Alright team - we’re trying something new here. For now I’m calling it a ‘Rapid Response’.
In the scientific community a ‘Rapid Response’ (RR) is a commentary published online in response to a scientific study that has been published in a journal and gone through the peer-review process. The RR is written as an expert comment or reaction to the published article, usually dissenting, but critically, has not gone through peer review.
By comparing this to a journal article I’m indulging in delusions of grandeur. What I’m trying to say is this is a clap-back to something I’ve read online that annoyed me.
In the past, I would have written this post and shoved it on instagram, but I’m only putting bare-minimum effort into that app these days. So I figured, why not try doing it here instead? With the full understanding that this is 1) probably not going to happen that often 2) basically me just popping-off and 3) not in any way up to our usual ‘peer-reviewed’ standards (sorry, ).
In it, Anderson role plays her kiddo saying ‘Is chocolate bad for you?’ - her response was:
‘Some foods like chocolate do a little in our body, some foods like broccoli do a lot in your body but chocolate isn’t bad for you’.
Tbh, if she had just said ‘chocolate isn’t bad for you’ and left it at that I think it would have been fine. But no - she created this weird new ‘a little/a lot situation’. So now we need to unpack it.
In keeping with my commitment to do the least when it comes to Instagram - I jumped on a story and said something to the effect of ‘saying food does a little or a lot is not that much different to saying that food is ‘healthy’ or ‘unhealthy’.’
Well, without intending to, I somehow managed to create the highest level of engagement in quite a while. Reactions were generally in agreement. Apart from the one very indigent person who accused me of being passive aggressive (like Jennifer Anderson with her 2 million followers gives a shit about what I think). But then a lot of people were just plain confused.
WHAT SHOULD I SAY THEN??
And herein lies the problem with this kind of content. We can’t reduce these conversations with our kids down to an overly contrived script.
I have some ideas for how you might approach this conversation in a bit. But first it feels important to say: you don’t have to listen to me. Maybe Jennifer knows something I don’t. Her kids are older and she’s had lots of practice at having these conversations. My kid can barely string a sentence together (that’s not true, he can recount the plotline to Totoro with alarming accuracy). My point is though, maybe that approach feels good to you and you like it, and that’s cool. But there are a few *fucking glaring* plot holes. LFG
1. IT’S JUST NOT TRUE
In a literal, factual sense, it is not true. Broccoli does not ‘do more’ than chocolate. This is like nutritional science 101. Someone check Jen’s RD license real quick.
Compared to chocolate broccoli has:
Less protein
Less fat
Less carbohydrate
Will give kids less energy
We could agree that chocolate is way more filling than a serving of broccoli and so arguably does more for our bodies. What food ‘does more’ for our bodies depends on which metric we’re using. Like I talked about here - chocolate has a lower glycaemic index than bananas or sweet potatoes. Peas are lower in fibre than cheerios. Comparing foods like this is pointless because we don’t eat individual foods. It’s also why I don’t like Jennifer’s ‘this gives us quick/lasting energy’ explanation. MAKE IT MAKE SENSE.
The does a little/does a lot narrative is still a binary. It may seem less toxic than ‘good/bad’ on the surface, but in reality, is it all that different? I’m not so sure. We are taught that more is ‘better’, more is ‘good’ - so even if we aren’t using that exact language, I think kids can read between the lines on this one. We still run the risk of kids who only want to eat foods that do THE MOST for their bodies. To optimise their diets. Using Jennifer’s logic, we’d end up with a pretty restricted diet, pretty fast. Particularly for kids in late primary school and up who are vulnerable to comments from their peers about having strong/muscular or healthy/thin bodies. Let me tell you about how that is a recipe for an eating disorder - especially if you have an anxious or perfectionist kid. “Mum - what does more for my body carrots or kale”. You can see how this is a super slippery slope.
Look, the kid asked about chocolate. And she conjured broccoli. As soon as she went there, she pitted them against each other.
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