Debby Padilla-Hudson wrote:

>I will control it until I can't control it anymore.
>My hope is that he will be used to eating those types
>of foods and that his tastes buds will be trained so
>that non-Paleo foods taste yucky and foreign to him.
>
>

It's possible.  I'd bet against it, though.  And peer pressure is very,
very strong.

>I have heard of people who eat that way because they
>grew up that way.  I will also be ensuring that he
>stays healthy and has a good foundation when he is
>young.
>
>

Yes, I agree.  I'm certainly not arguing that one shouldn't do what one
can to influence children's dietary choices and habits.  I'm merely
pointing out that parental control over what kids eat diminishes rapidly
as they enter the teen years.  If parents had the amount of control that
they wish they had, teenagers would seldom take up smoking, or get
pregnant, or get drunk, or do any of the hundred other things that they
have been carefully taught not to do.  Add to that the fact that what
they will learn in their school "health" classes will often contradict
what you are telling them, and the social stigma of being a kid who
never touches a slice of pizza, and, well, you get the picture.

>For instance, my friend is married to an Indian man
>who is a vegetarian.  His health is very poor.  My
>friend is a low carber and has tried at least
>increasing his non-meat protein and decreasing his
>refined carbs, and he has lost 20 pounds just doing
>that.
>
>But still, he has a life time of vegetarian training..
>to eat meat to him is foreign.  In the same way that I
>hope that eating cupcakes and candy is foreign to my
>son some day.
>
>

That Indian man may well have been raised in an environment where
vegetarianism was nothing unusual.  A kid growing up in the US or just
about anywhere else in the developed world is in an environment where
never eating a cupcake, or a donut, or a slice of pizza is not only
unusual, it's downright weird.  And apart from snack foods, the entire
culture is aiming messages at him that whole grains are essential to
good health, but Mom is telling him they're poison.  I don't know how
many kids can bear up under this sort of thing, but I'm sure that plenty
can't.

Todd Moody
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