Adults Are Kids' Worst Enemy When It Comes to Obesity Prevention
Yet another classroom celebration. And we wonder why kids can't lose weight?
Two articles last week left me wondering not, as CNN.com asked, why it’s so hard for kids to lose weight, but instead, why aren’t more kids obese? When it comes to eating healthfully, adults are the kids’ worst enemy.
The CNN piece, one part of a series on childhood obesity, let kids talk about how hard it is to pass up all the food they encounter all day everyday. The other was in the Atlantic and written by nutrition expert and public health advocate, Marion Nestle. She writes how the food industry has hidden behind the First Amendment in order to freely market crappy food to kids in just about every highly studied and effective way they pleased.
The obesity rate among kids has been called a national epidemic. But really, especially looking at these two articles together, we should think of it more like a national expectation.
Any adult who has ever tried to shed some pounds knows exactly why even the most motivated kids have a hard time eating right — deliciously bad-for-you food, and repeated reference to it, is everywhere. While adults have the option of avoiding the donut-filled break room or skipping lunch at the Chinese buffet, kids have very little control over the types of food they are exposed to and how often. What’s worse, the adults in their lives are often the biggest underminers — and no, dear commenters, I’m not necessarily referring to their parents. (Sidenote: whenever I write about childhood obesity and the Happy Meal marketing machine, I get a pile of responses saying things like “it’s the parents job to say no!” We’re not talking about an era in kids’ lives when the adult is not, for a large number of hours each day, actually present to say “no.”)
Even beyond the marketing genius of adult strangers — those whose PhDs have helped them discover new and effective ways of getting a five-year-old to question his parents’ judgment, for example — kids get plenty of messages from other mom-approved adults that it’s OK and desirable to always be stuffing one’s mouth.
We expect the fat kids — all kids, really — to know better and refuse the high-calorie treats. But how should kids resist birthday cupcakes and Valentine’s Day candy when the authority figures have organized the fun? Saying “no” requires kids be willing to stand out and answer questions from their peers, “why aren’t you eating a cupcake? Is it because you’re fat?” It calls on a lone child to go against her peer group in order to look at the big picture, the long-term consequences — a skill kids (and some adults) are still developing.
As the CNN piece points out, it’s not unusual for kids to sit in lunchrooms where, even when there’s a salad bar, there’s also a pizza buffet and an array of desserts. A surprising number of American students have teachers who dole out candy for good behavior and perfect spelling tests (candy rewards! In 2012!). Even physical activity like soccer practice or ballet class ends with everything from a handful of animal crackers to what appears to be a small meal made from a bag of Doritos and a yogurt stick — this just an hour before dinner.
With average elementary school class sizes in the 30s in some areas (even up to 40+ in others) there’s a pretty good chance that at least once a week a classmate is going to walk in with cupcakes. That kid may also have a party the following weekend. All this could coincide with Halloween or Christmas or Valentine’s Day … or a siblings birthday. That’s a lot of (1) candy and cake in a short amount of time and (2) a lot of saying “no” (though the heart says yes!) for a kid to have to do.
Then the TV ads for Gushers and hot wings later that night …
Marion Nestle put out a call a few months ago to get First Amendment scholars to weigh in on whether the food industry — which another Atlantic writer argued should be abolished altogether — has a constitutional right to sell Cap’n Crunch or Happy Meals to my kids. She links to a number of pieces in her post, including this one, a paper c0-authored by Samantha Graff of the National Policy & Legal Analysis Network to Prevent Childhood Obesity. In it, they write:
[...] case law establishes that the First Amendment does not protect “inherently misleading” commercial speech. Cognitive research indicates that young children cannot effectively recognize the persuasive intent of advertising or apply the critical evaluation required to comprehend commercial messages.
Given this combination — that government can prohibit “inherently misleading” advertising and that children cannot adequately understand commercial messages — advertising to children younger than age 12 should be considered beyond the scope of constitutional protection.
The U.S. has been too reluctant to regulate advertising to kids and using the First Amendment as an excuse despite, as the authors point out, it’s essentially false advertisement. Supposed industry efforts to do better have also failed.
We’ve also been too reluctant, as parents, to come together and ask our institutions to stop with the garbage. Yes, we all have fond memories of Valentine’s Day growing up. And who didn’t love seeing their dad walk through the Kindergarten door with a box of cupcakes in honor of a birthday. But it’s too all too much. If candy is the only incentive that results in good classroom behavior, then that teacher needs a total overhaul of how he’s managing his class. If you need dessert to get kids to eat lunch at school or to fund the program, perhaps the lunch itself — and the funding strategy — needs an overhaul.
Oh, but it’s just a cupcake here and there, right? No. Actually, it’s candy and cupcakes everywhere kids go.
I dunno – my kids has no problem regulating sweets at their holiday parties- I was there and saw them. And they also had other room Moms who waaaay overdid the sweets. They weren’t a big deal since I let them have treat each day anyway, they never felt they were derived and didn’t really get impressed at parties with sweets. And they are slim, eat well, exercise and have great BMIs.
