Children and Food

bethfartman

How do you think you were raised affects your diet now? I saw a recent post about raising your kids with certain ‘rules’ for their diet and while I don’t have children, I’d like to someday and it got me thinking…

I was raised on an extremely healthy diet- only whole grains, milk straight from the goat, our meat was all raised and butchered outside our back door, and fresh fruit and veggies from our garden and orchards were abundant. We NEVER had soda, rarely had juice, and limited candy on Halloween and Easter. We’d get sweets like cake and the such on rare occasions like birthdays and pizza every blue moon. It wasn’t like I was told I couldn’t eat poorly, but the food my mom chose to feed us was all there was to eat.

I know now that a lot of this had to do with my mom’s struggle with keeping her weight under control and her desire to keep us kids healthy, but I would have to say this may have backfired considerably.

I come from family of three, my youngest brother is very thin and always has been, but my other brother and I constantly struggle with our weight. When we were out of the house we ate every bit of junk food we could get our hands on and indulged in fast food frequently. We love soda and candy and would eat it all day if we could. We also are fortunate to love vegetables and ‘healthy’ food and know how to prepare them with style, which I think is truly the biggest testament to the way we were raised. I have many friends who had junk food in their house that they were free to indulge in regularly and as adults they can take it or leave it and certainly have a sense of eating it in moderation. Would I have been able to moderate my junk food intake better if it was readily available throughout my childhood?

So what do you guys think? Is your weight and eating tendencies influenced more by the way you were raised or is it determined by your genetics? Do you think the way you were raised really helped or hindered your eating habits as an adult?