As far as I can see there are two types of baby boomers. There are the colon cleansing, wheat germ eating boomers and there are the “Other” boomers whose horrendous health habits seem to cause them no problems so they stick with them. My mom is the latter kind. Her diet consists of cigarettes, Diet Coke, candy and heavily processed frozen dinners, ironically usually “Healthy Choice”. At sixty -two, my sisters and I marvel at the fact she has had no health problems and can't help but wonder if the steady stream of Diet Coke delivered perpetually through a monster Gulp cup has somehow preserved her.
My generation seems to occupy a happy middle ground, except when it comes to feeding our children. The deluge of information on the evils of refined sugar, high fructose corn syrup and trans fats seems to have turned many of us mommies into neurotic food police. We admit freely that we are borderline psychotic, but the fact is we know what we know and try to teach our children healthy habits by feeding them whole, organic, unprocessed foods.
When my son Lincoln refused his rice cereal at six months, my mom suggested mixing in a little vanilla pudding. I nearly had a heart attack. She was dead serious and said, “It worked like charm with you girls and you turned out fine.” True enough but no way. Now that he's one, he's giving me a little more grief with the veggies, so I have resorted to trickery, feeding him a healthy snack called “Veggie Booty”. My mom took one look at this unidentifiable green puffy food and shrieked, “For the love of God is that broccoli popcorn?” I howled with laughter until I thought about the ingredients and it actually is pretty close. As much as I cringe at my mom feeding my son sweets on the sly, I am secretly grateful because a kid who eats broccoli popcorn really should get vanilla pudding every now and then.
