Episode 56 : Junk Food Addiction in Kids

Episode 56 : Junk Food Addiction in Kids

Have you ever felt like junk food is taking over your child’s diet? You’re not alone. The reality is, our kids are bombarded with ultra-processed foods that are specifically designed to be addictive. In this episode, I dive deep into why junk food addiction happens, how it affects children’s health, and—most importantly—what we can do about it.

I’m here to help you make informed choices, not to add guilt to your plate. So let’s unpack the science behind junk food cravings, the sneaky marketing tactics targeting our little ones, and practical steps to reduce your child’s reliance on unhealthy foods.

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Links
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Highlights:

Introduction (00:00.074)
The Truth About Junk Food, Additives, and Our Kids’ Health (00:29.538)
The Hidden Crisis: Food Addiction in a Processed World (02:51.404)
The New Normal? Why Processed Food is Replacing Real Food in Our Homes (05:08.652)
The Hidden Cost of Convenience: Junk Food, Marketing & Our Kids’ Health (07:23.488)
Junk Food, Additives & Our Kids: What Every Parent Needs to Know (09:41.408)
Invisible Addiction: How Junk Food Hooks Our Brains and Harms Our Kids (11:57.088)
Why Your Kid Can’t Stop Eating That Snack — And It’s Not Their Fault (14:21.634)
Junk Food & the Growing Brain: What Every Parent Should Know (16:42.07)
Junk Food vs. Learning: What’s Really Hurting Our Kids at School(18:57.902)
Raising Nourished Kids in a Junk Food World (21:16.398)
Junk Food, Dopamine & Our Kids: The Hidden Dangers and What Parents Can Do (23:33.814)
Junk Food & Kids: Breaking the Cycle, Building Healthy Habits (25:51.082)
What Every Parent Needs to Know About Junk Food Addiction (28:02.414)
Breaking the Junk Food Cycle: Helping Kids Build a Healthy Relationship with Food (30:14.338)

Show notes

READ TRANSCRIPT

Show Notes

In This Episode, We Cover:

The Hidden Impact of Junk Food – How processed foods change our kids' brains and fuel addiction.
Marketing Tricks & How to Outsmart Them – The billion-dollar industry behind children’s junk food cravings.
Food Standards & What’s Really in Our Food – Why regulations aren’t protecting our kids from excessive sugar, salt, and additives.
Smart Swaps & Healthy Habits – Simple strategies to cut back on junk food without battles at the dinner table.
The Role of Dopamine & Food Cravings – Understanding the brain’s reward system and how to reset it.

Our children’s health starts with the choices we make today. One small change, done consistently, can make a huge difference.

🚨 Nourishing Kids is OPEN until Wednesday! 🚨
If you’re ready to take control of your child’s nutrition, join Nourishing Kids before doors close on Wednesday at midnight! This is your chance to be part of a supportive community of mums, all working towards raising healthy eaters. Sign up now: Nourishing Kids

🔗 Show Notes & Links:

Healthy Recipes for Kids: https://nourishwithkarina.com/healthy-recipes-for-kids
Join Nourishing Kids https://nourishwithkarina.com/nourishingkids

Let’s break the cycle of junk food addiction—one mindful choice at a time.

Introduction (00:00.106)
You're listening to the Easy Feed Podcast, episode number 56, Junk Food Addiction in Kids. Hi there, I'm Carina Savage and with over 20 years experience feeding children, including my own, I've learnt all the secrets that busy mums need to get their children eating better and actually enjoying healthy foods. So a huge welcome to the Easy Feed Podcast.

The Truth About Junk Food, Additives, and Our Kids’ Health (00:29.538)
Welcome back to another episode of The Easy Feed. This episode was prompted by a request for me to go on television this week and talk about junk food addiction and the problems associated with it, why it happens and what we can do to a, reduce junk food addiction and b, if we have a junk food addiction that's really problematic, what we can do. So how we can avoid it and then what we can do if it's a real issue, because I

feel that these days as parents, our children are exposed to worse food than we've ever been exposed to. I feel that in the past 20 to 30 years, food has changed for the worse. Even the basic Oreo biscuit, Ritz biscuit, the number of ingredients in these products these days has tripled, quadrupled and the number of nasties, so additives, preservatives.

