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June 21, 2006
Teaching Children the Right Attitude About Food
MR's Mom was reading Calgary Child magazine and came across this article on raising children in a weight obsessed world. She was moved to write a letter to the editor that I found absolutely right on! Here's her letter:
Dear Ms. Shore and Editors of Calgary's Child:
I feel compelled to respond to your article entitled "I Feel Fat". This is a very serious issue that must be confronted if we are not going to be the first generation of people whose children die before we do.
There is one way to guarantee that your child will not become fat: quit buying and serving "gak", by which I mean all forms of junk food, including chips, candy, pop, sugary cereals and so-called "Kid Food". Those so-called foods are nutritionally bankrupt and filled with chemicals and fat. It's simple: if you don't have the stuff in the house, they can't eat it there.
Cut the quantity of grains you feed your child in half. Make pasta, potato and rice portions very small. Cut down the amount of fat you use for cooking to tiny amounts. Feed your kids lean meat/fish at least twice every day but in small portions -- no bigger than the size of the palm of the child's one hand. Forget such chemical and fat-filled foods as hot dogs, except when camping or at the midway. Double or even triple the amount and variety of vegetables you put on their plates. Put berries in your salads. Give them fruit and low fat yogurts for dessert & snacks. Cut going to fast food restaurants down to once a month. Choose one day a week as "treat
day", and allow them one serving of candy or whatever they want.
It's a food revolution and it's hard. Guaranteed, they'll scream and throw tantrums. They might not even eat for a few days. Don't worry; they won't starve. They might not speak to you, either. You'll survive. Remember this: you're the grown-up. If you want to raise healthy, happy and fit kids, bite the bullet and stick with it. They'll thank you when they're 18 and not having to buy their prom dress from the plus-size shop or tux from the men's big & tall store.
Can you tell they're related?
Posted by april at June 21, 2006 4:55 PM
Comments
Oh, definitely. They are certainly equally boring. How boring of a woman do you have to be, how little must be going on in your little life that you write a letter to Calgary's children magazine's editor for god's sake?
I saw this t-shirt he other day. It had a print of a small bird like a canary, and next to it it said "have you seen my bird?".
To me that letter is as redundant as that t-shirt.
Posted by: istanbulwitch at June 21, 2006 4:36 PM
Yes, I have done this ! Unfortunately the local pediatrician at hospital thinks I am an obsessive parent, and am screwing up my kids. I have been referred to a Dietician, and possibly my son may have to see a shrink too.
I am considering giving the whole lot up. That way, at least I won't come home from hospital in floods of tears worried that I have permanently screwed up my kids' attitudes to food by teaching them about proper nutrition.
By the way, my son was referred to the pediatrician at the hospital originally to "officially diagnose" a dairy allergy (which I have dealt with quite adequately thank you since he was a kid). He is normal height, normal weight and growing very well.
Talk about upset.
Lindsay
Posted by: Lindsay at June 22, 2006 1:24 AM
Zeynep, I hardly think that someone who writes large numbers of comments on people's blogs can accuse someone who writes a letter to the editor of a magazine of wasting her time. Unless you think you're both wasting your time. In which case, you should definitely do CR so that you can make up for any time you may have wasted.
Posted by: April at June 22, 2006 4:57 AM
This is an issue that needs a lot of attention. We as adults know the importance of good nutrition, and are able to make the proper choices for ourselves and for our children. A gak diet will result in not only a negative appearance, but will affect a child’s performance at school, behaviour and attitude, etc. Many parents are completely unaware of just how harmful gak can be for their child. I have received many negative comments on my apparently obsessive attitude towards nutrition. I hit a brick wall in an attempt to get my children’s school lunch program in becoming more nutritionally-sound. If we provide our children with healthy food choices at home, they will quickly learn the importance of good nutrition because they will feel better and look better. MR's mom is right...the kids will thank us in the end.
Posted by: Shauna at June 22, 2006 11:49 AM
I think it's a shame that more people don't 'waste their time' in this way!
