How about a little balance?

Are you sick and tired of hearing about food this and food that? I am. It's become a new obsession for a lot of people, and a way for us moms to try and outdo each other. Enough with the scare tactics. Let's all take a deep breath and enjoy a Snickers. But just one. Not five. I was browsing around on the internet, trying to help poor Heather figure out how to get Goldfish cracker stains out of her daughter's shirt (I was curious too) and I stumbled on yet another message board about healthy eating. I don't know who this person is, but I thought what she had to say was pretty interesting. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

"Now, let us travel deep in the land of my personal opinion: we all need to lighten up on the food issues. I was raised in a tofu, all-natural, nothing-out-of-a-box, whole-wheat, chip-and-soda free environment deepinthehearta Berkeley. I'd go to school and watch the other kids eating their ding-dongs, or their sandwiches made with Skippy (I, of course, had the all natural peanut butter from the Co-Op; you know, the kind that rips the bread when you spread it and leaves an oily stain on the lunch bag), while I ate my stale sandwich and all-natural fig bar. Oh, I could have cookies (made with honey), and candy (one piece, after hallowe'en), and my family was not morally opposed to dessert, but for a kid, it was a pretty miserable life.

I'm 41, and I've now discovered there were a lot of us 60's babies out there whose parents were doin' the all-natural thing in an attempt to promote healthy eating habits. I've also since discovered that it's we 60's babies that have the biggest food issues.

At 12, I used my allowance to buy Capn Crunch that I would store in my closet in my room (I was not alone in this behavior, I later discovered). At 16, I would go to those geeky evening parties, and spend the entire night at the snack table --alond with all the other kids who were deprived such treats -- devouring the jello blox, filling our pockets with pretzels and chips, and scooping that salty onion dip into our mouths. By the way, the kids who had the Ding Dongs in their lunch boxes? They were dancing and talking.

In college, I developed an eating disorder. There were a lot of reasons for that, I'm sure, but when I finally got help in a group setting, I discovered a lot of people, whose food choices had been strictly proscribed, were right there with me.

Now, I meet fellow ''granola-babies'' all the time and we laugh at what our parents tried to do and how badly it backfired. Sometimes it's not so funny.

I cringe when I go to the park and hear parents talking about the dietary constraints they have laid on their kids. I don't want my child to eat cheesy fries, either, and a can of chili poured into a bag of corn chips is not my idea of a protein-rich diet. Accordingly, I have no problem telling my kid NO if he wants marshmallow creme for dinner (I'm not afraid of a little crying); he'll eat what I serve. If his nanny was serving him orange soda instead of milk, I'd give her exactly one chance to stop feeding that crap to him. At the same time, I would try to temper my desire to expose my son to a healthy lifestyle with a little realism, and allow him to experiment. It wouldn't change my behavior at home, where his diet is fiber, vitamin and protein rich, but I not going to focus too much attention on it. -- Tsan"

NOTE:

This post is not passively aggressively directed at any of you, I promise. At my mops group a few weeks ago we had a speaker come in to teach us all about healthy eating for our children. Instead of giving us helpful hints or fun ways of getting your stubborn, redheaded child to eat vegetables she literally said things like "if you give your child Skippy peanut butter you might as well give them sugary lard." We all left feeling like the worst mothers in the world. Anyway, so when I stumbled upon that post on a message board it resonated with me. Hope that helps to clarify things a bit!