Things that we don't want in our food are in our food and our food standards, our food regulations do not protect our children. They do not protect us full stop. And it's not a case of ignorance is bliss because they're harming us. They're harming our children. And the problem is that the food companies have too much of a sway, I believe. Now I'm not saying that

Food standards Australia are corrupt, or it's actually food standard New Zealand and Australia. I'm not saying they're corrupt and they're being paid by the companies. Don't get me wrong, but I feel like they need to be a lot stricter, a lot tighter with what is allowed in our food. And this primarily talks to salt and sugar because we have no regulation whatsoever about how much salt or sugar can be poured into our food, into our children, toddler food, especially I was interviewed about this on Sunrise late last year.

On top of sugar and salt, we've got all these other food additives, which is the gray area. And again, I've got another podcast episode on this, but it's where they've got that classification, GRAS, generally regarded as safe. I hate that classification because it's such a gray area. It tells us that they think it's safe for us.

The Hidden Crisis: Food Addiction in a Processed World (02:51.404)
But really, if you dig deep, you could spend your lifetime investigating all the different food additives and all the different studies about whether they're safe, whether they're not. Unfortunately, a lot of studies are done in animals, which A, I can't stand because I can't stand animal testing and animal studies. And B, they're not humans, but you're not going to test on humans.

So why don't you just look at the product for what it is and go, you know what? This is actually not natural. Don't put it in our kids food. Don't put it in our food full stop. And I hate the generally regarded as safe because what they've done is they've taken some testing and gone in this amount, it should be all right. Then when you start digging, you find all these other studies that show us the increased inflammation, increased cancer risk, increased heart disease, increased platelet clotting. So I feel it's an

Absolute minefield. Sorry, I'm going on a rant here, but I want to inform you. I want you to know what our risks are here. And hook, this isn't about junk food, but it is about junk food because it's about the junk food on the supermarket shelf. But what I'm talking about today too, is all the other junk food that you find, like convenience stores and your McDonald's and your KFC and your Uncle Jack's and all of that rubbish food that companies are so good at marketing to us and so good at making them taste flavorsome to most. So.

Anyway, I rant about the food standards and the regulations and they will change. They have to change, but I will also be discussing those convenience foods, which can become very addictive and they're very convenient. And in our time poor world, they can be a very easy option. So the topic for today was food addiction because I feel because of the way that our society is at the moment, food addiction.

is a problem in our kids and adults. And it's a growing crisis because we are all bombarded with ultra-processed food, highly delicious junk food designed to be addictive. And it can make it incredibly difficult, I think as parents, to raise healthy eaters when we're bombarded with all of these influences that make it harder. And there's also junk food advertising, there's junk food advertising to our children.

The New Normal? Why Processed Food is Replacing Real Food in Our Homes (05:08.652)
to us, whether it's on social media, whether it's at bus stops, it's everywhere and it's a real problem. And I think this also needs to be addressed. There's aggressive marketing. And because when we're time poor, it's easy just to swing past a convenience shop and grab this delicious food, but perhaps not as good for us. And we feel guilty about it. It's what works and it's what the kids want, especially if they're bussy, they tend to gravitate towards those foods.

Unlike previous generations where there was more home cooking, home cooking was the norm. feel children today growing up in a world where this ultra processed food almost becomes the norm. Like the, the rice crackers that are laden with all of these additives and flavorings. And that's the norm in the playground for a lot of kids. So I think it's something that we need to try and chip away at. And this podcast episode is not designed to make you feel guilty because

We are all in the thick of it. We're all struggling. I'm a pediatric dietician and I've got two kids and I do my best to stay away from all this junk, but my kids love this stuff too. So we're all in the trenches together here, but it's about being aware and being smart and making intentional choices for your family that reduces your child's exposure to this rubbish and reduces their risk of.

developing food addiction to junk foods. But as I said, one of the biggest drivers of this issue is the advertising. In Australia, research indicates that children aged five years to eight, so five to eight years of age, they're exposed to at least 827 unhealthy food ads on television each year. That's two to three times a day that they are being exposed to these unhealthy food ads.

And that's just on TV. That's not on social media. Hopefully they're not on social media, but that's not at the bus stop. That's not in the shopping malls. That's not anywhere else on a bus. This is just on television. These ads use bright colors, cartoon characters, catchy jingles to appeal to kids. And they're often misleading parents too with claims of natural ingredients. So.

