When I was a child my parents made sure I had a balanced diet by the standards of the day. Sure, they let me have junk food and skip some vegetables, but they always said, at least try it. If I didn’t like something I didn’t have to eat it. I was always fed for health and survival. So why wasn’t I fat as a child? Exercise, limited TV and no video games.
After school, I went outside to play until my mother yelled “dinner!” We played baseball, football, hockey, kickball, tag, raced, guns with sticks, etc. If I didn’t have too much homework, I could go out after dinner and play some more. That’s more activity than I get today as an adult. So, as a child, give me cake and ice cream for dessert, I always burned it off.
Eventually we had Atari. But my parents limited my time and enforced outside play. Today most children do nothing but watch TV, play video games, “surf the Internet” and maybe do their homework. I encourage outside play, but most kids go outside to a friend’s house to play video games! The majority of parents today are more concerned with themselves and let their children do what they want.
Michelle Obama may have good intentions, but our money would be better spent encouraging exercise and reinstating proper physical education in the school curriculum instead of telling people what they should eat. Most of the food forced on our children is tossed in the trash. It’s a waste of taxpayer money and will lead to malnourishment. School lunches were fine for me and are still fine today. Encourage exercise instead of dictating what we eat, while you pig out on ribs and fries. Hypocrisy at its best.
The real cause of childhood obesity… a lack of exercise.
~3Jeeps3
