by The government believes it knows what’s best for our kids. It really has good intentions– honest, you can believe it. The latest good intention is to pressure soda makers to not sell their carbonated beverage in schools. You’ll never guess who was behind it– that McDonalds loving, dress staining, perjury committing President and his foundation.
This does have an upside for soda manufacturers– it can look like their interested in children’s health, and also it will let them push its flavored waters or other products. However, with all of the great publicity this decision has, it overlooks the key problem.
Obesity will not be curbed by changing what it is in vending machines. I don’t know that I ever bought a soda from a vending machine in school. I’m sure it must be done, but do you think that the big soda makers would be ok with losing a bunch of profit? They know that they make more than enough sales elsewhere– or if kids really want it, they will bring it in.
No, the way to stop this problem, like many other things that parents don’t want their kids to be doing, is with the example set in the home. In my house, soda was a priviledge that was only available to us with certain meals, and was never allowed as a snack.
You need to teach children the best way to do things, not just take things away. Forbidden things get all the more tempting.
I never really liked carbonated drinks they always left me feeling a bit thirsty, so I definitely stayed away from the vending machines unless I had skipped breakfast and was starving.
Most parents need to packt their kids healthy lunches or snacks. I used to carry honeynut cheerios as a snack or those delicious breakfast bars that they quit making, much to my dismay.
It’s definitely a child training issue that government feels like they have to do. It’s more and more like what I’ve talked about before– government thinks your kids are their children, not yours.
At my high school they left the soda machines unplugged until after school. I always thought this was funny because the milk machine stayed on all day… the same machine with the triple chocolate whole milk drink and similar drinks with just as much, if not more sugar in them!
That is pretty funny– can’t let *that* milk go bad!
My jaw dropped when an acquaintance put her chubby 5 yo on a diet before Kindergarten…not wanting him to automatically be the object of teasing. My jaw didn’t drop as much from the fact that he was on a diet (he was huge), as from the fact that she was so proud she’d weaned him from drinking a 2 liter of soda DAILY to half of one daily. ??? How/Why on earth would you let your child have that kind of freedom with pop!
Growing up, my dad had a 2 liter of Sprite on hand that I rarely imbibed on! Didn’t know I was missing anything. In fact, Sprite was medicinal in our house! I OD’d on soda in high school when I worked at DQ and got drinks free…2 months of that and I teetotaled once again. I, for one, am eternally thankful that my mom kept the focus OFF POP.
We love water!
A pet peeve of mine is all this talk of diet in the same breath as children. By focusing so much on “diet” are we just asking for epidemic sized problems with anorexia and bulimia? Self esteem is so fragile in children!
Less food, more action. Get off the couch.
Mary
Mary
It’s amazing how many weblogs around here are focusing on the glories of anorexia, but that’s a topic for another day. Certainly, children drink a lot of soda– a lot of eating out rather than mom’s home cooking if you ask me!
We had soda with saucy meals like pizza, spaghetti, and hamburgers, but for us (growing up children of a mom who was raised on a farm) we drank lots of M-I-L-K.