The Hidden Cost of Convenience: Junk Food, Marketing & Our Kids’ Health (07:23.488)
It could be that it is like a hamburger or it could be that it is like a fruit bar or a fruit strap that is apparently healthy. They use the word organic. They, and I do love organic food by the way, but sometimes it's used to be misleading. They use the word no added sugar, which is rubbish half of the time. And I've got another episode on that. but they use these misleading terms to make parents feel better about buying stuff for our kids.

And our kids are already attracted to it because of all the other clever marketing. So supermarkets are filling up with these ultra processed snacks. A because they're allowed to. B because kids love them and they buy them. So it's this self-impatuating problem because kids love them. They pass to their parents to buy them. Their parents buy them and it makes the food companies more money. The supermarkets are loving it because they're selling more. And parents are facing this uphill battle. So.

It's no longer just about saying no to the occasional treat. Now, why am I so focused on this topic? Because it impacts our kids today and for the rest of their life. How our children eat now and the impact that it has on their health influences their lifelong health. It puts a health stamp on them for the rest of their life, for their future. So we really need to be paying attention to what is going into our children's bodies now.

And I always say one small change done consistently will add up to big things. So it's just trying to focus on one thing at a time to improve the way that our children eat. And reduce the reliance on these processed foods, reduce the addiction to these processed foods. Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that more than 95 % of children do not meet the recommended daily intake for fruit and veg.

So how can we increase our children's daily intake? One small change at a time. And talk about all this stuff inside Nourishing Kids, which actually, by the way, I should let you know, opens actually by the time you're listening to it, it will have been open for one day and it will be open for one more day. It's going to be open from Monday, the 3rd of February to Wednesday midnight on the 5th of February. So if you're listening to this.

Junk Food, Additives & Our Kids: What Every Parent Needs to Know (09:41.408)
As soon as it's been released, then you will be able to head to my website, nourishwithcarina.com, click on the links through and join Nourishing Kids. Join me and the beautiful group of mums inside Nourishing Kids who are all doing amazing things, having wins all the time, improving their children's nutrition and gut health for the rest of their life. So it's super exciting. That's open. So head to nourishwithcarina.com.

And you will be able to click through and join. Okay. Back to our statistics. Approximately one in four Australian children and adolescents are either overweight or obese. And that directly relates back to poor diet. And the study of children in South Australia revealed that nearly 80 % of food and drink advertisements near schools promoted junk food. And that's just another way that kids are being exposed to junk food advertising every day.

So if it's not on television, it's near the school, it's everywhere. And I just wish that food hadn't changed so much. I wish that healthy granola or fruit bars or just a healthy cracker had simple ingredients. I just wish it wasn't laden with so much rubbish and additives and colors these days. America's taking great steps to start to ban some of these artificial colors that are linked to poor behavior and attention disorders in kids. So.

There's plenty we can do, but they're just not doing it from a regulatory perspective. So we have to be really taking the initiative as parents now, whilst these foods are still allowed on the supermarket shelf. Okay. So let's talk a little bit about what food addiction is. So we really have to talk about neurology a little bit about the brain because there is a system in the brain called the reward system.

It releases a neurotransmitter called dopamine, which is a feel good hormone. And it hardwires us to want to engage in behaviors that we find pleasurable. A very good example of this is screens and social media and getting these kind of hits of dopamine that make us feel good. We keep scrolling, we keep looking, we keep doing things that

Invisible Addiction: How Junk Food Hooks Our Brains and Harms Our Kids (11:57.088)
us feel good, produces more dopamine hits for us. Computer games are another prime example of just dopamine hit after dopamine hit and our kids become addicted. So tasty foods, junk foods can also provide that dopamine hit. And the reward circuits within our brains activate, releasing that chemical dopamine. Now whole foods like fruits and vegetables will trigger normal dopamine levels, but junk food.

That super tasty junk food manufacturers know exactly how to end all time dopamine high. Making foods high in sugar, fat, salt creates an exaggerated dopamine spike and it really hijacks the brain's reward system. Now over time, our brains can therefore start to really enjoy the pleasure from these foods and in response, the brain adapts and it makes more receptors for this feel-good hormone dopamine.

