As a result of what he’s been taught at school, Holly Bell’s son has decided to take it upon himself to ‘eat clean’. But is what they’re teaching him about food giving him a balanced diet?
Have your little one’s been taught at school about the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ foods? How have you tried to tackle any conflicting views you have had with what your children are being taught at school?
Holly discusses her current dilemma, as she tries to teach her young son that everything is not simply black and white.
Holly Bell: ‘My child has imposed an eat clean diet on himself’
One of my sons has put himself on a self imposed #eatclean regime and instead of being proud of his healthy ways, I admit I am outraged.
It happened at school, so obviously I blame the government. His year have been taught about the benefits of fruit, vegetables, whole grains, lean meats, seafood… so far so good. I fully support their endeavour. But then they started messing with dessert and I got angry.
Essentially he now sees food as either ‘good for you’ or ‘bad for you’ and so the only acceptable pudding in his humble opinion, is dark chocolate. It must be dark. Milk chocolate is ‘not good for you Mummy’. And whilst I’m an 80% cocoa solids girl myself too, I’m worried.
I find myself sighing silently at the daily exchanges we have regarding what is good and what is bad. If I’d have known about this dessert demonisation I’d have opted him out of these classes.
In my opinion, food is not simply fuel. It provides literal joy in taste alone, an opportunity to converse, a vehicle through which to bond. It is the stuff of life.
I want him to enjoy mealtimes, not scan his plate for ‘baddies’. This feels as unhealthy as a diet of take aways and turkey twizzlers. It’s all about balance, surely?
Luckily the summer holidays have provided us with an ideal opportunity to rehabilitate him. After dinner comes fruit, and then an offer of a pudding. Nothing fancy.
Today was a slither of lemon cake which was deemed okay as it contained fruit. Though he did scrape the curd filling from it. Small steps, small steps…
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