Parents vs. Junk Food: Who Is To Blame?
Wednesday, December 7, 2011 
Once again, the media is looking at the question of who is to blame when children aren't eating properly. Parents and activists (such as Corporate Accountability International) don't want fast food and processed food companies marketing their junk to our children. Those companies, on the other hand, claim that they offer many different choices and that it is up to parents to make good decisions for their children.
This week, Ottawa-based Dr. Yoni Freedhoff who blogs at Weighty Matters was quoted at length in the Chicago Tribune. You should read the whole article on the David vs. Goliath fight parents face, but here is a quick excerpt:
The argument put forth on how to protect them from all of these traps and more? Parents can just say 'no.'
'No' to pizza days at school. 'No' to chocolate milk as part of the school lunch program. 'No' to the freezies handed out after soccer practice. 'No' to the meal and the co-branded Disney toy that was advertised on television. 'No' to the sugary cereal with the decoder ring on the bottom.
That sure is a lot of "no's."
But what of parents who don’t say 'no.' Some may not due simply due to 'no' fatigue, while others may not even see the need for 'no.' Perhaps as a consequence of tremendous time or financial pressures, or their own distracting medical issues, or deceptive advertising that suggests health benefits to bowls of sugary cereals, or perhaps simply as a consequence of not believing or understanding why it matters, there is a huge swath of parents don’t see value in the parental junk food “no”.
As an increasingly unhealthy society, the question we need to urgently wrestle with is should a non-uniformly delivered parental “no” be our sole line of defense against the incredibly aggressive marketing of unhealthy food to our children?
So who is to blame?
My long answer is written out in my post outlining the reasons why boiling everything down to "personal responsibility" will not fix the systemic problems in our food system.
My short answer: Both. Parents do have a responsibility to say no. To seek balance. To teach and provide proper nutrition for their children. To help their kids unpack deceptive advertising and become media literate. But at the same time, we shouldn't have every obstacle possible shoved in our way as we do that. Each of us has a limited amount of energy and time and patience. None of us wants to be the parent who is saying no all the time. Some of us (I would bet all of us) would like to be able to sit down, relax, and lower our guard every once in a while.
Reader Comments (62)
Great article! Thanks for sharing.
Kayris, totally with you on the grandparent thing. But I also get a little tired of constantly being "bad cop" on the nutrition front. Basically, I get frustrated that my son gets all his naughty junk food "moments" with the grandparents instead of me, because I just can't rationalize MORE junk food than what he gets from them (gotcha on the 80/20! Nice way to put it). Still okay with me, though, because we love them so much and are so grateful that they can be part of his life.
And the truth? I've had a few ice cream moments with my son--absolutely. That's my weakness, and he appears to share it. It's kind of awesome to snuggle up to the kiddo and trade bites, and my partner says we get the identical glazed-over look of delight on our faces (heh heh). I just have to keep it out of the house so that those moments aren't too frequent!
I very much agree that the emphasis is on the weight and not the behavior that lead to it.
My 18 month old was in the 50th percentile when she was born, and she stayed there until she was 6 months old and started solids, when she began dropping percentiles until she was in the 5th at 12 months and has been there since (she's been in the 5th for length always).
I know that what I heard might not have been exactly what was said or intended all the time, but there were times when it very much felt like "You're starving that child to death! What are you DOING?" She gained beautifully when EBF, but for us, the every-two-weeks weight checks and meetings with the pediatric dietician came later :( Rationally, I know that this is healthy for her -- she's VERY active, proportionate to her height, and we offer her the opportunity to eat all the time (and some times she does eat, tons). But there's an irrational part that aches when I can almost see the outline of a rib when she's in the tub, or when I have to have the "your breastmilk has turned to tap water" type conversation again, or when she throws the avocado on the floor and instead takes a cucumber from my plate and I think "But those don't have any calories!"
Anyway, that was a very rambling way to get here, but I've thought more than once in the past year that if we'd just feed her junk, she'd gain, and everyone would get off of our backs.
"I get frustrated that my son gets all his naughty junk food “moments” with the grandparents instead of me..."
This is how I feel about my kid getting junk food snacks at school, like when they have a kids birthday or someone brings in a cookie or cupcake snack (often not even nice homebaked goods, but some crap from Costco). I like to share the "good times" with my child and have the "junk" be at least wholesome junk (you know with real sugar, butter, etc. homemade, usually by us, together) on a weekend or something...
Crystal that sounds so trying! It sounds like you are absolutely doing what is best for your kiddo. She will grow how she is supposed to grow. I just came across this article the other day. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dina-r-rose/toddler-eating-habits_b_1121073.html?ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false perhaps you can share it with the next well meaning person who gives you a hard time.
