Yeah, we were learning about the healthy eating/psychology of children with food factor in medical psychopathology back in the fall. It was really interesting. Apparently kids learn that food is "magical" when it's withheld or monitored too closely. So parents who make a big show of withholding so-called unhealthy foods and sugary things teach the kids quickly that those foods are more powerful than they really are. And consequently, those foods become the more desirable ones to kids. This is how compulsive overeaters are made, too. Parents over-limit foods and portions, which teaches the kid that foods are "magical" and need to be hoarded or overeaten since they might be limited in the future. The result is not good later in life. If toddlers and little ones are left to their own devices, they generally eat what they want in the amounts they need. But if parents do a lot of limiting and pushing of certain foods over others, kids, who are very smart, intuitive beings, quickly learn which foods and amounts are magical and which ones aren't. This happens before the age of 3, generally, and is a pattern that's entrenched very early. Yet it affects them for the rest of their lives.