Must Moms force Kids & Husband to finish Junk-Carb Dinner?

Television food-related commercials exist to make the bad eating habits that enrich the food processors socially acceptable. In addition to that vile ‘potato-pay’ commercial which has popped up again, there is that frozen-pizza commercial in which a mom is proud that she has compelled her husband and children to finish their frozen-pizza junk-carbs dinner.

OK, the whole idea behind finishing one’s dinner was that traditionally dinners were composed of decent food. Or, at least, as decent as the family could afford. Poor people have historically used bread and potatoes to fill the gap where the meat they couldn’t afford would be. 

But when dinner is junk-carbs, what is the point of finishing dinner? Maybe the snack food you might eat instead might be less deadly. 

Since the death of the home-cooked meal and its replacement by processed food and fast food, all heavy in carbs, finishing dinner is more of a health hazard than a benefit. It doesn’t even solve the hunger problem if there are enough carbs involved— you will just be hungry before the next meal rolls around. 

And the family dynamic thing is skewed all to heck in that commercial. Moms are traditionally wives who are traditionally women, who don’t suffer from the toxic masculinity their male husbands allegedly have. But that doesn’t mean women are so wonderful that a man will put up with being treated like a child who needs to be compelled to finish a junk-carbs dinner. Adult persons normally expect to be able to eat what they like— even to going on a healthy low-carb regimen if they want to.

As for frozen pizza for children, they are not only being robbed of a healthy meal with real meats and real veggies, but they are missing out on a learning experience. Children aren’t born knowing how to eat a steak or a pork chop or a salad. If they are fed on an all-junk-carbs and processed-foods diet, how will they cope when they become overweight and are advised to change their diet for the better? Better to let them have real food that will build their health and not destroy it.

Finally, trying to force any human being to eat a food they don’t want to finish is a losing game. It just makes the person more bullheaded and more willing to sit at the table forever to avoid the broccoli.  And if you finally train the person into being a member of the ‘Clean Plate Club’, how will you feel when the person becomes a dying 500 pounder with a compulsion to finish all food regardless of hunger level?

Do you ever feel guilty about refusing a carb-filled food that you are served at a meal? Do you feel a compulsion to ‘clean your plate?’ Do you feel that throwing a bit of uneaten mac & cheese in the garbage will somehow make third world children starve? What other attitudes about food are standing in the way of your health?