Michelle Obama Admits She Struggled To Feed Her Kids Healthy Food

The conversation around eating disorders often includes discussion of nature vs. nurture: do we learn unhealthy habits and behaviors or are they genetically pre-programmed?

Many argue that kids are influenced by their parents, who are often just struggling to get health and nutrition right themselves.

In a recent interview with MSN.com, first lady Michelle Obama admitted that she was once one of these parents – and she didn’t always know how to feed her kids healthy foods.

“Before coming to the White House, I struggled, as a working parent with a traveling, busy husband, to figure out how to feed my kids healthy, and I didn’t get it right,” she said.

Mrs. Obama explained that things got so bad the family doctor even intervened to have a discussion about nutrition.

“I thought to myself, if a Princeton- and Harvard-educated professional woman doesn’t know how to adequately feed her kids, then what are other parents going through who don’t have access to the information I have?”

Kids should eat what they need, not what they want

The first lady has been a strong advocate for helping schools teach children healthy eating habits through her signature “Let’s Move” initiative.

She believes that parents and school administrators should be less worried about what children want to eat, and feed them what they need to eat.

“I struggle with that in my own life, and I tell you, if I let my kids dictate what we have for dinner every day, it would be french fries, chips and candy, but we don’t run our households like that, and we can’t run our schools like that.”

Source: Washington Times