real fear.

in my crazier food moments, i don't want to eat anything processed. i just want whole foods. i don't mind if they are deep-fried, as long as it is in a plant-based oil. i like fatty foods: avocados, potato chips, french fries, macaroni and cheese. many, many other things.

and i don't have children. if i did, i think it would be difficult to explain my weird food philosophies. why i wouldn't serve them mcdonald's fries and burgers but why we could have them at home. why sometimes oatmeal is ok and sometimes it isn't. i would be neurotic. i know it. parenting is difficult.

this week, i read an article about how the way that parents deal with food often gives their children anxiety, perpetuates eating disorders, makes them unable to just eat. the kids want to be good, to eat right, and they can't understand the nuances in their diets.

Many try to stick to an organic diet. In general, their concern does not stem from a fear of obesity — although that may figure into the equation — but from a desire to protect their families from conditions like hyperactivity, diabetes and heart disease, which they believe can be avoided, or at least managed, by careful eating. While scarcely any expert would criticize parents for paying attention to children’s diets, many doctors, dietitians and eating disorder specialists worry that some parents are becoming overzealous, even obsessive, in efforts to engender good eating habits in children. With the best of intentions, these parents may be creating an unhealthy aura around food. “We’re seeing a lot of anxiety in these kids,” said Cynthia Bulik, the director of the eating disorders program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “They go to birthday parties, and if it’s not a granola cake they feel like they can’t eat it.”

ergh. it's so hard. reading this, my heart broke a little.