Food is not just what we put in our mouths to fill up; it is culture and identity. Reason plays some role in our decisions about food, but it's rarely driving the car.
I have a beautiful platter of various fruits as my computer screen saver. It's a constant reminder to eat healthy! It helps me to make healthier food choices throughout my day.
Eating and food are a wonderful part of our life's experience, and half of us are walking around dreading having to figure out what to put in our mouths.
But it's really hard to eat good when you're traveling because you see fast food and you want to go to this restaurant and that restaurant.
It's an uphill battle to help our kids learn to make good food decisions - particularly when they are too often presented with an a la carte lunch room choice of french fries or yogurt.
I appreciate the power of a White House bully pulpit - but kids listen and learn primarily from other kids. If your son's friend tells him that the apple is better than the fries, he's more likely to listen.
One of the powerful things about the food issue is that people feel empowered by it. There are so many areas of our life where we feel powerless to change things, but your eating issues are really primal. You decide every day what you're going to put in your body and what you refuse to put in your body. That's politics at its most basic.
Students are very engaged by the issues, and it's not surprising because food choices are one of the few powers a child has.
I do like my eggs in the morning, if I was trying to be good I'd have a piece of rye bread with a bit of avocado and scrambled egg whites.
We make decisions every day about what we're going to eat. And some people want to buy Nike shoes - two pairs, and other people want to eat Bronx grapes and nourish themselves. I pay a little extra, but this is what I want to do.
Food decisions - do I eat this or not? - are always going to be there.
I always feel happy when I'm making smart decisions with food - instead of focusing on what I shouldn't eat, I focus on what I should eat. It's all about being happy and feeling good!
We have developed a culture in which we eat with our taste buds, not our brains.
I don't let my wardrobe dictate my diet.
My nutritional knowledge is good enough to figure out what's good, what's bad, and where my leeway is.
In my family, we let our boys have a say in what veggie side they want for dinner that night. We list off a handful of options and get them excited about helping to plan the dinner menu. They're much more inclined to finish their plates when they've helped decide what goes on them.
