ControverSunday: Food!

This week's topic is food. What does your family eat? What do you feed your kids? Organic? Gluten-free? Whatever's in the cupboard? Or, perhaps, whatever your kids will actually eat?

So, by now you probably know my style. I'm very much about people doing their own thing, doing what works best for their families, and doing it without being harshly judged. Breastfeeding or bottle-feeding, babywearing or stroller-pushing, stay at home, work at home, work outside the home, and the list goes on. I try to maintain that as long as you are parenting with love and with a regard for your child's well-being, you can't go (very) wrong. And, I also tend to cut people (myself included) slack for the little things we have to do to get through the day. Things like turning the television on for your less-than-two-year-old when you need twenty more minutes of sleep in the morning, for instance.

But, food is one topic I think we can all be a little too lax about. The fact is this: if you are feeding your kids primarily processed, high sodium, high sugar, high fat diets, you're not doing your job right. Your job is to care for your children, and that includes their health. The childhood obesity rate in this country is obscene. And I am affronted on a daily basis by the image of a parent passing a soda to their severely overweight child or babies drinking lemonade from bottles. And the worst part is that I don't even know how many more of the kids I see are in poor health. Some kids have enviable metabolisms, meaning their toxic diets won't necessarily be evident by the rolls of fat on their thighs.

Look, I get it. We're all terribly busy. Or we're broke. Or our kids are picky eaters. I know crap food is fast and cheap. I know how hard it is to plead with a two-year-old to eat her peas. No, really, I do. I have spent many an an afternoon with my nieces, doing the whole "TWO more bites and then you can have dessert" routine. And I remember thinking that there was no way I could handle going through that at every meal. But, you know what? I would. And, I will. Because my kid's health matters.

There's been a lot of talk of food circulating lately. Between the horror-inducing images of factory farms and corrupt food conglomerates seen in the documentary Food Inc. and the grossly mismanaged school food system under attack in Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, it's hard to turn a deaf ear to the facts. Mainly, that we need to be eating better and educating ourselves about our food.

At this particular moment in time, Charlotte is a phenomenal eater. Every time I watch her shovel broccoli, tofu, brown rice, avocado, carrots, squash...you name it, into her pretty, little mouth, I positively swoon with gratitude. But, it hasn't always been so easy, and it's gonna get a lot worse in the future. And, hey, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying my kid doesn't eat junk food. But, it's a treat. It's a special occasion when she does, and some people might even judge me for allowing ANY high fructose corn syrup or McDonald's mystery meat to pass her lips.

But, I'm a realist. I don't live in a place with food co-ops or farm-friendly butcher shops. I live in corporate-crazy suburbia. So, not everything we eat is 100% organic or fair trade or farm fresh. But, we try. We try to be good to the environment, society, and our bodies, without being too hard on our wallets.

Bottom line is, any produce is better than none. Preparing real food is more time consuming than opening a can or a box, but it needs to be done. Your picky eater might survive on nothing but bananas for a while, but that doesn't mean you need to give them Pop Tarts to add variety.

I love food, the good and the bad. I don't expect my daughter to never experience the sheer joy one can only get from the first bite of that cupcake or at cracking open a Happy Meal. I know there will be slip-ups and compromises in my quest to feed my family wholesome food. But, our destination will hopefully involve good health and long lives, so I don't mind a rough journey.