Parents' Guide to All Food Is Good Food

All Food is Good Food book cover: Three happy, diverse kids eating and surrounded by pizza, cake, soup noodles, sushi, fries

Common Sense Media Review

Regan McMahon By Regan McMahon , based on child development research. How do we rate?

age 4+

Celebration of food variety bucks notion of good and bad.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 4+?

Any Positive Content?

Parent and Kid Reviews

What's the Story?

Cheerful kids run, play, and eat as an unseen narrator describes the purpose of food and how it affects the body, providing fuel and energy. ALL FOOD IS GOOD FOOD makes the case for "food neutrality"—letting kids eat what they like, as opposed to telling them some foods are good and some are bad. And it emphasizes how eating a variety foods can help kids explore the world, and shows how food brings people together.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say : Not yet rated
Kids say : Not yet rated

This upbeat celebration of food and what it does for the body is a kid-friendly counterargument to diet culture and the demonizing of so-called junk food, fats, and desserts. It's a radical proposal—let kids eat what they like—that by the end is pretty convincing. The main text of Molli Jackson Ehlert's All Food Is Good Food and Fanny Liem's cheerful illustrations are lively and informative for kids. And the back matter, geared toward adults, maintains that it's not such a risky proposition: "We are born Intuitive Eaters, listening to our bodies for what they want and need. Allowing kids to eat without attributing positive or negative qualities to food keeps that intuition intact, letting them learn naturally how different foods make their bodies feel. Eating 'junk food' all the time would make you feel sick, and kids will listen to their bodies to avoid that."

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the idea that All Food Is Good Food. If you could eat whatever you want in a day, do you think you'd end up with a healthy balance of foods?

  • Are you curious to try new foods from various cultures and countries? Of all the foods pictured in the book, which ones have you tried? Which ones would you like to try?

  • What's your favorite food? What do you like about it?

Book Details

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by

All Food is Good Food book cover: Three happy, diverse kids eating and surrounded by pizza, cake, soup noodles, sushi, fries

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