Politicians have seized open childhood obesity to remove fast foods, ban soda machines and legislate sweets out of schools. All with the intent of showing that they are serious about the problem and are taking action. The question we should be asking our politicos is when they will start legislating something that will actually work on reducing obesity in children?
Many times I have stood in line behind a family using food stamps to acquire their weekly groceries. They have one cart with the milk, eggs, whole grain cheerios and bread paid for with food stamps. They have a second cart with the Eggo Waffles, Potato Chips, Hostess Twinkies and the 3lb bag of M&Ms paid for with cash. Some folks may say this is an aberration from the norm but I can’t remember a single instance of seeing someone use food stamps and not having a second batch of garbage food paid for with cash although I am sure it must occur.
Then there is the single mother on welfare wearing more bling then 50 Cent but that is another topic. 50 Cent wears lots of bling doesn’t he? I am showing my age.
What children eat is only a part of the problem. A complete lack of exercise is more to blame. As a child I didn’t have a strictly healthy diet and once in high school spent plenty of money on candy, soda and pizza yet I wasn’t fat. At times I was downright svelte. Drinking in college would pack on a bit of extra weight during the winter when I didn’t go out and do anything but once summer rolled around I would drop the extra baggage within a month thanks to a job mowing lawns.
I grew up in Maine where my folks had a large plot of land and my best friend’s family had a farm. Another elderly neighbor had over 40 acres including a large hill that they allowed everyone to slide on in the winter. I spent considerable amounts of time outside playing, exploring and doing what kids used to do. I would ride my bike to my friends or vice versa and we would play baseball, play football, skateboard, build forts in the woods, explore the hay loft, etc. Sure, there were times we sat inside and played games but those tended to be the rainy or cold days when going outside was a bit uncomfortable.
I now live in San Diego where the neighbor’s house is a hop away if you make a really short hop. Yards are the size of a postage stamp and pickup games of baseball are impossible. Children who live in residential areas in the suburbs would have to play baseball in the street to have enough room just to lay out the bases. Either that or go to a local park which they can’t do without supervision as they are now at an extremely high risk of being kidnapped by a pedophile. Where did all these pedophiles come from? Where were they when I was younger?
My old hometown has changed as well. The elderly neighbors passed away and the out of state heirs sold the land. The sledding hill is now home to a very large house. My friend’s farm was just sold and only developers could afford the price as taxes had gone through the roof on the real estate, a main reason for the sale. There are still yards and kids can still play outside but even there the opportunities are disappearing slowly.
A Senator Barrios in Massachusetts is proposing an amendment to ban Fluff in schools. If you are from New England you probably know what a Peanut Butter and Fluff sandwich is. Otherwise just accept that it is a standard childhood meal along the lines of peanut butter and jelly. Combining Peanut Butter, Jelly and Fluff was the ultimate. He was upset his child had been given such a sandwich for school lunch. I won’t go anywhere near claiming that Fluff is a healthy food alternative but when someone specifically legislates a single food item out things are spinning out of control. Since Apples are better then peaches, according to the Apple lobby, shouldn’t we ban peaches for apples? Ok, I made that up for effect.
Senator Barrios should stop worrying about the specific items in the school lunch program and pass legislation that does two things. Simply require healthy lunches in schools and more physical education time. Yes, healthy is a loose term but why not let the school districts decide what is healthy and if parents disagree let them argue it out at the local school district level. This fear of parent arguments will keep the lunch programs in line a vast majority of the time and not make the School Lunch Police Force a new requirement to enforce the no Fluff Law. Physical Education will get kids moving. It might even cause a few to recognize an activity they like and take it up. At the very least it gets them out for and hour or two a day. School Days are short enough that an extra 30 minutes of PE wouldn’t hurt, eliminate some of the study halls the older kids have.
The irony of Senator Barrios’ action is that the company that manufactures Fluff is situated in his district meaning he is advocating a law that could get his constituents fired as their sales theoretically decrease. A stupid law that costs him support, if only justice were always so easy.
LATE Breaking Update. Last night and this morning this story was on the Major News Networks. The folks at Fox in the Morning made A**es of themselves with the story.
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