Sarah Jessica Parker is breaking the cycle of generational food trauma.
“When I had girls, I didn’t want them to have a relationship with food that was antagonistic and to see it as an enemy,” Parker said on a recent episode of the “Ruthie’s Table 4” podcast.
“We weren’t allowed sugar in the house or chocolate or cookies, so of course, the minute we moved out, we all bought a load of cakes and cookies and I didn’t want that for them,” she explained.
The actor, 59, and her husband, Matthew Broderick, share 14-year-old twins Marion and Tabitha and son James, 21.
“In our house we have cookies, we have cake, we have everything,” Parker told podcast host Ruth Rogers. “And my daughters will have the figures they have and hopefully they’ll be healthy.”
Parker went on to note that sisters Marion and Tabitha are athletes who “enjoy food” and have “different palates.”
“I hope that they can maintain their affection for the experience and their delight in taste,” she said.
Dani Lebovitz, a pediatric dietician and creator of Kid Food Explorers, gives her own kids unlimited access to sweets.
“When we restrict and we shame food, it leads to some big issues,” Lebovitz previously told TODAY.com. Lebovitz noted that some research shows that children are at a much greater risk of developing an eating disorder than being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.
According to a 2023 study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, more than 1 in 5 adolescents around the world struggle with disordered eating. Meanwhile, a 2011 study found that anxiety around body image starts at around age 3.
According to Lebovitz, it’s time to stop vilifying food.
“A majority of parents are like, ‘My kids can’t control themselves around sweets. I need to parcel it out,” she said. “And this creates a scarcity mindset. That’s when they start sneaking and overeating.”