While I have given up on any desire to be a parent of my own, I am very thankful for the heavy-handed ways my mom helped us with food around the house.
- Never any sugar drinks like sodas, only plain seltzer if we wanted some fizz.
- No crisps/chips, but we could have pretzels with nut butter.
- No store-bought cookies, but we had a few recipes we would make ourselves.
- Pretty much always used plant alternatives to milk + calcium supplements.
To this day, my mom still has a complex that she didn't do enough as a cook, that her food wasn't flavorful, that we didn't have enough to eat. I'm constantly reassuring her that we always had plenty and enjoyed the cooking, but just that she raised a bunch of slower eaters who consume reasonably sized portions. I think when we would have friends over and she would see how much more they ate, it made her feel like she wasn't doing enough.
This is a complicated issue, and we haven't even touched on the accessibility and expense of healthier, whole-food, organic choices. It's rough out there for a parent, but looks like you got your head in the right direction.