From the New York Times, the rare sensible essay on childhood obesity:

What worries me even more than the words being thrown about in the food wars are the unspoken messages we’re giving our children about their bodies, themselves and the food they eat. Prohibiting that second slice of pizza sends a message that pizza is bad, that there are good foods and bad foods, safe foods and dangerous foods– a perceived dichotomy that every anorexic is all too familiar with.

I can hear the howls of outrage, imagine the letters I will get as a result of saying this. But I will say it anyway: We have nothing to fear but fear itself. That is, our twin fears of fat and food, and the consequent distortions in the way we feed ourselves and our children, will damage us far more than a bowl of ice cream every now and again.

“Emphasize providing, not depriving,” Ms. Satter suggests. “Maintain the structure of meals and snacks so children can count on getting fed — and fed enough.”

So serve another slice of pizza. Bring on the chocolate cupcakes. Dish up the broccoli soup and burritos, the strawberries and cheesecake. Give kids more time to run around and play, and also more time to eat. Teach them about the joys of food, not the terrors. And maybe they’ll grow up less ambivalent and healthier than we are.

Perhaps we’ve finally reached the point where “our kids are fat!” rings cliche, and “maybe our kids are okay after all!” becomes the sexy new meme among health reporters.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 30th, 2006 at 11:21 am by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.