Childhood Obesity: Corporate Help?
Childhood. Obesity.Two words we hear thrown around way too often in today's media. As parents, it's easy to become numb to it's sway. We try. We enroll our kids in positive sports programs. We avoid the high-fructose corn syrup and calorie-laden fast foods.
We do our best.
Yet? The advertising is hard to combat.
Our kids are bombarded with slick ads for sugary treats and they in turn bombard us with pleas until we weaken. Even simple word of mouth at school of the latest trendy snack takes a powerful hold. Your child wants to have those Lunchable nachos, or that new Pop Tarts flavor or even the new extreme flavor Dorrito, or yes, gotta have the pseudo-healthy XXX Vitamin water.
Flickr photo by @wyane
My kids are healthy, adventurous eaters. We know this. However, they don't necessarily feel popular with their whole wheat wraps with hummus that seemed fine during the summer. They often succumb to the peer pressure of wanting to fit in or wanting a infrequent treat.
And?
At the end of the day, who doesn't give in occasional to the drive through McDonalds or crack open a half-gallon of Dreyer's Good Stuff?
We are not immune nor perfect as parents.
The manufacturing industry, whether by corporate moral obligation or or more likely political threat of state snack taxes encroaching on their bottom line has been swayed as well. A CEO-led organization called The Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation launched a campaign last year to partner with families to reduce childhood obesity through 2015. The hook is moderation, not deprivation. Balance. The plan is to use those powerful advertising tools to educate in the marketplace, schools, and the work place about energy balance as a path to a healthy weight.
Better yet, in an effort to reduce childhood obesity, sixteen of the America's largest food manufacturers encompassing am much as 25 percent of the nation's food products, has promised they will remove 1.5 trillion calories out of their products by 2015 in an effort to reduce childhood obesity. The goal is to join the fight to reduce childhood obesity by cutting both fat, calories, and portion sizes in their products.Flickr photo by Scoobyfoo
Please don't get me wrong. Believe me, I am no food Nazi. I just hate the daily whine for foods our family will never buy which gets increasingly louder as my kids move toward their teenage years.
I guess, in the end, these are at least small steps in the right direction. I think. What are your thought on smaller-portioned, lower calorie snack packs?
4 comments:
I get those for me!! Those are my snacks. ;)
I really don't want my kids traveling down the obesity highway like me so I am doing my damndest to teach them about portion control and label reading. I really try to limit the products that contain lots of sugar and HFCS. I have bought smaller bowls and plates so they are not filling them up with too much food. We have slashed our fast food meals waaay down. Once a week. That may seem like alot still but compared to how much we were eating...especially during baseball season!
My kids are great and love their fruit. My son loves his bananas and apples and my daughter loves her citrus! I have to hit the Whole Foods Market and the Farmer's Market a few times a week just to keep up!
I actually have a bigger issue with all the excess packaging and the higher cost of those convenience packs. I get the big size of goldfish, dry cereals like Chex (generic brands, etc) and put them in canisters so the kids pour them into re-usable snack cups. They're not allowed to snack out of the bag, so portions are controlled. They can have more than one serving if they want, but it has to be a conscious decision to get more.
for lunches, I put them in the zippy bags (I know, more plastic) but at least the overall packaging is still reduced. It's a good idea, but i find making them myself is more economical.
I don't buy them (and not just because they aren't gluten free). I think labelling them 100! Calories! makes kids think about food in the wrong way (personally). I'd prefer to have a pretty balanced diet with snacks and treats occasionally. We buy chips (crisps) once a month or so, a 200g packet and share them and then they're gone.
But, because Amy has coeliacs, just about everything snacky she gets is made at home by yours truly. Which means I get to add home made apple sauce to cakes and extra fruit to slices.
It works for us, although it will be interesting to see how peer pressure works when she goes to school.
Food manufacturers can only do so much. At the end of the day, it’s mothers like you who make choices for your kids. Don’t focus so much on fructose corn syrup vs. refined sugar. There is no difference in how the body metabolizes them.
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