When I heard my brother-in-law Roger Rosenthal's story about his sons and the red meat dilemma, I was intrigued. Schools have gone a long way in teaching healthy eating, but do they go too far? How is your school teaching nutrition in the age of Let's Move and the obesity crisis? Here's Roger's rant. I'd love to know if you agree or disagree. Please leave your comments in the section following this post, and let's have a conversation!

I was born into the meat-eating 1950s, and I still love to cook and eat meat. Life has far too few pleasures, and I have given up a lot of them over the years. So I wasn’t thrilled to learn about a new initiative at my children’s local public school in Park Slope, Brooklyn, PS 321 — though I’m starting to call it PC (Politically Correct) 321.

The initiative is called “Healthy Choices,” and its laudable goal is to teach children to eat more healthy and more nutritious food. But what seemed like a food philosophy based on avoiding fast food, junk food and sugar morphed into something of a moral straightjacket, one that was decidedly against anything red-blooded.

My two sons now look at all meat with suspicion. I’ve even heard the plate slide away as my oldest laments that his steak has fat in it. Overcome, I rant. “Fat! Did you say fat? Of course it has fat. What do you think makes it taste so delicious! This is prime beef.”

As a child therapist I know that ranting is not an effective parenting strategy, but I just can’t help myself. I suspect my children have come under the sway of the food moralists who tell us not to eat anything you can’t walk to, or that has legs or is sweet, salty, fried, grilled or white.

People in my Park Slope neighborhood read this stuff. They even take it seriously. You should see the looks I got when, with hamburger juices dripping, I asked someone reading one of these tracts to rip out a few pages because I dropped my napkin.

I decided to fight fire with fire. I sat down with the kids to set them straight: Humans are at the top of the food chain, and eating meat is a birthright inherited from ancestors who calculated that it was far better to eat meat than to be meat.

The boys did not budge one iota: Once infected with moral superiority, a young mind is a hard thing to change. So I decided even if the man is only 3 1/2 feet tall, the way to his heart is through his stomach. By making meat so delicious (and so un-meat-like) that they can’t help but ask for seconds, I finally succeeded where reason failed.

On a final note, and with all attempts at humor aside, I recognize that industrial agriculture is a complex political issue. It’s impossible to deny animal cruelty and dangers to our planet. Yet, in a world rife with the horrific misery of poverty, war, starvation and exploitation, I have put in my order: Give me a cheeseburger with a slice of raw onion and hold the food morality.

Roger Rosenthal is a child and adult psychotherapist living in Brooklyn with his wife and two sons. He is an avid surf fisherman, tennis player, wine collector and loves to cook.