According to the C.D.C., "childhood obesity has more than tripled in the past 30 years." As a New York Times Op-Ed piece stated in 2008: "Tens of millions of young people will be at risk of illness and death unless this country commits to reversing, not just stabilizing, this epidemic."
Michelle Obama has become the nation's fiercest advocate on this front and let me begin by saying that I fully support her efforts and the health community's efforts to teach kids how to eat and exercise properly.
This post isn't about that.
This post is about a different sub-set of children, children who live at the opposite extreme; children whose parents forbid them from eating anything processed or commercial: The No Candy, No Cake & No Soda Generation.
Having lived in Park Slope, Brooklyn for several years, I observed some of these children. Fed on a diet of yogurt and alfalfa sprouts, their faces were wan, their eyes were hollow. These were children who'd never experienced the joys of a root beer float, a slice of rainbow-sprinkle covered birthday cake or the tongue-prickling delight of a box of Nerds.
On Halloween, these children are cloistered from other children, corralled and forced to exchange their miniature Hershey bars and Nestle crunches for carrot sticks and edamame. It's a sad sight to see.
And though I may be exaggerating, slightly, I do think denying children any junk food is cruel and unusual parenting, an extreme measure that will have negative consequences down the road.
For starters, your child will be an outcast. On a school trip, for example, when Melvin Stevens (Grade 8) starts passing out jelly beans and your child, let's call him Maxwell Peterson (Grade 7), protests that "jelly beans are filled with chemicals and additives and give rabbits cancer" not only will children stare at him in disbelief, at the next rest stop, Melvin will flush Maxwell's head down the toilet.
Things only get worse in college. Having been denied junk food his entire childhood, Maxwell will spend his freshman year experimenting with Twinkies and Fritos, spiraling downward his sophomore year on a steady diet of M&Ms and Cheetos. By the time he's a junior, Maxwell will be that guy at parties, passed out in a corner with a Mountain Dew-filled syringe hanging off his arm.
And all because his parents thought they were doing him a service. But it's the same problem children face whose parents forbid them from watching R-rated movies, from reading "Brave New World" or from listening to Kanye's new album. These kids, the moment they're set loose in the world, explode like a rocket: all that pent up energy and confusion and desire erupts like a geyser, and instead of an emotionally balanced, healthy child, you have a sex-crazed, drug-fueled, junk food junkie.
Heed my advice, then. Give your kids candy, soda, cake--all of it--but in moderation. Explain to them that this stuff is really bad for them and that it's way better to eat fruits and vegetables. Offer them homemade alternatives: make a cake with good ingredients, bake a pie with fresh fruit, or offer up homemade granola bars (or just granola.) Exaggerate the work and the thought and care that went into the homemade stuff, and they'll begin to favor that over the cheap stuff you can buy at any neighborhood gas station.
But because they're allowed to have it, they won't glamorize junk food as something forbidden and, therefore, something worth attaining. It may seem counterintuitive to feed your kids something that you don't want them to eat; but only by de-mystifying it can you be assured that they won't turn to it when they get older.
Adam Roberts is the creator of the award-winning food blog, The Amateur Gourmet, now in its 7th year. In addition to hosting three web shows for Food Network online, Roberts is the author of "The Amateur Gourmet" (Bantam/Dell) and is currently writing a cookbook for Artisan Books. You can find him on Twitter at @amateurgourmet.
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No one needs to eat processed junk, but that hardly means denying yourself (or your kids) delicious food...
People go to extremes in all aspects of life, and it rarely if ever turns out good.
Shape of.... an opinion being passed off as fact!
But, not too much junk, and they have to burn it off.
"I observed some of these children. Fed on a diet of yogurt and alfalfa sprouts, their faces were wan, their eyes were hollow. These were children who'd never experienced the joys of a root beer float, a slice of rainbow-sprinkle covered birthday cake or the tongue-prickling delight of a box of Nerds."
http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/9-2005/most-students-gain-weight-during-early-college-years-.html
"...I observed some of these children. Fed on a diet of yogurt and alfalfa sprouts, their faces were wan, their eyes were hollow."
So the inference I derive from this is that a healthful diet leads to some sort of unhealthful appearance... but eating sugary foods (albeit now and again) lead children to look and act hale and hearty, with ruddy cheeks and sparkling eyes? Were yogurt and sprouts ALL the children ate?
I went to the supermarket last night for a few midweek purchases (two dairy items, six fresh vegetable items, and organic peanut butter) and every direction I looked I saw future disease. 2-liter sodas, gallon lemonades and iced teas, loaves of white bread, frozen pizzas and microwaveable dinners. The sole concession to real food was a solitary bag of pre-packaged salad and a cardboard-looking tomato.
So, really? We want to push "just a little reasonable sugar" into the Standard American Diet (SAD)?
"This post is about a different sub-set of children, children who live at the opposite extreme; children whose parents forbid them from eating anything processed or commercial: The No Candy, No Cake & No Soda Generation."
Adam Roberts should expect these critical replies, because he refuses to mind his own damn business. While it is his First Amendment right to be a jerk, he shouldn't be surprised by this response when he sticks his nose where it doesn't belong.
Parents are doing the best that they can for their children, and if they aren't abusing or mistreating their children, or telling them lies about the world, they should be able to raise their kids as they see fit, based on the research that they are doing. If they want to keep junk food, video games, television, etc. out of their house, then there is a good reason for doing so.
Nobody is telling him how to raise his kids. Nobody said "Hey, Adam Roberts, I think your kids are eating too many jelly beans! We are going to police what you do in your own home."
Health-conscious people, vegetarians, vegans, gluten-free dieters, etc. are busy enough trying to obtain healthy meals for their own families, and could care less about policing Adam Roberts' diet. Yet if you write articles that demean them and their kids, they will heap criticism.
It is better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.
At the end of the day however, its largely his personality. He stops eating when he feels full. He won't eat deserts just because they are there if they are not his favorites. Actually, the same for almost any food. If it's not exactly what he wants, he won't eat it. It's annoying, but it does seem to keep the weight off.