Thou shalt not eat that

Is it fair for parents to adopt a strict attitude toward foods their children eat?

Mark Oppenheimer, the New York Times contributor who writes the bi-weekly "Beliefs" column, thinks some parents have taken their "puritanical" attitude too far:

As a parent, I think that it's time to declare a period of benign neglect when it comes to food. Today, too many Americans make a virtue, even a fetish, of monitoring what goes into our children's mouths. Rather than raising our children to consume in moderation — whether food, drink, drugs or screen time — we forbid them pleasures that adults take for granted.

We serve them juice boxes rather than soda, fruit rather than ice cream. Yet grown-up dinner parties, which begin with glasses of wine or cocktails, end with rich desserts. Children are deprived of television, or limited to a couple of hours a week, but after the kids are in bed parents catch up on "Game of Thrones."

For this week's Op-Ed segment, The Daily Circuit talks with Oppenheimer about the challenges and contradictions of family food choices.