When Healthy Eating Becomes Unhealthy

I have to give a shout-out to New York Times reporter Abby Ellin for writing What's Eating Our Kids? Fears About 'Bad' Foods. This is such an important subject and one that Abby has tackled well for The New York Times. I attended an Eating Disorders Bootcamp workshop conducted by nutritionist Jessica Setnick, who is wisely quoted at the end of the article, discussing just how damaging it can be for parents to label foods as "good" or "bad," or worse, to disallow certain foods from their children's diets because they apparently carry the label, "bad."

And while I am a huge fan of Nina Planck's book Real Food, and recommend it to people often (though not unless they already have made peace with food), I respectfully disagree with her assertion, "that it’s a 'total cop out' to lay blame on schools and parents for children’s eating disorders [because] the eating disorder comes out of a disordered psyche." That may be very well and true that an eating disorder is part of a larger pyschiatric issue, but the fact remains that there are people all over the world suffering daily from disordered eating that is not viewed as "severe enough" to be labeled "anorexic," "bulimic" or even "orthorexic." For those people to turn on the television, open a magazine, walk into gym class or just sit across the breakfast table from mom or dad and hear foods being described as "good" and "bad," I'm sorry. That affects people, and in my opinion it does so in an extraordinarily unhealthy way.

Sure, some people can hear about "good foods" and "bad foods" and let it slide out of their mental cavity without internalizing one word of it. But most people can't. I can't tell you how many people's obsessions with "healthy eating" that turned very UNhealthy, started when they moved into a community (such as Los Angeles) that was saturated with negative talk around "bad" foods. And that's why we have such an obsession in this country with our foods being functional and healthy. YES, of course I'm in support of healthy eating, and yes, I just savored a delicious bowl of homemade oatmeal with sliced bananas and a glass of milk. And yes, I also savored a delicious chocolate fudge brownie yesterday afternoon at work. But folks, it's true -- healthy eating can turn into a very unhealthy obsession. It's the entire reason I wrote Eat When You're Hungry: to help the kids Abby writes about in her article, and the adults they will become who will want to make peace with food, but won't know how without help.

There's not much more I can say on this topic without writing another book. In the meantime, thank you Abby Ellin for your great article in The New York Times. And thanks to my friend Linzey, for bringing it to my attention during what was a very busy week!

What do you think about this article? I'd love to hear your comments.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays, and it was even before I met my husband. After all, it's a day filled with my favorite color, flowers, hearts and chocolate. What's not to like? Actually, many years ago, it was an annual tradition for my sister, one of our mutual friends and me to make Valentine's Day cookies together. That friend moved away, so we've had to start new traditions. And boy did I find a good one this year!

If you're ever looking for a fun treat to give someone.....for Valentine's Day, for a birthday, graduation or just because, I highly recommend that you check out Good Fortunes. They make all sorts of customized cookies, but their specialty is the giant fortune cookie. You choose the coating (dark chocolate or white chocolate) and you write the message inside the giant cookie! I had so much fun with this, I can't wait to give one to someone else for a birthday, congratulations or just because. I ordered mine a bit early, so it came two days before Valentine's Day, and my husband was so surprised and delighted, that he called me at work and sang "You Are My Sunshine" over the phone. That was almost better than the fun of ordering the cookie.

He waited to crack open the cookie until I got home, and I have to say, the cookie lived up to all expectations. I took a few photos to give you a sense of it.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

An Unseasonal Treat

I have a treat I'd like to tell you about, but it is completely unseasonal, particularly for those of you living in places where the weather actually reflects winter right now. But I'm sharing it with you anyway. Iced pomegranate green tea.

I discovered this over the summer at a friend's house during a girls get-together, and to be honest, I almost didn't try it because I generally am repulsed by iced tea (unless it's mixed with lemonade in an Arnold Palmer). I love hot tea, but I've never liked it on ice, despite it looking so refreshing and appearing to be such a satisfying beverage. To be polite (and adventurous), I timidly poured myself about a quarter of a glass and to my utter delight and surprise, I loved it.

First, let's start with the color -- it's a beautiful shade of redish pink. The color alone will liven up any festivity. And then there's the taste. It's absolutely delightful. So light, refreshing and yes, smile-inducing. Definitely more exciting than water, yet it doesn't leave behind a sugary aftertaste in your mouth like a juice or lemonade would.

Recently, I've been making a pot of it at home on Sunday, and bringing it with me to work during the week. At about 3 or 4 in the afternoon when I'm craving a pick-me-up, this stuff does the trick. It makes me feel like I'm out at a picnic in the middle of New Hampshire (and I don't even get to drink it out of an adorable glass like I do at home).

Here's the kind I drink. Try it out and drink in good health.