I work with a lot of parents whose kids have eating or body image issues. And recently, I had the privilege of interviewing Elyse Resch, MS, RDN, CEDS-C, Fiaedp, FADA, and FAND. She’s the co-creator of Intuitive Eating. She’s also the author of The Intuitive Eating Workbook for Teens and The Intuitive Eating Journal: Your Guided Journey for Nourishing a Healthy Relationship with Food and co-author of Intuitive Eating, The Intuitive Eating Workbook, and The Intuitive Eating Card Deck: 50 Bite-Sized Ways to Make Peace with Food.

I got to ask Resch about a concern that has come up fairly often when working with parents: “But what if I don’t want my kids eating junk food?”

Immediately, she stressed an essential understanding and message (personal communication, August 7, 2024): "Parents want the best for their children. They strive to teach them the values and the actions they’ll need to grow up to be productive and responsible adults. For many, this includes the belief that they must teach their children how and what to eat.

"Children, however, are born with all the innate wisdom they need to know how to eat and how much. They know when they’re hungry and full and what foods they like or dislike. Rather than teaching them how to eat, we must help them eat in a way that creates trust in their intuitive wisdom about eating."

She continued, directly addressing the “junk food” reference and common conceptualization in diet culture (personal communication, August........

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