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Camp Should Be Diet-Free! A Camp Staff Training

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We first posted our Diet-Free Camp Culture Staff Training in May 2019. Then we posted it again in 2021, because many summer camps opened back up after being closed in 2020 due to the pandemic. We hope that all camp staff working with young children can strive to keep their camp diet-free! Please share this post and camp staff training with directors and staff of camps your children attend.

Download our updated camp staff training lesson here.  

A letter to my daughter’s camp counselor

In the summer of 2018, I sat down to write a blog post late at night after I picked up my daughter from two weeks away at summer camp.  I had planned to write a post about easy summer no-cook meals. But I was having trouble getting my words on paper. I opened a new document and started writing what I really wanted to write. I wrote a letter to my daughter’s camp counselor. After I picked her up earlier that day, my then 12-year-old daughter had told me her counselor was on a diet and “counting her steps” in preparation for a post-camp trip to the Caribbean. My children’s camp is in the mountains. And the days are filled with swimming, kayaking, rock climbing, sports, and running up and down the hills of camp.

Climbing at camp

I hated to think that a diet interfered with anyone’s mind and body experiencing the joys of camp. Although I was certainly not surprised, it made me sad that diet culture had affected my 12-year-old’s camp experience. I also know that this is the norm in our culture and certainly the camp or the counselor hadn’t done anything intentionally wrong. 

My post An Open Letter to My Daughter’s Camp Counselor was shared online over the summer. It seemed to hit home for a lot of parents.

Summer Camp Culture

I was a camp person. I went to summer camp for 8 summers as a child. And then I was a camp counselor for several years in high school and college. Summer camp is such a special place. It’s a place removed from the “real world,” without technology. It’s free of many of the social rules children experience all year. And camp is a place where acceptance and kindness are expected. Summer camp focuses on character development, facing fears, gaining independence, and trying new things. When you are at camp, you are immersed in a new culture – Camp Culture. Camp Culture includes singing silly songs, giving lots of hugs, encouraging others, care packages, wearing bathing suits for half the day, writing letters with pen and paper, and looking up to the counselors. And a focus on weight or diets only interferes with the mission of summer camp.

Evening view at summer camp

Older teenagers and young adults, the counselors, are put in charge of the daily life of younger children. There are no parents there to make a child wear matching clothes. No one double-checks that they brush their teeth well. While cared for and safe, the children have a special kind of freedom with their young counselors in charge of daily life. The children look up to their counselors and want to be just like them. They hear them if they are talking about losing weight or dieting. Camp Culture needs to be diet-free. 

Camp Staff Training

As summer approaches and college semesters come to a close, camp staff members around the country are gathering to get ready for summer camp and the hundreds of thousands of children who will be in their care. The counselors will have extensive staff training to learn about the values of camp and the importance of being a good role model for the campers. The staff training will consist of safety procedures, leadership development, team building, songs, dining hall rules, and schedules. It’s my hope that camp directors will include information about the harm of diets and diet talk in their staff training. Because diets are so commonplace, information about dieting is not included as an important part of training those who spend time with our children. However, keeping diet culture out of the activities our children are involved in absolutely fits with the values of many of these activities.

Kids enjoying summer camp

Free Camp Staff Training Lesson

We wanted to offer a short staff resource that can be included in summer staff training in the coming weeks. Camp Directors! Download our staff training lesson, Diet-Free Camp Culture, for your camp staff training.

Parents and Camp Directors Download Our Training and Comment Below

Parents, would you share this with your child’s camp? I think the best way to make a change is through the voice of parents. We encourage you to share this with the directors of the camps your children attend. We’ve done that and we’ve emailed American Camp Association to share the training with them.

Camp Directors, if you use this as part of your camp staff training or maybe decide not to, I’d love to receive your feedback on how this message can reach camps better and more clearly.  Comment below with your feedback and ideas!

Download our staff training lesson for your next camp staff training.  

10 Truths We Wish All Parents Knew About Food and Bodies

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Our 50th podcast episode!

We typically interview experts in a variety of fields. For our 50th podcast episode (click here to listen), we decided to honor the way our podcast started – with the 3 of us chatting about the challenges parents face raising kids in diet-free homes. In our anniversary podcast episode, we talked specifically about 10 truths we wish parents knew about food and bodies. We also decided to share a summary of the information here in a blog post.

