Thursday evening roundup

Two things (second and third letters): unsolicited medical advice is especially not welcome when it comes off as blame, and yes, don't torture your kids about food. Everyone I knew who grew up in restrictive, nutrition-obsessed households has $hitty eating habits. I grew up on sugar cubes and potato chips. No, I don't plan to raise my kids that way, but the other extreme is equally bad (see earlier post on how if there are things you should never eat in this world, white rice is not one of them). Thank goodness my mother waited until I was 30 to help f* up my relationship with food (it took a few years to fight off the influence, and I believe that that--not obsessing about what I ate--had more to do with my dropping the weight than anything else), To my parents' credit, we always ate primarily real food. There were no restrictions on junk food in the house, but it wasn't that appealing because we mostly filled up on the good stuff. The idea of 'never' foods bothers me (well, I never eat meat, but that's a different story); the much better idea is never eat when you're full.