Hi, great read. I 100% support your stance on how bad diets are for people generally, and horrible for kids. I can quibble about some minor points, i.e. racism take, but small beans compared to the overall point. Parents blame so much on their kids, without ever looking at how their unhealthy eating habits are killing their kids. Diets for kids usually mean processed food, microwaves and deprivation. three strikes right there. How about eating food that the family prepares together? Don't give me the no-time excuse, get your ass out of the Starbucks line for 30 minutes everyday. Meal prep on Sundays instead of sleeping until noon. Make a beet smoothie everyday. Buy Ramen soup packs and add a bunch of fresh veggies, kids love doing that. Deconstruct a salad, and let kids re-construct it. Make individual Boboli pizzas. Make a fresh taco bar, or baked potato bar, with all veggie toppings kids can choose. Kids are obese because of their parents laziness. Period. I write about a lot of this at riclexel.substack.com
Hi Ric. There is a lot of parent-shaming in this comment, which I work hard to keep out of this space. Not everyone has the time, bandwidth or resources to cook (and lots of us don't like beet smoothies!). And sleeping late or going to Starbucks are not activities we need to demonize. I also suspect you've misunderstood my goal here: I'm not trying to "stop childhood obesity." I'm trying to support parents as they navigate diet culture and fatphobia. Thanks.
HI Virginia, Thanks for replying. I slept on your comments and reread mine a few times. I can agree with your interpretation, although it wasn't the goal of my commentary. If I remove the shaming and blaming, the point remains valid - parents are the first responders when it comes to their child's health, including dietary health, notwithstanding lack of the necessities as you describe them, which I myself have been lacking at times in my life. That being said, I find myself out of work the past year, and suffering from mild food insecurity. I have visited the food bank many times during this crisis, just today in fact. Your goal of supporting parents navigating diet culture and fatphobia is a worthy one. My oldest daughter was fat-shamed by her pediatrician, who encouraged her to eat more salads, at age 10!. And my mom is of the generation that gave the skinny grand daughter a sundae, and the chubby grand daughter a bowl of jello. so I get where you are coming from. But I do feel that many kids are completely let down by their parents as it relates to food. And I believe everyone can cook. And I love a London Fog from Starbucks and sleeping in half a day, but just not at the expense of my kids health!
Thanks so much for sharing all of this, Ric. I appreciate your thoughtfulness and I'm so sorry to hear you're struggling with being out of work, etc. It's such a touch time for so many people!
Hi, great read. I 100% support your stance on how bad diets are for people generally, and horrible for kids. I can quibble about some minor points, i.e. racism take, but small beans compared to the overall point. Parents blame so much on their kids, without ever looking at how their unhealthy eating habits are killing their kids. Diets for kids usually mean processed food, microwaves and deprivation. three strikes right there. How about eating food that the family prepares together? Don't give me the no-time excuse, get your ass out of the Starbucks line for 30 minutes everyday. Meal prep on Sundays instead of sleeping until noon. Make a beet smoothie everyday. Buy Ramen soup packs and add a bunch of fresh veggies, kids love doing that. Deconstruct a salad, and let kids re-construct it. Make individual Boboli pizzas. Make a fresh taco bar, or baked potato bar, with all veggie toppings kids can choose. Kids are obese because of their parents laziness. Period. I write about a lot of this at riclexel.substack.com
Hi Ric. There is a lot of parent-shaming in this comment, which I work hard to keep out of this space. Not everyone has the time, bandwidth or resources to cook (and lots of us don't like beet smoothies!). And sleeping late or going to Starbucks are not activities we need to demonize. I also suspect you've misunderstood my goal here: I'm not trying to "stop childhood obesity." I'm trying to support parents as they navigate diet culture and fatphobia. Thanks.
HI Virginia, Thanks for replying. I slept on your comments and reread mine a few times. I can agree with your interpretation, although it wasn't the goal of my commentary. If I remove the shaming and blaming, the point remains valid - parents are the first responders when it comes to their child's health, including dietary health, notwithstanding lack of the necessities as you describe them, which I myself have been lacking at times in my life. That being said, I find myself out of work the past year, and suffering from mild food insecurity. I have visited the food bank many times during this crisis, just today in fact. Your goal of supporting parents navigating diet culture and fatphobia is a worthy one. My oldest daughter was fat-shamed by her pediatrician, who encouraged her to eat more salads, at age 10!. And my mom is of the generation that gave the skinny grand daughter a sundae, and the chubby grand daughter a bowl of jello. so I get where you are coming from. But I do feel that many kids are completely let down by their parents as it relates to food. And I believe everyone can cook. And I love a London Fog from Starbucks and sleeping in half a day, but just not at the expense of my kids health!
Keep writing and I will keep reading!
Ric
Thanks so much for sharing all of this, Ric. I appreciate your thoughtfulness and I'm so sorry to hear you're struggling with being out of work, etc. It's such a touch time for so many people!