Why my daughter has cake for breakfast
Breaking the toxic culture of restriction, demonising of foods and poor body image
How many times have you told yourself (often out loud to friends, in front of your children), ‘Oh no, I won’t have that biscuit, I’m being good’. Or, ‘Ooh I’m so naughty for eating this, this will take me hours to run off!’. To many, including ourselves, these comments are seen as harmless, a quick check-in with one’s self to ensure we are being ‘healthy’. But God forbid, we could actually have our cake and eat it…and enjoy it too without guilt!
Sadly, we live in a harmful society where diet culture is rife, and often masked under the guise of ‘healthy eating’. Even for someone who is a self-proclaimed body-positive intuitive eater, I still occasionally have thoughts popping into my head about whether or not I should have that extra biscuit. We have been conditioned to fear fat. We are fat phobic if you like.
And this is so harmful. Let’s be honest, you don’t want that piece of cake because you fear being in a larger body. We have been conditioned not to think critically, and to assume that being in a larger body instantly = unhealthy. I mean, even the UK Government is fat-phobic — just look at its recent Obesity Strategy which overtly recommends disordered eating through calorie counting and demonising of foods. And it doesn’t help that beauty is also commonly synonymous with small. But science shows this is far from the truth, and actually a Health and Every Size approach offers a much more holistic approach to health.
With eating disorders rising at alarming rates, especially with children and young people, a huge shift in mentality is needed now. And I’m starting at a very grass roots level, with my own daughter. As a pre-schooler, she (thankfully) is not yet hugely body aware.
She is in tune with her hunger cues and hasn’t come in contact with much diet-culture. I say not much, as there have been times I have had to step in when a family member talks about dieting, or a friend suggests my child not listen to her own hunger. But for the most part, I think she’s pretty okay for now.
But I have to future-proof her for when she does inevitably come across this. That is why we have cake for breakfast! Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not cake for breakfast every day. Sometimes its cake, other days it’s a boiled egg and soldiers. Other days it’s a smoothie and a croissant.
But my daughter knows that all foods are important as part of a balanced diet, and no food is good or bad. And naturally, her body provides her with natural cravings to even out into a balanced diet. We also look at diverse women, don’t talk about people’s bodies and I talk positively about my own.
I urge you to stop demonising food too. We’ve all been there — on a diet, not allowing ourselves that one biscuit we want. And eventually, we end up eating 5. Remove restriction and the urge to binge likely will disappear. Trust your body, don’t fight against it, and have cake for breakfast!
