, talk. Let her have a little freedom outside your home--she's experimenting, but there are worse things she could be experimenting with!:tongue_smilie:

[Matryoshka]

I grew up with no soda, and still don't like it. I never developed a taste for it. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that my mom would give us Coke when we had the pukes - she said the syrup calmed the stomach. :tongue_smilie: But I give my kids Gatorade for the pukes, and they still don't like soda, and won't even drink it when offered. Only one of them even likes fizzy water. My dh also grew up with no soda and never developed the taste.

 

I don't ever restrict what my kids eat at a party or a friend's house. They've pigged out on junk every Sunday coffee hour at church. But I don't have the stuff in the house.

 

But generally, they don't crave junk. I didn't crave junk. I remember going to college and being stunned by the junk others ate - it didn't even seem like food to me. I did end up adding ramen noodles to my diet (hey, I was poor), but the flourescent orange mac'n'cheese just tasted like icky chemicals to me.

 

I can crave sugary things, but not processed sweets - things fresh from the bakery, not a package (okay, some of the stuff from TJ's is great, but not Oreos or candy bars). This problem is helped immensely when I stick to a low-carb diet, and by having the only sweet in the house being my 72% dark chocolate, which I can be happy with just 1-2 squares a day of. But hey, that's health food, right? :D

 

I guess if you make the junk totally forbidden fruit it can backfire, but my experience has been that when you're used to the taste of real food, the junk tastes like... junk. And is not appealing.

 

We watched King Corn a couple of years ago, and that really opened their eyes to the evils of HFCS.