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My brother used to be able to eat whatever and remain a stick as a child. Now he is thirty and looks like he is about to have a baby. The problem with junk food is it is much easier and cheaper than healthy food.
I also do not agree with forcing my kids to eat anything they don't want to eat. I serve them food and if they don't want it, they can wait until the next meal. They won't let themselves starve. Sometimes I am nice and let them have some fruit to tide them over.
My son has a preference for savory, which is a benefit. We eat primal at home, but I do give him sweets (candy, ice cream, cakes) on a regular basis (once a month or so), so that he has a taste for it and knows the differences. He likes all kinds of food, and I'm not concerned about him for the life long process.
He's also taller, stronger, faster, more athletic than most of his friends. He's rather a physical specimen. It could be genetics (i mean, sure, his dad and I are awesome! LOL), but it's more likely the food quality that he's had since he was a baby. He's never had coke or anything like that (he's now 4.3 yo), and we've made all of his 'sweets' high quality as well (organic/natural, real dark chocolate, GF cakes that are well made in bakeries that don't use fillers and such, etc). We are label readers, you know?
I also don't restrict between meals, but if he hasn't finished the meal food, he has to finish that first before having fruit or something else.
I ate a lot of junk growing up, but not like that. Kids these days eat so terribly. i doubt he will be dead by 25, but will most likely have metabolic syndrome even way before that age. It is child abuse.
[QUOTE=healthy11;1014808]I ate a lot of junk growing up, but not like that. Kids these days eat so terribly.[B] i doubt he will be dead by 25,[/B] but will most likely have metabolic syndrome even way before that age. It is child abuse.[/QUOTE]
Me too, and I am the thread starter.... but it seriously was shocking to see a kid eat like that. But since he seems to eat like that a lot of the time according to his grandmother, where will he get the nutrition that helps keep him healthy?
A long time ago I knew a CEO of a medical company... He was only 31 when I knew him about 20 years ago. When I knew him, his secretary told me that he lived on nothing but candy bars and Coke. ( I didn't know him well, but I worked for a convention center and met him through there; I was the A/V manager )..... So now he's about 50 - 55 years old. I saw him several months ago, and he doesn't look a day under 70 to me. I would never have known him to look at him, but he remembered me.
I don't know if he is sick or anything really, but I will always think about candy bars and Coke as his "meals".
Some people just don't seem to equate eating with health... if the kid is skinny, the parents just plain don't see a problem! My oldest is quite overweight so I am very cautious with what I feed him, but he goes to his skinny friends' houses and they usually eat WAY worse than he does (although to look at them, I guess you'd imagine he was the one who ate badly...).
It's unfortunate, but there you have it. I know too many naturally skinny people who don't think anything of eating badly as it doesn't appear obvious that they do so!
There is no point saying anything to the parents. They know that crap is bad. Trying to educate others is only worth it if they think they have the right info and are trying to be healthy (whole grains, low fat). If they knowingly let the kid eat obvious crap, do you think the finer points of primal vs CW will be relevant?
That's basically how I ate growing up. I remember going 3-4 days in a row eating nothing but pretzels and drinking nothing but cola. And I was skinny as a rail. Until I hit drinking age, when I developed a modest beer gut.
Fortunately I got my crap in order before the metabolic damage became irreversible. Some people appear to just be more resilient and can undergo this type of mistreatment for a long time.
I also come from genes that produce large but healthy people. My kids have always been off the scale for both height and weight. I went by CW guide lines and my daughter was always obese. My son is on the heavier side but not nearly as big because I mostly feed him primally - in fact it's a joke that we rarely have bread in the house (juice or soda too). The doc wanted to know if I wanted to see the dietician after his last well check - um no! I'm sure he thinks we give him soda or juice all the time - he drinks water at home and may get soda or juice only when we eat out.
My family also noticed something I discovered after Halloween this year - my son gets obnoxious after he's had sugar. Even one small candy bar will do it (giving me total reason to pitch the crap and not feel bad). We were visiting family last week and went out often and everyone noticed that he would act up and get whinny waiting for his meal if he had apple juice to drink. When we only let him have water with his meals - no problem.
[QUOTE=Damiana;1014421]I'd criticize the kid and his parents, but I made some pretty questionable food choices as a kid too, when I first arrived in the US. The novelty of having processed foods meant that I spent an entire summer subsisting on Little Debbies and Pringles Sour Cream & Onion. I was lucky to be genetically blessed with a blazing metabolism, so I remained a stick, but I know one can easily get obese on that type of childhood diet.[/QUOTE]
I ate junk as a kid too. And as an adult. And last saturday ;) But I knew, [I]because I'd been taught[/I], that there's a difference between Food, Snacks and Junk. We knew that coke & chips was a treat. We knew that a handful of cookies as a snack was acceptable. We never had pop as a beverage with a meal. Even on vacations and special occasions we were given a limit to the amount of crap we could consume.
My kids aren't primal (age 9 & 12), but they eat primal meals and pretty clean the rest of the time. No 'sweet treats' in their school lunches (they think a venison pepperoni stick is a treat). They love their junk food like the average kid, and I have no problem allowing them treats -- because they eat healthy portions of real food the rest of the time, without much complaint. They know they are welcome to help themselves to fruit and veggies anytime without asking. But other snacks they have to ask permission or stick to the "one serving a day" rule.
[I]Given the choice[/I], of course they're going to choose crappy crap whenever they can. The responsibility as a parent is to offer them healthy choices, and set limits on the rest. If the junk isn't in the house, its not an option.
I'm pretty proud of the fact that my youngest had no idea what a Twinkie was :D
I guess we've come full-circle.
Up until I was 4 years old we lived next door to a family that fed its children like that. Back then you did not interfere with how other people raised their children. Years later my mother told me how she regretted not calling Child Protective Services as she watched a bright-eyed, beautiful foster child degenerate into a sunken cheeked, dull-eyed sick little girl under their care. If it had been the 80s and not the 60s she would have turned them in. I guess we're back to not turning people in. Or maybe CPS wouldn't consider it child abuse anymore?