On Thursday afternoon I had lunch with a friend at A Votre Sante, an organic California cuisine type of restaurant. It is small and located in Brentwood and boasts a very healthy delicious menu. It didn't hurt that Pamela Anderson sat across from us and Britney Spears' manager Larry Rudolph sat behind us. It is also a favorite of locals Laura Dern and Ben Harper. But I digress! My friend wanted to know how we can stop our children from developing eating disorders.

My advice is very simple and I believe 100% that every parent should take this into consideration to protect their children from the most dangerous secretive disease that is prevalent in our society.

Here are my FIVE steps:

1. Lead by example. Guess what if you are eating diet food, talking about your chunky thighs or eating plain lettuce for dinner, while your family eats a meal together. You MUST look at your own behavior. It is my goal to help every woman in America become a Fed Up Girl. And our children look straight to you for an example. You know if you are behaving in an unhealthy way if you don't want your kids to do the same thing. Or if you do and realize it is not healthy behavior.

2. Do not restrict foods, times to eat, etc. A child is born with an internal voice and system that we call hunger signals and satiation. As we women begin to diet and restrict we lose this internal voice, and my program is designed to GET IT BACK. So why would you want to squash the very thing that is guiding your child to take care of their body appropriately? Give the child choices and treat them like an adult. My advice is to not even discuss this, as kids are really perceptive and also very adaptable. Let them choose what they want to eat, how much, where and when.

3. Eat at least one meal as a family. Sharing a meal and the same food as a family together is an important lesson in meals as a social activity. Studies prove that when people eat alone they often overeat. Your daughter will have plenty of chances to eat a bagel in the car when she is grown up. Give her the gift of a family meal and allow her to choose how much of the shared meal she eats. I don't believe in bribing or making deals. She can put the food on her plate and eat or not eat it. Period.

4. Let the kids eat whatever they want. For some of us who have been actually restricting our children's diet, this means they might go hog wild with the sugar at first. But remember a child is very sensitive to their body and after a few too many sugar highs and crashes, their body will reprogram.

5. What about their nutrition? Give them a multi-vitamin. And if things are really awful, you can always pull a Jessica Seinfeld and blend fruits and veggies into foods they like. But I am 99% sure, the child knows what their body needs and they will not malnourish themselves by choice. Also, it is nice to have a child develop tastes for fruits and veggies that are genuine. I love broccoli all by itself and I am 31 years old. Don't you want your child to have the same pleasure when they are grown.

Good luck! Always test and tweak. In my experience the best thing to do is remove ALL restrictions and give the child input when grocery shopping, eating family meals and most importantly what they want to eat.

Ask your daughter what she would like for breakfast. It might be cheesecake for a few days, but I bet you very soon it will turn into scrambled eggs, milk, etc.

You are giving your child the gift of CHOICE and the ability to listen to their internal voice/body to regulate itself. Don't take this away from a kid. It takes a long long time to get back.



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