The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Junk Food (First Time Books(R)) Kindle Edition

I ordered this book because I wanted something to help me with teaching my four-year-old about “sometimes foods.” I wanted something that promoted moderation with treats and the importance of healthy foods for growing bodies.Clearly I should have done more research. This book does not promote moderation or good health. It promotes body shaming and the importance of being thin.The mom doesn’t give the junk food a second thought until she notices her kids getting fat and becomes completely disgusted with them. She takes them to the doctor who agrees that they are fat and disgusting and even pinches the dad’s stomach fat (boundaries?!?!) to shame him for his weight as well. So they all get put on an exercise regimen (to be clear - the kids have to work out to lose weight, there’s nothing here about kids just playing and exercising because it’s fun) and a permanent diet. And they all got to a socially acceptable weight and never ate junk food again. The end.I threw this book in the trash. Please don’t buy it.

I remembered this from childhood and bought it for my daughter who has a sweet tooth, hoping to help steer her toward healthy snacks. As I was reading to her I had to skip a lot of parts that seemed to focus on weight and the cubs looking big - I didn’t like the focus on their bodies, rather than health. My husband read it to her and didn’t edit, and later I broke out in a cold sweat when I saw my 3 yo looking dismayed and pinching her little baby tummy like the doctor does to papa bear!!! I struggled with body image and had brushes with anorexia as a teen and young adult, and I do NOT want to plant those seeds in my daughter’s mind at such a young age! We won’t be reading this again. We can work on healthy eating without the body shaming.

I am a child of the 80's, so there is a very special, nostalgiac place in my heart for Berenstain Bears books. I have been buying several books from this series for my toddler, who enjoys looking at the back cover and picking out other ones she wants next. She zeroed in on the junk food one, so....I bought this one without remembering much of the content, and I've gotta say, the content of this book may have been appropriate in the 80's (maybe not!), but for 2018, this book is inappropriate. Mama Bear measures her kids and sort of fat shames them into eating "healthy". Listen, I'm not one of these crazy PC people, but the content of this is just not appropriate. Healthy foods touted by Mama include carrots, raisins and FROZEN YOGURT at the mall (how very 80s and 90s)! I was surprised Mama didn't just wire all their mouths shut; would have been easier. Anyway, many of the Bears books are timeless (e.g. Messy Room), but this one needs to go into the NO section.

I thought long and hard and then discreetly made this book disappear when my son wasn't looking. It had good nutritional information, but also a lot of fat shaming. My son is normal weight, but I don't want my kids presented with anything that could lead to body shame of any kind. I've suffered with eating disorders and I know that road leads to nothing good. I want my kids to have healthy, normal relationships with food and their bodies.

Your browser does not support HTML5 video.  Ordinarily, I enjoy the Berenstain Bears books, but this one is a poster book for bad feeding! I really thought Mama Bear had more sense! Instead of doing her jobs with feeding, she is letting those cubs eat whenever and whatever they want, raiding the pantry, eating in front of the TV, in the mall, at the movies. To address the problem of poor eating and cubs’ getting chubby, she goes to the draconian other extreme: putting all the high-fat, high-sugar goodies in the freezer and sentencing her family, ever after, to eating the RIGHT STUFF—and we all know what that is! She even recruits a finger-shaking doctor whom I wouldn’t let within a mile of my grandchildren! This being fiction, the cubs and even Father go along with her food program, lose weight, run a race, are happy ever after. In your dreams, Berenstains! You are going to have to write a sequel, where Brother, Sister, and yes, Father, go sloping off to get their “forbidden” foods and eat them on the sly. Mama will find wrappers under Brother and Sister’s mattresses and smell Godiva chocolate in Father’s locked desk drawer. So let’s rewind to the “big change” page and, instead, have Mama decide to follow a division of responsibility in feeding: She will have structured meals and sit-down snacks. Brother and Sister can’t help themselves to food whenever they want, but they don’t have to eat exclusively “healthy” food, either. Instead, Mama can include dessert and chips at mealtime and, let them have as much cookies and candy (which also contribute nutrients, I might add) as they want for occasional sit-down snacks. At first, the cubs and Father will eat a lot of them, but then they will discover that those foods are not such a big deal after all. They will eat moderately, they will lose weight, run a race, enjoy their food, and be happy ever after.

Simply cut out the offensive page of this book yourself ( the fat-shaming page that calls the cubs chubby several times), and you’ve got a winner! The story still makes perfect sense. Even with the offending page cut out, there is still one sentence where Mama first notices the cubs getting chubby. I just took one of the included stickers and covered up that sentence.I left in the part where the doctor pinches Papa’s belly fat. It’s funny.Kids like this book, but it contains insensitive, outdated 1980’s body image portrayals. I don’t want my young daughters to obsess over their body fat percentage, or call other kids “Chubby.”There’s lots of great stuff about how the body works and which healthy food helps each system. My 5-year-old loves it.

I bought this to read to my 2 1/2 year-old, because I was looking for a calm way to discuss with her why she can't have chocolate for dinner (and oh, how I wish we could, child!). There are so many ways that discussions about healthy eating can go wrong, and lead to unnecessary anxiety and body image troubles, but I think this book took a really balanced approach to the topic and got it mostly right.Mama Bear notices that her cubs are constantly snacking on junk foods - crisps, buttered popcorn, candy. At first, she lets her observations slide, but one day, she notices the cubs are starting to become overweight. Papa Bear, it turns out, has been gaining weight as well. That sends her into action; she gathers up all the treats and goodies in the house, hides them away, and vows that the family will start over, and eat healthy, nourishing food.The book discusses what types of foods are healthy and nourishing: whole grains, fruits, vegetables, milk and cheese, and fresh meats. It encourages drinking water rather than soda. Dr Grizzly chats to the cubs about how each food group benefits the body. The Bears all focus on eating healthier meals, they all take up jogging to get fit, and Mama makes an effort to prepare healthier snacks for the cubs (fresh fruit, nuts, raisins, carrot sticks), rather than relying as much on food from packets.I have very few reservations about reading this book to my daughter. The cubs are described as "getting chubbier", which is presented as a bad thing in the book, and the Bears' weight gain is clearly tied to less than ideal food choices (which are described as "bad habits"). So, there may be a risk of projecting poor body image and anxiety about food. That said, I think the risk is very small, and nobody's food choices are presented as a failure of character, or irreversible. The book acknowledges that we eat junk food in the first place because it's tasty. The conversations that take place in the book, about healthy eating and getting active, are similar to real-life conversations my husband and I have: ones that usually come about shortly after Christmas or a vacation, when we step on a scale for the first time in months, and realize we've overindulged.My daughter seems to appreciate this story; she asks for it a lot. I think it's deepened her understanding as to why I've been telling her "no chocolate for dinner". She's a little more willing to ask for a piece of fruit these days, if I tell her she can't snack on junk. And I guess reading the book to her has reminded me of my own role to play, in making sure she eats right.

Love these books from my childhood so I'm delighted to read them to my kids. Lovely and wholesome

Prompt delivery good little book

Es un libro corto como todos los de los osos Berenstain,Muy buen mensaje de no comer comida chatarra para los ninios.Me ha ayudado a que mi hija pequenia no coma dulces siempre recordandole la historia, despues de habersela leido.

This book becomes more and more relevant as North America becomes more and more obese. Between regular reading of this book at bedtime and learning how to read nutrition labels together, my kids and I are able to make healthier choices for both meals and snacks. Sure, we still eat junk food together, but we're aware of how much extra physical activity we need to work off those extra calories.