What I Want My Kids To Know (And Love!) About Comfort Food

Because I am a mama in the health and wellness space, most people assume that the only thing I feed my kids is, well, kale. The reality is, nothing could be further from the truth. My philosophy when it comes to what I feed my kids is, "Let a kid be a kid," but that doesn't mean permission to eat candy, pizza, hot dogs, and cupcakes at every whim.

In practice, this means I make sure to feed my kids a varied and well-rounded diet consisting of fruits, vegetables, proteins, and legumes, as well as fun, yummy packaged snacks and comfort foods.

When I was growing up, my mom labeled foods "good" and "bad," where foods that were considered good were all your standard, non-packaged items—chicken, veggies, and fruits. Things like pizza, mac and cheese, granola bars, fruit snacks, and the like were all considered bad. And sure, while some of these items are certainly not as healthy as other whole foods in our house, as a mom now myself, I want my kids growing up having a smarter relationship with food—knowing what's in the food they're eating, understanding what's nourishing and how it feels to eat wholesome meals, and acknowledging what their bodies are craving and why. It's all about having these conversations with them as they grow up and form their likes and dislikes.

As parents, we have so many tough decisions to make for our little ones. It's a heavy responsibility. But I truly feel that food shouldn't be one of them. It's why, especially after being raised with a narrow outlook on what we should eat and what we shouldn't, it's my personal mission that my kids don't associate food with being "good" or "bad" but rather nourishing or less so and learn to make decisions about what to eat based on the way food makes them feel.