While marriage and my extensive reading on food helped changed the way I think about food, the way I cook and what I chose to eat, it is my children that motivate me the most. Even before marrying and having children, I was concerned by the raising rates of obesity that I read about frequently and saw around me but I found the obesity rates among children and teens concerning. One book that I read gave the statistic that children today are four times at risk of becoming overweight or obese than their parents were at the same age. Four times!! That is astounding. Yet when I look around at the prevalence of fast food restaurants and how busy they are, the amount of processed foods, snack foods, and candy that are readily available almost everywhere I go, not to mention all the advertizing that is directly aimed at children (in so many subtle and conniving ways) it is no wonder that we are in the midst of an obesity epidemic.
As a mother, I have many responsibilities and obligations to my children as well as the many things I want to teach them and let them experience. One of my biggest responsibilities, I feel, is to help them grow up healthy, strong and active that will help them achieve a good self-esteem and body image. I also want them to enjoy eating healthy food, and more importantly, to understand the importance of choosing healthy food over junk and how to cook healthy food for themselves. I keep a fruit bowl near the table and it is not unusually to find the apples and pears in it with little bites taken out of them. James, the ever helpful big brother, usually gets a piece of fruit for Anna (since she is too short to reach the bowl) when he is helping himself to some. It is adorable to watch these two little people try to eat a whole apple! But I worry what the future will bring. Although we do not watch TV (we only watch DVDs) James is already being influenced by advertizing. He knows McDonalds although we have only taken him there once while traveling. He begs for "fishies" (goldfish crackers) when we go shopping and asks for candy (that's my fault, I have a sweet tooth or two).
I also worry about how to help Anna and any other daughters I may have, to have a good body image when girl's clothes, even some baby clothes, emphasize slenderness and can be very provocative. A few months ago, for example, I bought Anna a new pair of jeans from Old Navy. When I put them on her I could not button them; she was too chubby. Now Anna is not THAT chubby of a baby. In fact she usually weights between the 50th to 60th percentile for her age but these jeans were cut in such a way that makes me think they were designed for babies in the 30th percentile or lower. In other words, they were not designed for the average 6-12 month old like Anna, but for the "skinny" babies. Now that Anna is crawling and walking, she has slimmed out more in her tummy and the jeans fit but when I first put the jeans on I thought, "Great, I'm giving her body image problems at 6 months old!" I don't want Anna to ever have body image problems or if she does I hope they are minor and don't start until she is a teenager. However, the world seems more and more obsessed with body image: the too thin models and actresses in magazines and on TV, the raising rates of obesity and eating disorders, and the amount of money spent on diet products each year are all reasons for me to be concerned by how my children might perceive their bodies as they mature into adulthood.
I have read frequently that a mother's attitude towards food and her body imagine (positive or negative) affect how her children view food and their bodies. While I would never have called myself "skinny" as a child or a teenager, I did not feel that I was overweight or fat. I was healthy, I was active, I played outside with siblings and friends, rode my bike to school (if we lived close enough) and rode my bike or roller skated after school. In high school I started working out at a gym and in college I started running. I still run 3-4 times a week and if both kids take a nap, I work out to home videos. I have never "gone" on a diet. The first time I ever wanted or needed to lose weight was after having two kids. Despite my efforts not to gain too much weight while pregnant I gained 55 pounds with James and my body, especially my knees, ached from the excess weight. After that I determined to never let myself become overweight. After each pregnancy I watched the amount of sweets I ate, prepare healthy foods, exercised and soon I lost all the baby weight.
Sometimes I feel like I obsess about food but then I realized I am not obsessed about food, I am obsess about what to feed my family that will be healthy. I am obsessed with maintaining by husband's and my health and raising healthy, strong and happy children. I want all of us to be able to run and play without getting winded or having body image problems. I want all of us to find joy and wonder in our bodies and what they can do. I fully intend that when James and Anna leave our house to start college or serve a mission they will know how to plan menus and cook healthy food and to find pleasure in cooking good food. I think I will make that their exit examine: my children must first plan and cook healthy dinners for week before I will let them leave my home. Then if they fall victim to the obesity epidemic, I will know that it is their fault and not mine for not teaching them good nutrition knowledge or how to cook healthy foods.
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