The Heavy

I mean your ending comment re meaningful lives in family& community settings. I haven't read the book: I won't comment on it.

This isn't the place to go into it, but your expressed view, FutureChef is utopian & I believe, too simplistic. Wish that it were true.

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Bear in mind that I am not a parent so that really disqualifies me from passing judgement on any parenting style. Furthermore, this is the first time I've read anything about this since the only magazines I read are 'foodie' magazines (holla Lucky Peach!) That being said, here's my two cents anyway:

Childhood obesity is an exceedingly relevant issue and a tough one at that. So I applaud the mother for opening up a dialogue by writing a personal essay from a fresh perspective. It's not easy to be the first and it touches a lot of 'touchy' subjects such as women, mother-daughter relationships, obesity, body image, health, you-name-it.

Here's the rub. I didn't read the book as I mentioned before, but I just don't see how you can get to a place where you sanction putting your daughter in the limelight. If it was something the daughter was interested in doing or down the road if her struggle with obesity forged her into a real advocate for health and food conscientiousness then great, then write an epilogue later with a photo spread. One more flaw in the line of thinking in my opinion is that the mother basically said that she tiptoed around the issue thereby essentially neglecting her daughter until it became a health issue. So if her reasons for facing the issue are about health, then maybe the photo spread should have been centered on health... Include a graph of the blood pressure progress, mother and daughter cooking, and at a farmers market NOT glamour shots in vogue magazine.

Last and certainly not least, I believe the key to solving childhood (and for that matter adult) obesity is simply in food appreciation. People have forgotten how to taste, how to respect where their food comes from, how to enjoy a meal--to dine. That and just community. With the Internet age and social networking, it is temptingly easy to just 'call it in' and by it, I mean life--living. We can do everything digitally now so people don't see the point in venturing out and connecting with people. Not that social networking is a bad thing (I wouldn't be writing this without the food52 hotline obviously), but if kids and adults have a real home in a family or a community, most issues solve themselves. When you're really part of a community or a team, you have a reason to get up in the morning, people's whose lives you enrich and are a part of, an you're overall just healthier. Thanks for listening to my two cents!