“My five year old understands that she needs to eat a variety of foods every day. Some foods make her grow, others help her learn, and prevent her from getting sick. And some are just yummy.”
I stumbled across this article yesterday, shared by a few pages I follow on Facebook.
I have one thing to say about it.
It.is.amazing!
I am starting to think the title of his post kind of gave that away though…
Anyways, this article, “How To Talk To Your Daughter About Weight” is written by Kasey Edwards (link below). I don’t know her too well, but from the brief time I spent scrolling through her other work, she writes on a variety of issues from feminism, to parenting, to dieting, to body image. The list goes on!
In this article, Kasey gives advice on ways to discuss weight and food with children, and uses her own interaction with her daughters as examples. Her approach is so beautiful and I love the way she interprets things.
I think my favourite part is how Kasey addresses the different kinds of foods and avoiding the “good” vs. “bad” stigma food has received:
“My five year old understands that she needs to eat a variety of foods every day. Some foods make her grow, others help her learn, and prevent her from getting sick. And some are just yummy.”
“I don’t prohibit any foods… [I don’t want to] create any sort of good/bad associations…. Violet understands that she can eat processed foods some times… [but] if she ate too much cake, then she wouldn’t be able to fit in all the other foods that her body needs“
Teaching children this different reason for labelling “sometimes” foods is brilliant and so very true. If we ate sometimes foods all day, how are our bodies going to fit in the foods we need to eat in order to get the nutrients they need to grow, think and heal.
I had never thought of it like that…
I strongly believe that as much as this article is directed at parents and children, it could be of use to anyone wishing to change their beliefs and attitude toward food.
Being in recovery from Anorexia myself, I have developed a very long list of food rules. It’s ridiculous, but these rules control my life. As part of my recovery I am working through breaking and lessening them, of course. One of these rules is the labelling of certain foods as good or bad, and I’m not just talking about “sometimes” foods… I’m talking some everyday foods too. I often find myself confused over whether I SHOULD eat retain foods, and how much of them I can eat, mainly because they may be bad and in my ED-ruled head, bad foods lead to weight gain. Through reading this article though, I feel like I could even learn to take this approach to food. No foods are off the table. Sure, I can eat cake. Cake is not bad for me. Cake is there to be eaten. Cake is delicious! It just ranks lower in importance to the other food groups. If I am eating a great variety of foods and giving my body what it needs, what is stopping me from having a piece of cake, or some choccies?
I am trying to word this so it does not sound disordered… I really hope it doesn’t. I am not trying to give reason to avoid sometimes foods… I am actually trying to justify why they are a perfectly normal part of our lives and are not bad. If you can think of a better way of wording this, please let me know! I’d like to hear your opinions.
Also, please remember that this post is my interpretation of the article. I am not preaching or demanding anyone believe the same as me. You may interpret it differently, and that’s perfectly ok. We can agree to disagree :o)
Anyway, have a read. I hope you find it as informative as I did.
Until next time, ciao.
Ames xx
Link to Article: http://m.dailylife.com.au/life-and-love/parenting-and-families/how-to-talk-to-your-daughter-about-weight-20150202-133vll.html
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