1. The dangers of “clean eating” and wellness culture.

Clean eating and wellness culture are conflated with being “healthy”. Yet, “clean eating” and wellness culture leave parents feeling like we have to feed our kids in some perfect “healthy” way. And if we don’t, then we aren’t being good parents. We’re left feeling we need to push fruits and veggies and whole grains (we’re not denying that these are healthy foods) and avoid processed foods. It’s important to remember pressuring kids to eat certain foods and limiting other foods ultimately interferes with a child’s autonomy and ability to regulate their own eating.

2. Kids and teens going vegetarian, vegan, or wanting to “eat healthier” can be a red flag. 

Anytime a child or teen wants to cut out foods that’s cause for concern. However, our society praises these choices. And there’s tremendous pressure for kids to be “healthy” and to eat in an environmentally conscious way. If your kid expresses a desire to go vegan, vegetarian, or “eat healthier” it’s a signal to pause and get curious about their motivations. Focus on foods your teen is interested in adding (beans, lentils, nuts, tofu, etc) instead of what they want to eliminate. I wrote a blog post about just this not long ago: 7 Tips for When Your Teen Says They’re Going Vegetarian.

3. The absence of menstruation for teenage girls is NOT normal.

Unfortunately, society has normalized this, especially for female athletes and dancers. If your daughter stops getting her period, it’s a sign they may not be eating enough. Also important to note is that the absence of menstruation has a negative impact on bone health (in both the short and long term), so there’s an increased risk of bone fractures. It’s important to pause, get curious about what might be causing the lack of menstruation; and consult with a pediatrician and dietitian who specialize in eating disorders.

4. Casual comments on weight loss or other people’s bodies are harmful.

Whether it’s praising weight loss, complimenting someone’s body, or making negative comments about your own or others’ bodies, it’s all harmful. Complimenting weight loss sends a message that weight loss is positive. The truth is that 95% of diets fail to result in regained weight and weight cycling is harmful. Comments also leave kids and teens feeling their bodies are supposed to look a certain way. And if it doesn’t or they think it doesn’t, they may feel they need to change their body. Experiment with a rule that you don’t comment on others’ bodies. And if a child or teen has lost weight, it’s always a cause for alarm. 

5. Normalizing compensatory behaviors can lead to disordered eating and movement.

If parents and other adults model that you have to exercise to compensate for eating in a certain way or eat less or differently to compensate, we’re modeling disordered behaviors. Our bodies know what to do with the food we eat. Adolescents who live in homes where a parent diets are at increased risk of possibly developing an eating disorder. We’re not criticizing parents! We’re criticizing diet culture.

6. Fitness trackers are generally a bad idea, especially for kids.

Fitness trackers provide external input and messaging for what a child’s body already does naturally – which is to move. If we give kids fitness trackers, we’re sending the message they can’t trust their bodies.

7. It’s OK if your child doesn’t play a sport.

Playing a sport isn’t the only way for kids and teens to be active. As parents, we provide the opportunities to move. Kids then decide if they want to move. You can’t make a child run around outside, but you can tell them you’re all going outside. That child might decide to sit and read outside, or they might decide to run around and play. One way to provide opportunities for movement is to limit screen time. And lastly, everyone needs different amounts of physical activity.

8. Nutrition education is often diet and weight focused, and not developmentally appropriate.

Sad but true! We talk and write about this problem often. The examples are endless, unfortunately; from teaching kids there are “bad” vs “good” foods to weighing kids in PE class. What can parents do? Keep an eye out for homework assignments with negative messages about food and bodies. And remember parents, you can partner with teachers and coaches to address the issues. Send an email and bring your concerns to the teacher’s attention bearing in mind that you both want the best for the students. Check out our free resource “Diet Free Schools and Activities.”

9. Disease and body-related jokes are harmful and shouldn’t be tolerated or encouraged.

Imagine how you’d feel if you were the one being made fun of? If others are making jokes, suggest to your child or teen that they speak up and say they don’t find that funny. Another suggestion is to encourage your children not to laugh in these situations and remove themselves, if possible.

10. “Health” warnings from well-meaning adults (healthcare providers, gym teachers, etc) can send the wrong messages.

An example is, that eating too many sweets can cause diabetes. This simply isn’t true. And the messages leave children confused and worried about foods they probably like. 

Do you have follow-up questions?

If you’d like a deeper dive into these 10 tips, listen to our 50th Anniversary podcast episode here.

Do you have questions you’d like us to answer about any of the above tips? DM us on Instagram or send us an email at hello@sunnysideupnutrion.com. We’d love to hear from you!