I don't normally watch much TV- I usually have never had the time nor inclination. But as I'm visiting my parents, I've been watching considerably more, especially since they have cable and I'm trying to escape Politix as Usual.

This might seem terribly eating disordered but...I love the Food Network. Not so much the straight up cooking shows, but the travel-related ones and so on. One of the shows was touring family-owned bakeries and the hostess announced that she would be showing us "a chocolate chip cookie that is actually good for you!!"

Which makes the implicit assumption that all other chocolate chip cookies must be BAD for you. Right? Because why would anyone care that a chocolate chip cookie could be GOOD for you, then?

Obviously, chocolate chip cookies can be bad for certain types of people. Those with gluten intolerances or allergies. Or dairy. Or a diabetic with off the charts blood glucose levels. Not a good idea.

But for the average person, there is nothing wrong with a chocolate chip cookie. And I do mean nothing. Is a steady diet of cookies good? No (and not even if they're part of the Cookie Diet. Check the link. I'm not making this stuff up. Seriously. I couldn't do it. And this guy also sells shakes and supplements). But a steady diet of apples isn't either. Been there, done that.

Young children especially get stuck in this either/or notion of "good food" and "bad food." If we adults can't shake our way out of it, imagine a six-year-old trying to do the same. And this is it. This might be all that they ever learn about food. The emphasis on "healthy eating" is, to me, clearly the driving factor in the increase in eating disorders in very young children.

Kids are not collateral damage in the "war on obesity." And if dieting were a good "weapon," we probably should have seen some results already, shouldn't we?