How to Help Kids Build a Positive Relationship with Food & Their Bodies - Ep 109 - Breaking Body Biases

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How to Help Kids Build a Positive Relationship with Food & Their Bodies - Ep 109

April 11, 2025 • 26 mins

In a world where kids are exposed to harmful messages about food, exercise, and body image earlier than ever, how can we as parents protect them—and empower them—to build a healthy, confident relationship with their bodies?

In this episode of Breaking Body Biases, we dive into the real and often subtle ways diet culture shows up in children’s lives—from school and social media scrolls to family gatherings and doctor’s offices.

You’ll learn:

What diet culture sounds like coming from your child
How to respond when your child makes a negative comment about their body or food
Why “healthy eating” isn’t always healthy messaging
Practical tips for navigating school, sports, and family events
How to model a positive relationship with food and movement—even if you're still working on it yourself

Whether you're a parent, caregiver, or someone who works with kids, this episode will give you the tools to raise body-literate, confident kids in a culture that doesn’t always support them.

🔗 Resources Mentioned in the Episode:

🧠 Helpful Books, Website, & Resources: 📚

"Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture" by Virginia Sole-Smith
A compassionate and practical guide to helping kids resist body shame and embrace body autonomy.
"More Than a Body" by Lexie & Lindsay Kite
Great for parents and teens—focuses on shifting the value of our bodies from how they look to what they can do.
"Intuitive Eating for Every Day" by Evelyn Tribole
Offers daily practices to support a non-diet approach to eating—for adults and to model for children.
“The Body is Not an Apology” by Sonya Renee Taylor
A powerful read for building your own body acceptance and passing that wisdom on to the next generation.
The Nutrition Tea with Shana Minei Spence MS, RDN, CDN
The Body Image Book for Girls and the Body Image Book for Boys both by Dr Charlotte Markey
All Bodies are Wonderful: Use Science to Celebrate Everyone's Body! by Beth Cox
Every Body Is Different by by Miriam Moore-keish (Author), Alejandra Ruiz (Illustrator)
Embrace Your Body by Taryn Brumfitt
Grow Up and Love Your Body by Sarah Weston
A Kids Book About Body Image by Rebecca Alexander
Finding Peace with Your Body: A Body Image Guide for Women by Johanna Kulp
Virginia Sole-Smith’s Burnt Toast newsletter
Excellent ongoing content on parenting and diet culture.
More Than a Body – Body Image Resilience
Research-backed strategies for building media literacy and self-compassion.