I’m not sure I’d call the first amendment an EXCUSE. I agree that a debate over whether it applies her would be welcome, but I also understand the reluctance to ban any form of speech.
My little brother in law (who is 9) goes to an elementary school where the school breakfast (which is free or subsidized for low income students) consists of chocolate milk and food offerings such as a donut or cinnamon toast crunch cereal. Luckily, he comes from a family who can afford to feed him a healthy breakfast at home, but how badly is that school letting down the low-income kids?!?
The childhood obesity problem isn’t the food. We all ate crap when we were kids and for the most part we were pretty slim. The problem is the lack of physical activity. When we were kids we would literally spend hours outside playing. Kids these days spend hours sitting inside playing video games and watching tv. And alot of this *is* the parents fault… I know I’m guilty of plopping my son down to watch tv rather than taking him to the park to run and play. We’re all tired from a hard day of work… and the last thing you want to do is pack up the car and chase kids around the park. But that’s what we need to start doing as parents… get our kids moving.
@Goddess: The thing is, kids are different, and some of them really do seem to have problems self-regulating. My first is a lot like your kids, he liked/likes sweets like any kid but they weren’t a big thing to him and he has never been overweight. I always subscribed to that same idea that deprivation leads to over-consumption, so we never worried about having candy around the house. Recently, though, we’ve been realizing we’re going to have to change our ways because of my second child. She also has never been deprived, but she LOVES anything sweet and would eat candy and cake to the exclusion of all else if permitted, it’s not something she gets tired of. She has just turned four and we have had two wake-up calls; her doctor pointed out that her chub is no longer ‘baby fat’, and her dentist found two cavities. She’s exactly the kind of child who’s susceptible to the environment, because Hell is going to freeze over before she says no to a cupcake or walks past a full candy jar or puts a bag of chips down before it’s empty. It’s relatively easy for us to manage her environment right now because she’s little (mostly we’ve just had to be much more aggressive about throwing candy away when it comes into the house), but it’s going to get harder and harder as she gets older and spends more time away from us.
Thanks for sharing that, Diera. And I wouldn’t call the self-regulation thing a “problem,” it’s actually quite normal for a kid to want sweet/fat/salty stuff (especially the sweet). It’s up to the adults to limit the availability of these things (limit, folks, not prohibit!) and that’s what I’m complaining about.
And Shandeigh, yes, exercise … whole ‘nother post with how we shouldn’t have to take our kids to the park, they should be allowed to run around.
I’m more concerned about nutrition than weight. At my kid’s preschool, the second week of school they happened to have 3 birthdays, so three days that week the kids had cupcakes…at 11 am. Before lunch. My kid, of course, didn’t eat her real lunch because she does regulate when she’s full and doesn’t eat more…she was just full on a cupcake instead of the real food! This happens frequently enough to be a concern that I brought up with the school. The director said no, she will not stop the kids from bringing in birthday treats or make guidelines for what they bring. On our day, we brought fruit and cheese kabobs. It’s her last year so I am letting it go, but I am really hoping the Kindergarten has some better guidelines about what kids can bring, I think I heard that they do…and another thing would be to celebrate all the month’s birthday’s on one occassion. They just don’t need that much crap. Also, a 200-300 calorie cupcake is one thing to a full grown adult, maybe 5-10% of what our daily caloric intake might be, depending. It’s a whole lot larger chunk of a kid’s.
Wait…more than 5%! At least 10% of an adults daily caloric intake!
That makes sense Diera. I guess I got self-regulators. And I really wouldn’t mind some scale=back. As long as they don’t start telling me I can’t pack a cookie or treat in my kids’ LUNCHES.
@Annika- they fail them no worse than the parent who didn’t feed them in the first place.
Suzie- that reminds me of when my kids were in pre-school- at 10:45am- half hour before i picked them up, cookies and koolaid! I never even GAVE my kids Koolaid, LOL! And right before lunch- you’re right. Regulation does go out the window if it’s served before lunch!
Yes, Suzie, yes exactly! I think as hard as it is to be *that* parent who’s asking for change — for cupcake and candy bans or whatever — it’s time to stick our necks out and say something. I can’t believe the administrator didn’t come around. Do these people live under rocks? Do they not know about this issue?
The thing is, they’re still little now so most of them aren’t LOOKING fat yet, so I guess some people ignore the crappy eating habits (I can’t figure out any other reason why they’d be so dense about it) but give those kids a few years and they will be overweight! (That’s why I say it’s about nutrition not getting fat…right now….)