Posted by: alex at June 22, 2006 12:21 PM
According to the latest stats, 30% of Canadian children are overweight; half of that number is obese. This is serious! The article in the magazine was pussy-footing around the problem and not addressing the real issue. Calgary’s Child Magazine is sent home every month by the Calgary school system to 150,000 families. If, by taking 15 minutes out of my evening to write a letter to its editor, and if the magazine chooses to publish it, I just might be able to make a small impact. If I get even a handful of parents to stop feeding their kids a diet of gak, I will most definitely not have “wasted” my time. As the old Hebrew adage goes, “If not me, who? If not now, when?”
Posted by: Judith at June 22, 2006 3:40 PM
I'm so glad that your blog is a forum for this kind of discussion April... It's so upsetting that food- our main vehicle for nurturing- is so misunderstood or undervalued or something... But you are doing so much already by providing us with this arena to share our views and hear sane nutritional information and personal experience. (Thanks for being such a continuous blogger!)
Posted by: Jessica at June 23, 2006 12:53 AM
To me, reading some blogs and writing comments is a pasttime activity I do when I drink and everybody goes home and there is nothing else to do. To her, writing a comment to Calgary children whatever is a major activity. That is the difference. I do it to empty my brain, she does it to feel important.
Posted by: istanbulwitch at June 23, 2006 8:11 PM
If the paper published her letter, Mom of MR would cause a few people to actually think about what they are doing to their kids - and maybe the kids would be a lot healthier for it. Zeynep - your comments are ridiculous. People write for many reasons - and communicating opinion or useful information is at least as valuable as "emptying your brain".
Posted by: Little MR at June 24, 2006 7:54 PM
Zeynap,
You do not even know April's mom so it is irrational for you to believe you know what her motives are for doing ANYTHING. However, you do make your own motives clear everytime you post: pointless disruption, disrespect, and egomania. If you never post here again it will be too soon.
LG
Posted by: Laura Gomez at June 25, 2006 4:30 PM
What a great letter! I became a mom 11 months ago, and am ALREADY battling family members who want to give my son cookies and ice cream (this started even before he had teeth).
Posted by: Kerry at June 25, 2006 8:17 PM
Kerry- stories like that are so scary and sad... I hope there will be a cultural shift soon- the average person taking nutrition more seriously.
Posted by: Jessica at June 28, 2006 9:41 AM
I applaud the writer of that letter. Such messages are necessary, and a lot of people out there reading that magazine might very well be ignorant that anthing but gak is even possible to feed their kids, or if they know, they may feel themselves powerless to act. Information is power.
Posted by: gregg m. at June 30, 2006 9:06 PM
I had a neighbour who was 360lbs and 5ft. small frame, Diabetic and hole in heart supposedly. Been told by the school not to send her 6 year old with white bread sandwiches and chips and candy and cookies and Kool-aid. Offended she was, but what they didn't know was the other part of the day, Ichiban for supper, fried eggs, or just a bowl of rice smothered in soya sauce or my favorite one homemade french fries and chicken nuggets actually deep fried or once in awhile a hamburger. If they went out it was a Hamburger & Fries or Nuggets & Fries. I babysat this girl and tried to feed her our families dinner and she outright refused to eat. When her Mom came home she never made her eat threatened her took her home and I could smell the Ichiban. Breakfast What's that I could clearly see nothing on the counter but Sugar or the kid would have toast. She never had milk or juice or fruit or vegetables. What floored me was this child sees a pediatrician and he gives her a green light every visit. And now they have diagnosed the child with ADHD = it's not the child= it's bad parenting in 90% of the parents I have seen and poor nutrition and too much sugar!!!!!!! NO SUGAR, SALT or FAT what's good for US is good for our kids! After all they are just growing and the brain stem and the spinal cord and bones can't grow properly on sugarand salt and blubber. Our parents were killing us.
Posted by: Shannan at February 14, 2007 5:22 PM