"Don't make me run, I've had chocolate"
I see the Commons Select Committee has delivered a report into the state of the nation's diet, and the growing "obesity epidemic". Their recommendations seem to be all well and good, but surely they miss the one group of people with the most control over what the nation's children eat. It's all well and good criticising the government, and the repeated closure of school playing fields and deprioritisation of sport in the curriculum can't help, but surely the buck must stop with the parents?

So what if children's television is bombarded with adverse for junk food, don't buy it for them. I know it's easy for me to say this (for a start I don't have any kids), but surely learning to say no will have enormous benefits to both a child's health and it's general approach to life.

If you teach them what to eat, or simply give them fewer fatty foods, and encourage them to run around more that would certainly help prevent children becoming obese. Parents must have an obligation to care for their children's health, whether that means looking after them when they get Mumps, or stopping them eating enough to collect every Happy Meal toy in a set. How can a small child know what it should and shouldn't eat unless someone teaches it?

Maybe the problem is that too few adults appreciate the importance of a balanced diet, in which case the government need to address that issue, but at the same time, parents need to want to learn, and for the sake of their children they need to learn fast.

I'm also sure that saying "no" to your child must be a very difficult thing to do, particularly when they are nagging you, but in life they will need to be able to deal with rejection, and the sooner they start the easier they will find it to bounce back. Would you agree if your child wanted to juggle knives (flippant perhaps, but you get the point)- no, so why do the nations parents seem perfectly content to agree to children eating fatty foods constantly: both carry health risks, but people appear reluctant to acknowledge that the food children eat will affect their general well being.

It does, accept this, and stop passing the buck.
- posted by Paul @ 10:25 am