Diet awareness starts so young...

This brought back my own mother-daughter diet buddy memories. So sad. We need to remember that young eyes are watching. An Australian mom was horrified when she found a piece of scratch paper with the word “Diyet” scrawled across the top among the “Polly Pockets and friendship bracelets” on the floor of her 7-year-old daughter’s room. The paper outlines her daughter’s weight-loss plan and reads: 17 pooshups 2 times a day 16 star jumps 2 time a day 2 yoget 3 appals 1 per 2 keewee froots 5 glases of water Rid my bike 3 times a day Rariry a meniy thing as you can find Jog/run up and down the driv way 3 times (Before you attack her spelling keep in mind that most schools initially encourage kids to spell phonetically.) Amy Cheney, a writer and mother of three, shared the list on the Australian lifestyle site Mama Mia, where she writes with humor and emotion about the thoughts that ran through her mind when she found this upsetting piece of paper. Diyet. Jesus. Where did she learn the word diet? How does she even know what a freaking diet is? Whose fault is this? Is it mine because I let her play with Barbies? Because sometimes she’s allowed to watch Total Drama Action? Is it because when I draw with her I can only draw stick figures? She goes on: How did this happen? I am smart about this stuff. I have a degree in early childhood studies. Our family focuses on and promotes healthy eating and healthy bodies. Our attitudes are reasonable and balanced. Weight has never been an issue in our home – it is, for the most part, irrelevant. Read the full post at Mama Mia. I think that I’d be equally troubled if I found a similar list in the room of my skinny-as-a-rail 10-year-old who swims three times a week, plays basketball, goes to dance class and doesn’t have a single ounce of body fat on her even though she always finishes her cake at birthday parties. I’d like to think that my daughter will never have to worry about going on a serious diet because she learns to love her body, eat everything in moderation and remains active throughout her life. But the reality is that in the industrialized world the media and the food industry send our children confusing and unhealthy messages around food and body image. You’ve got fast-food chains dishing up triple-patty burgers, coffee chains pushing sugary drinks that pack in almost half the calories you need in a day and food companies cramming addictive amounts of salt and artificial flavoring into their chips. These companies are helping drive a scary obesity epidemic that’s leaving young children with serious body weight issues. On the other side of things, the fashion mags are filled with images of gorgeous models who’ve been airbrushed and Photoshopped to have impossibly perfect skin and skinny waists. Hollywood and the music and fashion industries are telling our girls to be pretty and thin. It’s no wonder that a survey conducted by the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) found between 40 to 60 percent of children age 6 to 12 are worried about how much they weigh, and 70 percent would like to be skinnier. A survey by the Keep It Real campaign found that 80 percent of 10 years olds have already been on a diet. Suddenly the fact that this Australian mom found a diet plan in her daughter’s room isn’t so surprising. And the fact that my own daughter recently told me about her friend who was on a diet isn’t so surprising either. Yet as parents we want to keep our kids away from that world of obsessing over every little crumb and looking into the mirror and feeling fat for as long as possible. Seven year olds shouldn’t be worrying about fitting in their push-ups every day. Rather they should be playing tag on the front lawn, chasing little brothers, shooting hoops at the playground. And they shouldn’t be counting calories. Instead they should be freely eating healthy foods and occasionally indulging in treats without any guilt. Many thanks to Amy Cheney over at Mama Mia for sharing her daughter’s note because it’s a great reminder to us all to talk to our kids about feeling good about their bodies, and these conversations might need to start earlier than you ever imagined.