Sarah Jessica Parker Encourages Her Kids To Enjoy Sugar

Sarah Jessica Parker is taking steps to encourage her kids to have a “healthier relationship” with food and nutrition than she did when she was growing up.

Appearing on the “Ruthie’s Table 4” podcast this week, the “Sex and the City” actor said she doesn’t set strict rules about the amount of sugar her 14-year-old twins, Tabitha and Marion, consume.

“When I had girls, I didn’t want them to have a relationship with food that was antagonistic, or they felt like this was their enemy,” Parker explained in a clip from the episode. “When I was growing up, we weren’t allowed sugar in the house, and we weren’t allowed cookies, and we weren’t allowed chocolate.”

“And, of course, all we did, the minute we moved out, was buy Entenmann’s cakes and cookies, and I didn’t want that,” she said. “In our house, we have cookies, we have cake, we have everything. And I think as a result, you kind of have a healthier relationship.”

In addition to the twins, Parker also shares a 21-year-old son, James, with husband Matthew Broderick. The couple were married in 1997.

And though Parker and Broderick are most associated with New York, they’re currently residing in London, where they’re starring in the West End production of Neil Simon’s comedy “Plaza Suite.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Parker acknowledged never having been “very disciplined” about her diet, and attributed her toned figure to her early years of dance training and live performance.

“It’s certainly not the same now,” she said.

By not depriving her children of specific foods, Parker believes they’ll also develop less rigid ideas about body image.

“My daughters will have the figures they have, and hopefully they’ll be healthy,” she said. “They’re athletes and they enjoy food and they have different palates, and you can’t make someone like something they don’t like or want.”

She went on to note: “I hope that they can maintain their affection for the experience and their delight in taste, and find their own ways to have that be healthy for them.”

Listen to Sarah Jessica Parker’s “Ruthie’s Table 4” interview below.

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