you said yourself you take all of this very very seriously. She was making a joke. you can't expect everyone to be so serious all time and consider things like cartoons and candy serious topics or something to be careful about. She likely wouldn't make jokes about this if you weren't so very serious about it. She is likely more amused by how serious you take it all than she is about your actual choices.
She wants to love on your dd. she wants to have fun. granted teasing gets old but you will have a lot more fun as a parent and a friend if you just relax and accept a little ribbing.
in that situation I would have looked at dd and said "ooooo auntie is crazy. poor auntie, we'll humor her for now" (Actually we used to use this with grandma all the time. I would shrug my shoulders and say grandma must be crazy" and then when we were with grandma and she would say something about spoiling dd I would shrug my shoulders and dd would know that meant "crazy grandma is at it again" and we would both get a good giggle.
and candy air...come on, thats kinda funny. I would have probably said back "oh yeah, candy air is worse than the actual candy. I read an article about it online the other day...."
Fortunately i am passing on a relaxed confident attitude to my children about lifestyle choices (while we take them very seriously we also aren't scared to have a good laugh at how silly they must seem to others.). my manager at work made a comment about eggplant and tofu (I work at a grocery store so all my friends know whats in my cart and feel free to comment) and I said "you know it baby" and my 13 year old just about busted a gut. She thought the whole exchange was hilarious. I coul dhave chosen to be all offended at him making light of a descision I put a lot of thought into and a lifestyle i am careful to maintain blah blah blah but these are my choices, they work for me and I am confident in them. and his comment was quick and witty. whats not to love about that. if only I had said it first......
