Im no fan of the President OR the First Lady, but Ive been doing a great deal of reading about this subject in particular. Its not Michelle Obamas fault the schools are providing visually unappetizing food, so in this instance, I have to come down on the side of her being persecuted unfairly. Fighting childhood obesity is a worthy enough cause, if one wants to view it that way, but the government implemented all of these policies without seriously thinking things through, which Im sure is no surprise to anyone. These were hastily thrown together and put into effect in a completely reactionary way, rather than taking the time needed to do much more planning and making things happen responsively. While Im all for kids eating healthier and schools being required to limit the food they provide to federal nutrition guidelines, a few things should be addressed in these federal policies. 1) If the food doesnt look good to a kid, they will starve before eating it. Even though some foods taste good and have nutritional value, they need to be pleasing to a kids eye if you want them to eat. Im not a liberal, permissive, coddling parent who would ever let a child eat whatever they like, but Im also not going to force them to eat something that looks like puke (or worse) ground up in a blender. Nausea is never a good way to begin a meal. 2) It should not be the schools (or governments) responsibility to police lunches parents send from home, thereby hurting the child by tossing out anything inappropriate. If the parents are feeding their kids, and providing for them according to their parental responsibilities, the government needs to butt out of it. Yes, there will be lazy parents who go the convenience route with food, and it may equate to providing less than healthy choices, and there will be parents who simply do not know how to shop for healthy food on a limited budget, but governmental interference in parenting is simply wrong. We do not yet live in a society where we are required to have a license to parent, but policing food brought from home in a sack lunch is getting us pretty close to that point. 3) If these federal rules are all about making kids healthier, then part of this package should be an increase in recess and gym time. Force feeding kids healthy food is all fine, well, and good, but diet alone is not enough to keep childhood obesity at bay. They need to eat, hydrate, and move, as part of the every day routine. 4) The FDA needs to pay attention to best nutrition practices. Fat does not make kids fat. It does not increase cholesterol and lead to coronary disease. Carbohydrates do that. Meet, but do not exceed, their caloric needs, certainly, but carbohydrates need to be significantly lowered to enable them with the best chance at success. Feed them healthy fats and a moderate amount of protein, because even too much protein isnt a good thing. Low fat does not necessarily mean healthy. If you look at the nutritional information on anything being touted as a low fat product, its usually code for chemical crap storm. 5) Take some of those federal funds currently being routed to the war on... whatever, that arent really stopping anything or making us safer as a society, and put the money into education. Im not just talking about educating the children, though that is absolutely a necessity, and perhaps a mandatory health class offered at age appropriate levels should be implemented as part of the curriculum, but also start offering FREE community health education programs for the parents on healthy eating and cooking. This is particularly important for low income parents who have no idea how to feed their kids good, healthy food on a limited budget. I could go on, but these are just thoughts right off the top of my head.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 01:48:40 +0000
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