Do I let my kids eat junk food?

Since I am a health coach and a mom, a lot of parents would assume that I am super strict with my kids about eating healthy. They always ask me “Do you let your kids eat junk food?” Well yes…and no. You see, we live in a world that is filled with junk food and some junk food does taste really good. It is inevitable that our kids will encounter donuts, chips, candies and all kinds of junk food in school, birthday parties, playdates, and alas at Halloween! Instead of restricting my kids, I let them try everything, sparingly I have to say, but every time they put something bad into their mouth I try my best to educate them that “you are putting trash into your body”. I even deliberately put some junk into my pantry to tempt them, and let them make decisions once a while when it’s snack time. Would they prefer pistachio over cheese crackers? They make bad choices sometimes. But at the end of the day, they understand that pistachio is a superior snack over crackers, and so forth. We discuss. We negotiate. We learn. For me, such discussions are important. Very soon, they will have to make their own decisions at school cafeteria. I want them to make the right choices. I also use the method of “crowding out” by putting out healthy food as often as I can so that they don’t have room for junk. Once a while when they crave for a donut, I would actually indulge them but remind them “the sugar in the donut is up the roof and is bad for you”. Will a couple of donuts affect their health at this age? I don’t think so. What I don’t want is for them to become sugar-craving adults and flood their bodies with sugar-laiden junk food when they are on their own. How do I think I can achieve that? I try to brain-wash them into thinking that junk food is evil. But hey, it is the ugly truth. Highly processed junk food is the main culprit in a lot of the chronic diseases and a vast number of people of all ages have no will-power to say no to it. Eating well has a lot to do with our mind, or shall I say mindset? It requires us to have will-power and discipline from within. After all, m&ms, bbq lays chips, mint chocolate ice cream…are just so so enticing sometimes. Without a strong mind, we would give in to our cravings and addictions. We need to instill a strong mindset in our kids and the training can start today. We don’t want them to feel deprived or restricted when their friends gobble up a bag of skittles in front of them. We want to empower them to be able to say no, and feel good about their wise decisions.