But the problem with this, however, is it means that we need then a greater amount of junk food to get that same high, making us eat more of the junk food in the same way that an addict develops a tolerance to drugs. So our brains are hardwired to seek out and want these rewarding foods that create these dopamine hits. And it makes us crave and desire these junk foods, these sweet, salty, fatty foods. So this cycle really does mirror.

the effects of a drug addiction and it's very dangerous, very unhealthy. Also, these junk foods have other ingredients that they've got these processed refined vegetable oils, these sugars, these additives that really affect our body and brain in terrible ways. So the way that our body absorbs and processes them means that it can actually change the neural pathways in our brain.

And as I said, act a lot like some types of drugs. These junk foods also cause fatigue and they can also really disrupt your gut microbiome, which we know is directly impacting on our health. And these junk foods cause a lot of inflammation in the body. So I really think that junk food is a bit of an invisible devil because it can really affect our brain and our children's brains so many ways without us really realizing it's invisible.

Why Your Kid Can’t Stop Eating That Snack — And It’s Not Their Fault (14:21.634)
But we only see the visible effects, which are the cravings and the dependence for this junk food. But it's really got so many invisible nasty effects that we really need to be aware of. So junk food rewires our cravings. The more processed food we eat, the less appealing real food becomes. Natural flavors like the sweetness of an apple start to seem really bland. And food companies use this bliss point.

engineering, which is the perfect balance of sugar, fat, salt to keep us coming back for more. Junk food also causes impulsivity because it's created with that perfect combination of these ingredients and additives. Food companies, spend billions on the combination to get it just right. Even the texture to make sure that it's exactly what we, our body.

We don't necessarily want it from a health perspective, but it makes us want it because it's so desirable from a texture, from a taste. We just want to keep coming back for more. They're absolute geniuses at creating food that triggers all of our food pleasure signals in our brain. And we just need to be really mindful of that because of course they're not going to tell us that. This is their whole plan. This is the whole reason they make multi-billions and trillions of dollars every year, because their core business is to...

make it addictive. And so they sell more and more junk food to us. They don't care about our kids' health. And the problem is every little athletics or rugby competition is sponsored by McDonald's. Our kids get these vouchers if they get Player of the Week and it drives me nuts because I'm like, this is just reinforcing the problem. So the impulsivity problem is a real concern for our children because of their delicate age and the fact

that their brain hasn't fully matured. Because to resist the temptation to junk food, we need the major control center in our brain, which is the prefrontal cortex, to be fully developed. And this area doesn't mature until our early twenties, which is one reason why teenagers can act so impulsively. And we've got research to prove that consuming lots of sugary drinks when you're young can alter brain development.

Junk Food & the Growing Brain: What Every Parent Should Know (16:42.07)
And of course they've studied animals, they studied rats and they made these rats drink water with sugar in it. So the sugar water, and tested them on their decision making. And they did this in adult rats and child rats, adolescent rats. And they found that the adolescent rats drinking the sugar water found it harder to follow rules compared to the adult rats drinking sugar water.

And they put this down to the fact that the development of the prefrontal cortex. And I don't know how rats brains and their prefrontal cortex develops compared to human adults and kids in their prefrontal cortex. Again, I hate animal testing, but basically the bottom line is children's brains are not completely mature yet. And it's not surprising that

They are more addicted and they have more and more young people developing obesity because they're consuming so much of these junky type foods, whether they are like McDonald's or Hunger Jacks or whether it's the junk food from supermarkets or sugary drinks, it's all addictive and it's just causing an increase in health problems in our children. Junk food also causes inflammation, as I said before.

I often talk about kids with food allergies and the types of food reactions that you can have from food proteins. So one type being your more anaphylaxis type with lip and mouth swelling. So that's inflammation caused by the food protein. Junk food can have an inflammatory effect in the brain, which is scary. And this is called neuroinflammation. And what it does is it sets off a series of events that causes even more inflammation and that can damage brain cells called neurons.

Australian research has recently showed that as little as five days on a diet of sugary drinks, cakes and cookies caused increased levels of inflammation in the brain in the section called the hippocampus. have... It sounds a bit like a hippopotamus, doesn't it? People who have a damaged hippocampus often report being hungry all the time. And I'll often see patients whose parents will say to me,

Junk Food vs. Learning: What’s Really Hurting Our Kids at School(18:57.902)
Oh, my child just is hungry all the time. There's just no off switch. So the hippocampus plays an important role in receiving messages from the gut. Again, these are neurotransmitters about hunger and fullness. So eating a junk food, rich diet can actually create this vicious cycle of damage to the neurons in the hippocampus and the damage causes people to eat more and then they crave more and it's addictive. And it's just this vicious cycle.

