Stop Blaming Others, Controlling Calories Starts with You
You may have noticed that "personal responsibility" is a common theme with the Center for Consumer Freedom. But in the debate over childhood obesity, personal responsiblity has a flip side: parental responsibility. For kids who aren’t old enough to buy or prepare their own food, it’s up to their parents – and no one else – to decide what’s best. Now a growing number of juvenile obesity experts are saying something interesting: Let’s try to keep it that way.
As food blogger Baylen Linnekin wrote in Reason magazine last week, soda and snack bans aren’t the best recipe for curbing child obesity rates:
In some alternate universe, one that actually assigns blame to deserving people, it might be your fault, not theirs. Maybe it is your fault your kids are fat, since you feed them. Maybe the food that parents supply to their kids—and demand restaurants feed their kids—is making the kids fat. Which means parents need to do a better job of making sure their own kids eat healthy, and get some exercise.
A few weeks ago, we looked at an Annals of Internal Medicine study which found that the average calories-per-serving in our home cooked meals have increased 63 percent over the last 70 years. Even though the study only tracked 18 recipes, its authors brought up a good point about the bigger picture in the obesity debate: Home cooking is behind much of the increases in our caloric intake.
Since people generally eat two out of three meals at home, the majority of what kids eat is prepared by mom and dad. Weight gain works the same way for kids as it does for their parents: too many calories "in" and not enough calories "out." And parents also have a say in how much exercise their kids are getting.
As a 2005 study in the British journal The Lancet showed, “the drastic decline in habitual activity during adolescence might be a major factor in the doubling of the rate of obesity development in the USA in the past two decades, since no concomitant increase in energy intake was apparent.”
In other words, the solution to the so-called obesity epidemic could be as simple as having mom and dad kick the kids outside for an after-dinner run around the block. Interestingly, that Annals of Internal Medicine study’s author, Brian Wansink (former executive director of the USDA’s Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion) has come to the same conclusion:? “If we believe it’s a restaurant that’s made our kids fat, we’re not going to change.”
Who would’ve thought that blaming others amounts to kindergarten tactics?
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I'm ALL about taking personal responsibility. That's why, when my doctor told me to eat less fat to lose weight and lower my triglycerides, I made the choice to switch to a high-fat, high-calorie, low-carb diet, with spectacular results. My BMI is 19.1 all the time now, whether I exercise or not. It's eating carbs that makes adults and kids fat, as well as too tired to exercise.
Unfortunately, the school lunches served at my children 's school are full of carbs, and their friends bring total junk in their packed lunches. Short of hovering over my kids 24/7, it's difficult to manage every thing that they eat. Luckily, they are both healthy weight because in our home, we discuss the importance of good food choices and soda is not allowed.
And while I do believe in personal freedom, I equate it to smoking: my right to breathe is more important than your right to indulge in your addiction . My right to raise healthy children is more important than your right to drink sugar-loaded drinks with NO NUTRITIONAL VALUE WHATSOEVER. So get over it. Junk food is NOT an entitlement!
You had me right along with you until your third paragraph. What d you mean junk food is not an entitlement? What do you mean YOUR right is more important than anyone else's? Are you serious?!
Communism much?
A right is a right. Regardless of how you feel about what should happen. If I want to smoke until my lungs burst with cancerous cells, it is my right to do so. If I want to eat until I am 900lbs, it is my right to do so. I DO NOT have a right to expect you to do the same. And as long as YOU are not affected by my behavior, then YOU have no right to demand ANYTHING from anyone else. Simply put, your rights are NOT more important than that of others.
I've changed my mind somewhat since I wrote my original post over a year ago. Not that I think that people are entitled to eat junk food , but since the "experts" who advise us about what to eat are so completely clueless, I am happy to let you gorge yourself on crap and get sick as long as I can eat butter and have access to raw milk. Oh wait, raw milk is dangerous, but Coke is totally OK? If you want to protect your rights, then protect mine as well and protest against the authorities who are outlawing the sharing of raw milk (not just sale of it, but also giving it away - talk about a breach of rights!).
However, if you smoke in my face, I will still tell you to get lost!
Hi Expataddie,
Ok, sounds fair. Personally, I am at my correct weight , eat very little junk food and drink no alcohol . Eat as healthy as can get. My one indulgence, I smoke cigars. Yes, the big ones. And I fight for my right to do so. But, and this is a big but, I am completely and utterly against making anyone else smoke with me. I am the type who is embarrassed to light a cigar in a smoking room lest I bother the cigarette smokers. I smoke in my home in a designated cigar smoking area, shut away from the rest of the house where my family enjoys clean air. I expect this from all smokers.
I wholeheartedly agree you should have the right to enjoy milk in any way you see fit. And I am appalled by the way governments, not just he US, seem to creep into our lives a little more each passing day.
I think this is less about whether Coke is more dangerous or less dangerous than whole milk, and more about our personal rights to freedom of choice. I am not against the government requiring companies to disclose information about their products which can harm you, nor the Gov's educational campaigns educating people about what is good for you and what is not.
Show me, educate me, then let me decide. Sorry about my not noticing how long ago you had written your comment and thank you for your reply.