Why you shouldn’t teach your kids about healthy eating

Of course, we want our kids to eat nutritious foods! But, HOW we encourage health promoting habits is key.

I’m going to point out the nuance here. When I say you shouldn’t “teach” your kids about healthy eating, I mean “teach” as in

• “Finish your carrots before your dessert”

• “That cookie has too much sugar”

• “It’s not healthy to eat right before bed”

• “Too many carbs make you gain weight”

• “I’ve been so good all week, Sunday is my cheat day”

Kids will hear comments like these and more - EVERYWHERE. While we can’t put our kids in a bubble, we can make our homes safe spaces that reject diet culture and are supportive of all bodies.

To do that, parents need to know the truth about what nutrition can and cannot do.

Health is an abstract concept to kids and teens and it is way more complicated than what most adults even realize. True health involves mental and physical well-being but in our appearance-obsessed culture, we are led to believe that if we just control our food intake and body size . . . good health will magically appear.

The truth however is that your diet and exercise patterns only account for 15% of the overall picture of health. You’d probably be even more surprised to know of that 15%, getting enough food is more important than what kind of food is eaten. Yep, you read that right!

I say all of that to help you understand that when you restrict foods or food groups from your kids because you think they are “unhealthy”, you are actually sabotaging your own efforts at promoting health!

Worse, when kids think that certain foods are “bad” or “good” they also think of themselves as “bad” or “good” when they eat them (there’s part of that important mental health piece).

Despite the fact that being underweight is more harmful to health than being at a higher weight - being thin is social currency in our society. Sadly, certain body types are deemed more attractive and treated with more admiration and respect than others.

Even though someone’s body size tells you absolutely nothing about their health - the “thin-ideal” is not lost on teens. Gaining weight during puberty is both absolutely normal and necessary, but puberty is also a time when many teens want to change their bodies.

The numbers are staggering — 53% of girls aged 13 are “unhappy with their bodies.” By the time they reach 17, this grows to 78%. Boys are increasingly affected by body image concerns as well. While girls usually want to be smaller, boys want to be bigger, taller, more muscular.

When kids grow up hearing untrue messages about food and weight, they naturally believe they can change their appearance by changing their diet. Often this has devastating effects on mental and physical health. We know from valid research, that dieting is the number one predictor of eating disorders.

In fact, rates of eating disorders among teens have exploded. Isolation during the pandemic has played a part in this, but so has the “COVID weight gain” rhetoric. Read this excellent article that was recently published in the New York Times for even more information.

Eating disorders are complex and arise from biological, psychological, and social factors - but there are protective measures that caregivers can take.

When young people are preoccupied with their bodies, it hinders their self-esteem, relationships with others, performance in school, and overall quality of life.

If you or your teen needs help in any of these areas, check out my 8 week group program specifically for caregivers of tweens and teens. It’s a self-paced course that covers what, how, and when to feed kids. You’ll get concrete strategies on how to address body image, media literacy, and diet culture with school and sports. It will help you feed yourself too! As a member of the program, you also gain access to me via email and a private Facebook group where I answer your questions live once per week. It’s personalized support with a like-minded community.

If you have any questions, feel free to send me a DM me on Instagram or book a free call to discuss how I can help you :)