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Folks Gotta Eat

melanieredman's picture
The purpose of Folks Gotta Eat is to filter and curate stories, articles, projects and policies related to food security. Because the issues are complex, and Folks Gotta Eat...

Childhood obesity is child abuse?

| October 11, 2010

My Saturday morning reading revealed some disturbing public service-type videos on good ol' YouTube (via Grist). I guess there are lots of folks out there who are framing feeding kids junk food as child abuse. Excuse me?

Any person who really experienced child abuse would tell you that going to McDonald's for a Happy Meal was not part of it. I worry that this is another example of blame shifting for chronic health problems to the folks who are already getting the raw deal. Why are we blaming parents for taking advantage of convenience foods to feed their families? Hell, we've been sold the idea since we were kids that the right to drive-thru at Krispy Kreme is the pinnacle of a developed society! 

Folks, let's put our creative energy into shifting policies that allow selling crap as nutrition. Let's continue to educate folks about how to optimize the well-being and health of our children, instead of making anyone who feeds their kid french fries out to be a monster.

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