causing them to be unhealthy kids and adults. Junk food strength the brain's learning capabilities. And this is a real concern because we want our kids to have the best. We worry about what teacher they've got each year. Are they going to learn enough? We send them to private schools so they get a better education if we can. Nothing wrong with public school. I went to a public high school.

and primary schools, and I think I do matter, but we spend all this money and time and tutoring and worry investing in making sure that they are getting the best learning environment, trying to do homework where possible. But we don't think about the invisible effects that junk food is playing in our kids' learning capability, in the development of their brain. Researchers found that people who eat lots of junk food don't perform as well as those eat healthy diets in simple memory.

tests and this again relates back to that hippocampus, the memory center of the brain. They talk about a term called neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to change and adapt. And they found that junk food laden diets really reduce neuroplasticity, which is essential for us to form new memories and learn new things rapidly. So junk food is actually affecting our children's ability to learn new things rapidly.

form new memories and change and adapt. It affects the creation of new neurons in the brain. We need new neurons or neurogenesis in the brain. And they've shown. So if junk food reduces the creation of new neurons in the brain, and we know that less neurons have been linked to mental health disorders, including depression. Again, there's another link between poor diet, mental health.

Raising Nourished Kids in a Junk Food World (21:16.398)
And when you're feeling sad, then you tend to want to eat for comfort. And then you are perhaps drawn to foods that taste good and hit those dopamine feel-good hormones, which is the junk food. So then you put more rubbish in your body and then it's just this vicious cycle of poorer health and poorer mental health. And you can't also discount the effect of poor gut health too.

on the gut brain axis. So look, I think by now I've probably convinced you of that direct relationship between junk food and mental health. We also have blood sugar crashes and mood swings, which also impacts their learning and their day-to-day behaviour and risk of tantrums. But look, it's not all doom and gloom. There's plenty we can do and that's obviously what I spend my days doing and helping parents with.

We really need to focus on some strategies that will help A, prevent our children from having as much junk food and B, manage the effect of these junk food items, these processed foods, whether it's like a burger or a packet of chips, we need to somehow manage the effect of these on our children because look, kids are going to want junk food and we all want

junk food sometimes, so I'm not saying never have it, but we really need to be mindful about how often our kids are having it because there's a fine line there and if our children are these junk foods multiple times daily or even daily, it will have a negative effect on their health. So let's talk now about some tips to prevent junk food addiction in kids. To start with, creating a home environment that supports healthy eating is key.

where possible, leave the junk on the supermarket shelf. And look inside nourishing kids, you get fact sheets, cheat sheets with pictures of great kids' snacks to bring home and ones that aren't good. And you learn all about how to read labels and avoid those highly processed foods with additives that are still allowed, but not good for our kids. So you've got access to all of that as a nourishing kids member, which as I said, currently open until Wednesday night.

Junk Food, Dopamine & Our Kids: The Hidden Dangers and What Parents Can Do (23:33.814)
Otherwise there will be a wait list again, but trying to keep those junk foods out of the pantry is number one, because if you leave it on the supermarket shelf, there's no temptation at home. You don't even have to have the battle. if it's in the pantry, then it's harder. Have plenty of healthier snack options that means that they have no other option, but to have those options if the other junk's not in the pantry or in the fridge.

If possible, making some healthy cakes or cookies or biscuits, muffins and know that we're all time poor. But if possible on the weekend, if you can carve out half an hour just to make something, again, it's something for them to grab and run off with. It's a little healthier, a lot healthier, a thousand times healthier than a lot of the stuff in the supermarket. I also think it's important to put clear boundaries around the number of times you get takeaway foods and also being really mindful of the takeaway foods that you do get.

I think there's a big difference between a char-grilled chicken and salad and maybe a couple of potato wedges and like a hungry Dax or a McDonald's or a KFC happy meal. There's a big difference. If you can focus on having those takeaway options where you're still getting real food, that's going to be a much better takeaway option than highly processed burgers with the buns that have sugar and goodness knows what else in there, washed down with.

soft drinks or slushies or ice creams or fries that have been fried in oil that's highly inflammatory. So we just need to be really mindful about limiting how often you get those takeaway foods that are really bad for you. Something that I always want to do better at and I have better weeks and worse weeks, but having a schedule, like a menu plan for the week, even if it's for just three or four meals for the week.

