4
Who’s to Blame for Kids’ Bad Eating Habits? Not Parents, a Study Finds
In the debate over children’s eating habits and the rise in obesity, parents are quick to blame school cafeterias, and school cafeterias are quick to blame parents.
Parents point to the French fries, the chicken nuggets and the pizza and wonder how those options constitute a healthy meal. Foodservice directors assert that kids eat one, sometime two, meals at school, but that they take in a good number of calories at home as well. What’s more, the meals kids bring to school when they pack lunch are hardly healthy — usually a variation on sandwich, full-fat chips and a sugary drink. The real problem, cafeteria directors say, is that parents no longer teach their children good eating habits, and that kids arrive at school unwilling to eat nutritious foods. Healthy eating must start at home, they argue.
Several commentators have echoed those sentiments recently, saying parents are ultimately responsible for fostering good eating habits in children. But a new study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health shows that there is little correlation between children’s diet quality and that of their parents. The authors of the study conclude that “interventions targeting parents could have only a moderate effect on improving their children’s diet.”
This doesn’t mean cafeterias are entirely to blame for America’s obesity epidemic. But it does mean we should start taking the focus off of parents and putting it on schools, television, advertising and other factors that influence kids’ food choices.
June 10th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Right now, buying the school lunch is a treat for my kids. Why? When given the choice between carrots and french fries, corn dogs and grilled chicken, which will they choose? Despite what they eat at home, it’s almost always the one that makes me cringe.
June 10th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
Kriswithmany has described what happens when many parents send their kids off to school. their best efforts to inspire and encourage their kids to eat real food is undermined by the toxic food environment of school. 180 days a year for 12 years: those corn dogs, fries and neon blue slushies creep into our kids diets.
This is one of many reasons why every parent, brownbagging or not, needs to get vocal and politically active over school lunch.
If not, our healthcare system will collapse under the weight of all these sick fat kids who are not optimally learning in school.
October 6th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
Sara Duncan
How can you blame the schools? Whos fault is it you kids cant go into a cafeteria and say oh those chips are not a good choice today unless i eat some carrots and strawberry low fat yogurt to even out the entake or whatever. Its the parents fault alone for not saying what to not eat at home. If your fat kid is eating cookies at home how dare you say oh they shouldnt ser ve those in the school because my kid is getting fat. It is unfair to all those other kids who eat right and can maturely indulge in chocolate and soda without overdoing it. There is absolutely no one in the world who can say School Cafeteria Food Made Me Fat!!
October 29th, 2009 at 7:22 pm
Where are “all those other kids who eat right”? They basically don’t exist. There are very few kids who can “maturely indulge” in chocolate and soda. There are very few kids who choose carrots instead of chips. That’s because they’re KIDS and they lack the judgment to always make good choices.
We don’t allow kids to choose to skip math class and go to a movie. And we shouldn’t allow kids to choose sweets or chips as part of an American school lunch program. Food costs money, and taxpayer funds should be spent on nutritious foods only. If parents want their children to have sweets and chips, they can pay for that themselves.
It’s increasingly common for private schools to ban certain foods from the lunchroom, like soda, candies, Cheetos. Maybe public schools should be doing that too.