Thursday, May 7, 2009

Childhood obesity prevention, parental guidance only goes so far









A few recent articles and blog entries I came across took parents to task for the childhood obesity epidemic. I agree parents have a responsibility to teach wise food choices and provide optimal nutrition at home. I personally don’t allow sodas, fruit juice, baked goods and other junk or snack foods in our house regularly. These are cosidered treats to enjoy occasionally. But it was obvious several of the people taking parents to task had no experience raising children. Talk about clueless.

Educating a child to discern between healthy foods and unhealthy foods only goes so far. Most children over the age of six are away from home the better part of the day. My nine year old catches the bus at 8:10 am and returns home at 4:10 pm. He eats two meals, a snack andlunch, in the school cafeteria every day. Kids are faced with making their own food choices and school cafeterias are as bad as grocery stores. It’s easy to eat a sub-standard diet.

Read more and watch the videos.