Having that plan, having some ingredients to be able to make three or four meals and then the other two or three are either eggs on toast, beans on toast, leftovers and a takeaway meal. But like a takeaway pizza, for example, is going to be far better than going and buying a big KFC bucket meal and whatnot.

Junk Food & Kids: Breaking the Cycle, Building Healthy Habits (25:51.082)
Again, choosing healthier takeaways, limiting takeaways and menu planning so that you do have some stuff in the fridge or the pantry just to throw together something quick and easy. That's going to reduce your reliance on junk food, convenience foods. Same with the snacks. I said, having those healthy snacks in the pantry is going to make a big difference. Or the fridge, should say. Crunchy foods, crunchy foods are very important.

Raw veggies, crunchy veggies, fruit, fresh fruits. They're really important as part of a healthy balanced diet. Nuts as well. Nuts are a great one. Nut butters. They're all rich in antioxidants, nutrients, fiber, really good for the body. It's important to keep food fun. For kids, they're all about fun. And I'm not saying you need to spend 30 minutes making the plate look really pretty and fun.

But just keep it fun, keep it light. A lot of the time I talk to moms and my members about strategies to make mealtimes more enjoyable, how we talk about food, just that whole story around food and creating a different mindset, having a different approach makes a big difference to what kids eat. So keeping healthy food fun, role modeling healthy eating behaviors yourself, so powerful.

They're really important to try to keep our kids healthy and to make sure our children are increasing their repertoire of healthy foods and their intake of those healthy foods. Another way I like to make sure our kids are feeling fuller and satisfied throughout the day is to make sure that you add good amounts of protein and healthy fats throughout the day.

So that if they are having some sugary foods as well, helps to manage and balance out their blood sugars a little bit. Protein and fat will definitely help to balance out blood sugar levels. So will fiber. Fiber rich foods will also help to slow down that release of sugar in the bloodstream. If it's part of a mixed meal, having more fiber with some sugary foods will definitely help. So it's all about.

What Every Parent Needs to Know About Junk Food Addiction (28:02.414)
making it manageable, knowing that our kids are going to want to eat some of these processed foods. They are going to want to eat some of these junky foods that we don't want them to have. So yes, we limit them as much as possible, but when they do have them, and especially if they're sugary foods, then including protein, fiber or fat with those foods to help manage the damage, it will help. I think as kids get older too, you can start to have the conversation with them about how

The food companies really try to trick us into wanting more and more of them. They want us to become addicted. So the older children get the more conversations you can start to have with them about it. But at the end of the day, when it tastes good, and as I said before, if kids don't have that ability to act on the impulsivity, they're

Their brains are still maturing. It can be really tricky. If there is no way that your child is going to say no to these foods, then I think it's about just reducing the frequency of visiting these convenience shops or reducing the number of times you bring home the packet of Tim Tams. Not to name a shame Tim Tams, everyone can eat chocolate. It's just about making sure it's in moderation. Okay. I'll wrap it up soon. I just wanted to make sure this podcast episode really informed you about.

What junk food addiction is, how can impact our brains, how can impact our children's brains and really the significance of the issue on many layers and the fact that the marketing is there, the fact that the billions of dollars that go into the formulation of these foods to make them so highly palatable and addictive, it's there. We're not going to change that, but what we can do as parents is be aware of it.

Be aware of how often we're exposing our children to these foods, how often we're driving through the drive-through and grabbing these foods, how often we meal plan so that it reduces our dependence on these foods. But also when we're in the supermarket, just being really mindful of the fact that we do have a lot more salt, sugar and food additives in our food these days. And that all plays a role in our children's food addiction as well.

Breaking the Junk Food Cycle: Helping Kids Build a Healthy Relationship with Food (30:14.338)
You can break free and you can certainly help your child to build a healthy relationship with food and have healthy food intake. You just have to focus on a little and you'll be intentional with your choices. And of course I'm there to help you. As I said, my Nourishing Kids membership is currently open. So head to my website and you can click straight through. If you've missed the boat, then you'll hit the wait list to pop your name on that. And when it does reopen later in the year, you can jump in then.

But look, it's not about perfection, just progress. Start small. So let me know if you've got any questions from today's episode. Leave me a star rating, leave me a comment. Love to hear from you and I'll chat to you soon. Bye for now.