@Goddess: I think anything you pack in your own child’s lunch should be off limits, and I share the frustration, I have been told I can’t send cookies in my older child’s lunch or snack but his after-school program (at the school, run by the public school system) gives the kids Pop-Tarts and apple juice. Neither one is technically a ‘dessert’ so somehow the sugar in them is less harmful than the sugar in a home-made oatmeal cookie? I guess? For ‘nutrition’ reasons, they stopped serving anything other than skim milk in the cafeteria, so now my son frequently just doesn’t drink anything at lunch because he thinks skim milk is vile for drinking. Meanwhile, he frequently comes home from this same school with sacks of candy from one kind of ‘celebration’ or another. It just boggles my mind.
Yes. Parents should be able to pack what they wish in their own kids’ lunches! And this obsession with skim milk is so ridiculous…I mean, I drink it, but I’m an old lady. I hardly think that kids HAVE to drink skim milk…
Well, I’m lucky-= my kids prefer skim milk and didn’t start buying milk til they switched to it. But Diera that’s just CRAZY about the cookies. I think I’d push the point and call the news, LOL! Like my 13 yr old daughter. She buys a bag of Hershey kisses so she can take ONE (don’t know how she does it) but ONE as a treat in her lunch some days. School be damned if they ever say a thing.
@Diera – I think you hit the nail on the head with “no cookies but pop-tarts & juice are ok” The problem for me is that EVERYTHING marketed at kids (and adults for that matter) has SO MUCH sugar so that even when you aren’t eating “desserts” ot “treats” you are still getting sugar. For example, I give my son plain yogurt & plain oatmeal with a little added fruit at home – a healthy choice. So he THINKS he’s being healthy when he’s out and offered yogurt or oatmeal, but the flavored ones have so much sugar, I’d almost he rather just be offered a cookie – if you’re going to eat that much sugar, you might as well enjoy it as a dessert. A huge part of it is that sugar and corn sweeteners are so heavily subsidized in the US that it’s so much cheaper for companies to add sweet filler than real nutrition.
@Shandeigh – No, we didn’t grow up eating that crap. The sugar content in cereals alone has skyrocketed by more than 15% over the last 25 years, not to mention the decline in grain quality, increased use of additives and preservatives, and rampant use of HFCS. The nutritional value of many fruits and vegetables have also declined over the last 20 years as a result of poor farming practices and developments in food storage, preservation, and chemically aided “ripening”. Additionally, 84% of adolescents are consuming around 400 calories a day in drinks alone and begin consuming these types of drinks at a much earlier age than 15 years ago. It’s true that kids are getting much less exercise, but it’s not accurate to argue that the food they eat is the same as previous generations.
Also, what is up with goodie bags and pinatas? We went to 2 birthday parties recently and the candy situation was insane. I never saw so many cracked out kids ready to attack one another for another lolly. We gave our gifts and got out as soon as possible, but not before being given a bag filled with the crappiest candy on the market and a ring pop the size of a golf ball!
If I were on the PTA, I would suggest doing what a lot of workplaces do–make the birthday celebrations a monthly thing, rather than an individual thing for every kid (I know that might not be as popular with the kiddos, though). Maybe each parent who wants to celebrate their kid’s birthday could contribute a limited number of treats so that there are enough treats for each kid, but not a sugar extravaganza. That way, the kids get their celebration and an occasional treat, the parents get a smaller burden in terms of contribution and class isn’t interrupted multiple times a week for birthday parties. Might take some coordination, such as a parent volunteer but I think that would be a happy medium.
“We expect the fat kids — all kids, really — to know better and refuse the high-calorie treats. But how should kids resist birthday cupcakes and Valentine’s Day candy when the authority figures have organized the fun? Saying “no” requires kids be willing to stand out and answer questions from their peers, “why aren’t you eating a cupcake? Is it because you’re fat?” It calls on a lone child to go against her peer group in order to look at the big picture, the long-term consequences — a skill kids (and some adults) are still developing.” On the plus side, it’s forced me to train my girls to do exactly that and hopefully they’ll have a strong foundation for standing up to peer pressure with drugs and alcohol. It’s much easier to change kids than adults!
My sons kindergarten has 18 kids, and on their birthdays they bring mini cupcakes, Timbits (donut holes) or fruit. Holiday parties are catered by the parents, who sign up to bring a treat plate, veggies plate, meat and cheese plate or fruit plate. They get their small treat here or there, but thats it. And they have “healthy lunch” rewards, like extra free play time or stickers for having whole grain products or real yogurt, fresh fruit etc. they also go outside every day and have gym every second day.
If parents stop bringing the huge cupcakes and slabs of cake for parties that there will help a lot, especially if you have 40 kids (!!!!!!) in a class. Who can afford to bring 40 cupcakes for each of their kids every year? Yikes.
Eh. I can’t get to worked about the kids having a cupcake at school. I pack lunches and together we prep all their meals, so I know what they’re eating most of the time (even the teenager!) The problem isn’t that kids are eating a cupcake, even a couple of times a week. The problem is that kids don’t exercise enough (they are supposed to get DAILY exercise) and eat a bunch of processed crap at home.
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