I like this post! I have a lot of food-related thoughts. My husband turned the back yard into a messy but very generous orchard. We have several large fruit trees, too, including banana trees. I could not believe how long it took for those bananas to ripen! It almost (almost) made me sad to eat them, after it had taken the plant four moon cycles to produce a few kilos, I could eat them all in less than half a cycle. It made me respect food a lot more. Still, I'm on a stage where I struggle with eating, I feel like I eat more than enough, but I'm hardly ever full or satisfied. What is your stand on sugar? I suppose you don't consume it, but I'd love to hear your reasons. Sugar and I have tons of discussions daily, I lose most of them...
From an Anthroposophical point of view sugar is not the bad guy as such. Sweetening things artificially, using honey in pastry (destroys enzymes/wastes bees' effort) or using that devilish trickster stevia or agave is more problematic. Refined sugar is not so great, of course (dead product). Sugar is used specifically in certain Anthroposophic medicines as a director to the Ego-organisation; the sugar is quickly absorbed in the blood, where the Ego (I-body) lives and as such it carries the other homeopathic information from the plant/animal/mineral components straight to the weakest sheath. Many nervous conditions are caused by a poor I-astral integration, due to an overworked and unfit I.
It's not just sugar that weakens. Excess use of "sweetness" (easily done with sugar) spoils the Ego-body, taking over with energy shots and peak performance hits. The true underlying issue with diabetes eg. is the lack of a strong I-presence. We can try to challenge this I body to become fitter with"rougher" foods that demand more work (digesting/metabolising). This toughens up the I -activating its functions.
The human -I has a natural relationship to sweetness, so even the most primitive (beautiful and far from unwise!) tribes go on honey-quests specifically for festive treats (and a Real Self boost). Sugars make the blood go round, and help us incarnate properly/ root (roots/tubers are full of sugars in the form of carbs).
So children also are naturally partial to sweet flavours. But this should be offered to them in natural foods (initially also NO honey) and to minimise complex conversations with sugar, I raised my son 100% sugar free in the first 10 years of his life, making it a basic rule to avoid cane and beet sugar, but also "artificial" or processed sweetners incl even the more natural ones (xylitol). I baked with grain-syrups and made deserts with maple syrup, honey or fig/date syrup or apple-concentrate. My son -naturally hyperactive - reacts quickly to sugars in a hyperglycemic way. To gradually prepare him for the real world where he won't always make the right sensible choices I allowed some sugar occasionally - the odd shop-biscuit or mousse as a desert as he grew older, but we still try to monitor this intake together (he is now 19, lives at home and is still all over the place energetically).
Products that don't need sugar and are chosen specifically for other nutritional values must be kept rigorously sugar free is my golden rule. So that excludes most tins and packets and yoghurts. But making sugary things sugar-free is just another nosense lie to the Self (and hence generally full of toxins). It does not send clear messages to the Self and it clouds judgement of how strong-willed and intuitive one really is.
It is very noticeable that my son has a refined palate, fond of the natural sweetness in vegetables and fruit and dislikes overly-sweet things to the point of being unable to eat many regular brands most kids eat all the time. He doesn't drink any sodas (let alone alcoholic beverages). And eventhough he will try-out stuff he sees pass by in adds on tv (candy bars) he steers clear of peanuts (not for an allergy but a whole different Anthroposophic reason!) and soon tires of trying to like them. He will read the labelling of products too and force himself to turn a blind eye (which is promising, as compared to people who never bother to find out the ingredients). As such, the experiment may be called successful!
Of course, the rule of thumb is as ever: moderation. But sometimes - as for any addiction - it is easier to just say no flat out, even if one glass of wine won't necessarily send you streaking down the street again.
So that was more my reason for going "extreme" at one stage. Otherwise I am very very tired of people with their strict dietary rules, forbidding sugar as if it's the devil incarnate, while half the world is poisoning themselves with every meal they eat or don't get to eat.
Good luck with your conversation! At least you're talking! (and not ignoring the situation).