I am worried.
I have two daughters. They are awesome. Both of them are extremely healthy (thank God) and have had no more than colds so far in their young lives. My kids are fun and love life. My worries aren’t about their next cold or a twisted ankle or bruised knee they’ll most definitely get while playing.
My worries are about their future health.
I worry that they will develop eating habits that are sadly, typical of the modern American child. You know, full of processed, high sugar, high salt foods that have little to no nutritional value. Mind you, I don’t force feed them this stuff. For the most part, we eat pretty healthy at home. Jason is great about making sure that we eat our fair share of veggies and grains and fruits and since he does the majority of the cooking, he makes it a priority. That’s fine and good, but there are times when we aren’t the ones feeding our children. They get breakfast and lunch at their daycare center/elementary school every weekday. The food they eat at the daycare and at Kaitlyn’s elementary school is obviously institutional food. Sure, they have standards they need to adhere to but I would bet that those standards aren’t what I would prefer them to be: fresh, non-processed, no high fructose corn syrup, and low sodium/low sugar. I know they get fruit and veggies every day. I know they are getting better than average meals. Kaitlyn’s school integrates locally grown produce into their menu and all menu items have nutritional information available right on the menu. They also offer low fat milk and juice options. Both institutions are careful with sweets and extra treats. I appreciate that.
. She started the
“Let’s Move” campaign to help fight childhood obesity. She basically wrote what most parents are thinking I am sure—how do we raise these modern American children in today’s overly sugared, overly processed world? How do we teach them about proper nutrition and proper portion control and proper choices? What I love about her and this article is that she was the first to admit that it’s NOT the government’s responsibility to teach our kids better nutrition—it’s the PARENTS responsibility.
AMEN.
Her article is a MUST READ for anyone with children in this crazy modern society in which we live. Use the article as an impetus to help change how you feed your kids, how you think of nutrition, and how you think about your role in their lives as their nutritional adviser.
I DID.
We try to give our kids all the things we feel they need, but maybe we’re giving them too much? I’ll admit it, I am way more lenient when it comes to food choices than I should be. A LOT more lenient. I have my own issues with sugar and junk food so I am totally not the best role model for my girls to model after. I ACKNOWLEDGE THAT. But isn’t it our job to teach these girls what is healthy, what is nutritious? It’s not the government or the school's job to do that and sadly, I wonder if people think it should be. I appreciate the school’s efforts to label each item on the menu and to offer better alternatives, but what good is it kids continually chooses the pizza or the hot dog or the full-fat chocolate milk or high-sugar juice? Isn't it our job as their parent to teach her that she needs to FUEL her body with good food? Not junk? Sadly, I don’t know that I’ve done a good job with that.
Kaitlyn sees me cracking open my 10th Diet Coke at 8pm and I am sure she thinks that’s just fine. Why not? She doesn’t know any better. Unless she sees me making nutritionally sound choices day in and day out it won’t resonate with her. She’s not even seven yet, but I am worried it’s too late. I am worried that she’s already been poisoned by the “good stuff”. The sugary, processed crap. The white bread world that I grew up in and
that I am now paying for.
I am really ready to make some changes in how we feed our children. Some of it will be minor, some will be major. We pre-paid for the entire school year’s lunches for Kaitlyn so we didn’t have to worry about forgetting to give her lunch money. I think that was a huge mistake. She buys her lunch about 95% of the time. We need to re-think this and start packing lunches most of the time, if not all the time. We need to be in more control of what they eat when we aren’t there with them. The more they understand about what is a healthy meal vs. what is not, the better they will be. I want to educate them on what makes a good meal. What makes a good snack.
In turn, I’ll educate myself. They need to learn what a “treat” is and why you only have them once in a while. They need to learn what a serving is and what it means to be full. They need to learn what it means to be healthy.
Sadly, I think I may be the one who needs to learn this the most.
Thank you, Michelle, for my wake-up call.