I read that one lisa d. Coming from New Zealand I find this quite interesting. Our children do not see pediatricians unless they end up in hospital. We have a primary health care system where healthy children are seen by specialist free Plunket nurses at various ages before 5. These nurses check weight, height, speech development, movement, teeth etc. (If a child is mildly sick we take them to a general practitioner. A serious illness requires a trip to the hospital of course.) I think this system works (as long as the service is used of course) and I don't understand why well children need to see doctors as much as they seem to in Europe or North America. It looks like this leads to pathologising of what is within the normal range of child development.
I know I'm chiming in late to this conversation, but I have to agree with Michele that marketing is everywhere. I have a two-year-old. She isn't school-age yet and she cannot read. We predominantly purchase food through a CSA, a produce delivery service, online resources, and the farmer's market when it is in season - we only go to the market about once a month so my daughter is not frequently exposed to food brands. We never eat fast food and I can count on one hand the number of times we eat out in a year. We don't have television and until this week (my daughter has whooping cough, so we're quarantined at home trying to keep her mostly still) she's only seen the computer twice: once to watch a netflixed children's show when I was ill several months ago and once to skype with her father during one of his business trips.
I think you could safely say that she lives in a bubble.
BUT we drive past billboards. Kids wear licensed characters or store names (I'm guilty of this) on their clothing at the park. Toys, sunglasses, shoes, everything has logos. Unless I drive out to the foothills, it is impossible for my daughter to spend an entire day without viewing advertising in one form or another.
I would be very surprised if constant long-term exposure like that did not make lasting impressions on children, no matter how independently and critically they think.
I have seen parents arguing about how the doctor is "picking on them" because their child is overweight and unhealthy and how it must be genetic because "I only feed them organic stuff" as the child comes can gets another "organic" piece of junk food.
We do eat snack food sometimes--but we don't keep it around the house. I don't "forbid" all snack food and focus on making positive choices (filling up first on veggies, lean proteins, whole grains).
I agree with most of what Mrs. Rochester is saying. It really is a personal responsibility issue for the most part--especially for those who are educated about the choices they are making.
I do think, however, that those who are speaking up have an important role. I can't make every issue "my" issue...I have certain issues I speak-out on and others I do not. So, I appreciate that there are people out there raising a ruckus about other important issues I don't "adopt" for lack of a better word.
Also, while I have no problem with brands advertising...I don't want it in our public schools. I think public schools should be free from the marketing of unhealthy choices. My kids do not watch television and I agree it is the parents' responsibility to "turn it off" and say no. As far as billboards go, they are no where near as seductive as television commercials. But getting to my kids while they are in school is a dirty trick, in my opinion.
I have an unhealthy addiction to "mommy discussion boards," and a very common question that keeps coming up is: How do I get my 6-18month old to drink water instead of juice? That's where it starts - before TV, before marketing, before kids even have a preference, they are already being fed junk.
I do totally agree, though. When so many of the unhealthy choices are in daycares and schools, where a parental "no" isn't even an option, and when young adults are being graduated out of school without being properly taught about healthy eating and healthy cooking, what can we expect?
I am against ANY junk food for my son because of his age. He's at home with me for now and, at 9months, doesn't have the experience to want cookies instead of carrots. So he gets only water (no juice) to drink and he loves it! He gets genuinely excited over broccoli! He has no idea that he might prefer chocolate because he's never had any.
So yes, while kids are young enough for their entire food intake to be in their parents' hands, I am against all junk food. It's unnecessary and healthful foods are just as much a treat for them. Once my kiddo grows out of my arms and he becomes nutritionally subject to other caregivers, school cafeterias, or even marketing, I'll revisit my position.
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I really enjoyed this article. But for me as a parent to 3 lovely kids age ranges between 2 to 8 years old. I much more like them to stay at home rather than going outside and running around streets and meeting strangers that will cause dangers to them. Of course we admit that Tablets and smartphones can cause dangers too but is more far from getting abducted, raped and so on. I have introduced them to advance technology as this is a part of our society now and every kid as I believed should be entitled to know more about it since in this generation it is a big plus for kids now who knows technology and eventually use it for the future. All parent should do is know how to control and limit their playing time. And base on my research while struggling to limit my kids playing games on tablets and smartphones I have landed to a very helpful to all that limit what time they can use the tablet, control them and at the same time help them study mathematics. This Screenshot Ninja helps us parents to monitor them while we are busy working. So when their play time expires and they still want to play more they have to solve mathematics problem to gain more. Yeah its fantastic! As I have seen my daughters passionately solving it to gain more play time credits even my 3 year old daughter is asking me, "MOMMY what's the answer to 2+7?" and I let her count and then all I know is that my daughter can solve math now. :D
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