Thread: Food Regulations???? A wee bit of a rant....

It's like we're trying SO hard to fight so many things here, but we won't fight this?! and it's KILLING people. It's killing YOUNG people... And people think it's okay. It's so sad really.

SO very true. It's like you wrote exactly what was in my mind. I've noticed too that with youngins like your nephew, people think it's cute when they have a big appetite, and the more they'll eat, the cuter it is. She probably thinks it's great that he can eat a full McD's meal by himself. Parents get the notion that everything their offspring does is cute and harmless because they're "babies", or "kids". But truth is, they're setting their kids up for a very difficult and unhealthy future. But then like you said, if you say anything about it, you're the bad guy. And they start the "don't tell me how to raise my kid" or the "you don't have kids so you don't understand what it's like" nonsense.

And yeah...we're so concerned with everyone's "rights"......but what about the rights of children to have a chance at a healthy happy life? I mean really...it's sad. Who is fighting for the rights of children? They do not know the impact of their food/diet choices at age 6 (and Lord knows not at age 18 months), and some have no say so over what they eat or don't eat. And the current state out of country in regards to childhood obesity proves that this IS a problem. If only more people could see the big picture.

I did not grow up here in the US. My family is poor and we lived planting native veggies and using them in our meals. Everyday, in every meal, it's all green, with rice, some fish, and if you're lucky, once in a while, you'd be able to taste some beef or pork in a meal during weekends.

During those times, as young and immature as I was, I thought my family was punishing me, that my parents didn't love me, how come other kids get to eat much more meat than I used to, etc....But that's all there was - because they couldn't afford it, even if my mom and dad were both employed, and in our small community, we were deemed as "rich"....haha, if they only knew.

I used to not like the taste of any veggie and I was skinny. Now, I'm in the US...wooo-hooo....lots of fast food, sodium-filled, fat-rich food! Yum! (I'm having a hard time maintaning my weight because of all those temptations - cheesecakes, etc...)

NOW, I tell my husband how I miss those days when I harvest from the backyard what I am cooking for dinner. we are trying very hard to do that here - in pots - for now. Eventually, and hopefully, we'll be able to have our own backyard greenhouse and grow our own veggies all year round.

Sometimes...it helps to be poor, I contemplate. Looking back in my childhood, we couldn't afford all those fast food, hence, we were forced to eat what we could afford. Just a ramble, as usual.

caterpillar - thanks for sharing your experience. I think everything you said is very valid in the reasons why we fight the battle of obesity so strongly in the US today. The problem is that now, unhealthy food is manufactured and sold SO cheaply that people can go out and grab a meal for the entire family for practically nothing........at the expense of their health. And this is where I think companies that sell/distribute/make food should be held to higher standards about what they can sell.

Growing your own garden takes diligence and work. Unfortunately, going to McDonald's doesn't. That's why it's time for people to start contributing to the greater good and paying attention to what they sell people.

Having food manufacturers to pay attention to what they sell, and have the consumers' health in mind would take a massive amount of miracle - legislation and enforcement would require so much $. It might take a while. For the meantime, schools play a part in this cry as well, but school cafeterias, to my observation is limited with what $ they are given to budget with, and so we could not "directly" blame them.

But, if schools integrate some awareness into their curriculum, and partner with parents, at least positive changes could be observed, but then again, it will take a long time.

I used to shock my students with what I eat in my classroom for lunch, only for me to discover that they don't know where veggies come from. They thought they're from the grocery stores ONLY! not from farms. They don't know how the plants themselves look like. How pathetic is that?

You're exactly right cat. There is no one place of blame. This is a societal issue that is going to require much more than just regulating toys in happy meals to fix. But it's a start in the right direction. We're now at a point where not only do children not know what vegetable plants look like, but their parents don't either because they too were raised on premade foods. We have poverty, we have people going without proper nutrition.......yet we have all this land we could grow crop on.

I tried my hand at gardening this year in pots. It's my first year in my home, have lived in apts since leaving home at 18. My pots didn't generate a plentiful garden. Next year, I'm going for a full fledged garden. It is one of my dreams to be able to have such a plentiful garden that I can just give people fresh food daily for free. The earth gives it to me for pretty much free....why not share the wealth?