My partner and I have a 19-month-old daughter. My partner really loves to cook; it relaxes her, and it's a fun hobby that she's gradually gotten me into. We love searching epicurious.com for recipes and looking at the new Bon Apetit when it comes. We try as much as possible to have all of our meals together, the three of us, and when we eat together, our daughter has always eaten what we eat. We do not make special meals for her. Whether we're at home or at a restaurant, our daughter has been accustomed from at least the age of 6 to 8 months to dining on grilled asparagus, rockfish, orzo, and a wide variety of fresh fruits (when she was younger, we would simply put a portion of our meals into a food processor for her). We never fed her canned or jarred baby food, only fresh pureed fruits, vegetables and grains. It really didn't turn out to be that much trouble. We make a point to have something green with every meal.

Now, is there likely a genetic component to our daughter's likes and dislikes? I'm sure there is (and we wouldn't know what, exactly, since she's adopted). And is she likely to become more finicky as she gets older? Yes, in fact, she already has; she has all sorts of little food fixations and we already know a wide variety of things we can count on her to either eat voraciously or not touch. While she does not have a sweet tooth, thankfully, she's never met a starch she doesn't like, so it can be somewhat of a challenge sometimes to get her to fill up on something other than pasta, grits, mac-n-cheese, potatoes, bread, etc.

However, it has largely been our experience that what our daughter wants to eat more than anything is whatever it is that she sees the adults in her life eating. If we eat well, then she eats well, so we try our best to model good eating habits in front of her. We're not freaks about it--she's had hot dogs, french fries, and ice cream as special treats when we have them--but she's learning from us that unhealthy treats are to be enjoyed in moderation and not on a regular or daily basis. And the eating options we've made available to her are such that, when she does get fixated for long periods of time on particular foods, these are foods that we can live with her eating large quantities of (currently, her fixations, aside from the starches, include edamame, raw tofu, and blueberries).

When the three of us don't dine together, one of our favorite things to do is make elaborate meals for each other after she's gone to bed and then give her the leftovers to take to "school" (her daycare) the next day as lunch. The daycare has a form you have to fill out every morning, describing how much sleep your child had the night before, how she's feeling, etc., and one of the questions is "What does your child have for lunch today?" I derive no end of amusement from being able to write things in the blank like "seared red snapper with basalmic reduction and sauteed haricot verts."

and most obese people claim they eat healthy and anytime they are told that they don't they confound being told to eat less with being pressured to be anorexic. Since the majoirty of the population is playing this game it makes it difficult to have a good public discussion.

I've seen men and women come to my gym for years and not only not lose weight but some are even heavier. Some can't make the step over step climb up the stairs to the 2nd floor and have to do that one step one step like they have fake hips.

If you're doing 45 minutes of hard cardio every day and you're still 5'4" and 230lbs then clearly exercizing is not your issue. Powering down a box of Krispy Kremes as a reward is.

When my sister got pregnant, she got worried that she would gain too much weight. She’s always been healthy and fit, so I understood her apprehension.

For what it’s worth, she – get this – spoke with her doctor about it. Her doctor told her what was a normal and desirable about of weight to gain while pregnant: about 25 – 30 pounds is normal.

Furthermore, my sister approached pregnancy like a dang special forces operative. Instead of viewing it as a period of indulgence, she looked at it as a time to stay fit and strong, as well as a time to appropriately gain some healthy weight -- and I applaud her, because though I can’t speak from experience (being a guy), I’ll hazard to guess that pregnancy and childbirth ain’t for the faint of heart!

Exercize? I guess all that working out at the gym to remain thin does nothing for one's grammar.

Why would anyone expect that a publication by the name Obesity would report anything else?

What really links these two articles is the fact that we are programmed from day one to hate our bodies and to think that any woman bigger than Nicole Ritchie is fat. We are programmed thusly so that we create generation after generation of scared people who are willing to hand over large sums of their hard earned dollars to companies like Weight Watchers.

The diet industry is a huge multi-million dollar enterprise. The bariatric surgery industry - thanks to agressive marketing and lies - will be making millions by amputating healthy organs. The first pharmaceutical company to come up with the next Fen-Phen will be swimming in profits. A lot of money is at stake. These companies make sure that their press releases get distributed as hard news stories in order to give them the credibility that their scientifically flawed and skewed studies cannot.

It's not about health. It's not about self-esteem. It's about money. And if those industries, thanks to junk science journals like Obesity, can convince people that even their infants are fat (!), they've assured themselves of years and years of profits at our expense.