Is junk food child abuse?

reply to post by Freedom_is_Slavery


Yeah, I agree it's not really a UK v USA thing.

But, then again, if you've ever been over to the US, then you will realise that they are very large people.

I'm not just talking about Americans being fat; they are - on average - disgustingly obese, and they don't even seem to care about it !

Outrageous !

I think the price of junk food is also a problem, its so cheap.
They should impose a higher tax on it like cigarettes, make it harder to buy.

Would giving your children cigarettes or alcohol be considered child abuse? Absolutely.

In the USA (United States of Adipose Tissue), complications from obesity kill more Americans than both combined.

I don't believe that giving your child unhealthy food once in a while should be considered child abuse. That would be an Orwellian and inhumane form of punishment for both children and parents. However, if your kids are seriously overweight or struggling with health issues and you continue to take them to McDonald's every day, then you are basically killing them. If that's not child abuse than I'm not sure what is.

The main problem is that this is almost impossible to legislate. I agree with other posters in that we should ban fast food advertisements to children, and ensure that we regulate what types of foods are available to children in schools. Just taking these steps could vastly improve our society's general health without infringing on individual liberty.

The govt will be installing body fat scales in your house by 2016, putting fat metering RFID chips in your family. they will also be adding a 25% tax on all meat products with over 2% fat content, 60% tax on anything deemed to be mainly surgar, 10% tax on anything with a salt content over 1%.

If you or any of your family member go over their daily calorie intake, there is a $300 fine and that family member will have to get a stomach pump done. There is also a $100 fine if they do not eat the daily required amount of vegetables, fish/chicken/beef, eggs, 8 glasses of water. Bacon, candy, chocolate requires a licence and must be bought from an approved govt. depot.

Being in possesion of items containing transfat is a 3 day prison stay and sticks of real butter will land you in a long line up for your lethal injection.

I personally think they would if they could, they would be losing out on gas tax profit as it take more gas to move heavier people.

www.youtube.com... I think alot of people need to watch/rewatch Demolition man again.

I eat just food myself, though I wouldn't give it to my child. I can say I'm a bit addicted to that stuff...

reply to post by JohnPhoenix


No problems i didn't really know how it all worked either

I don't see how its child abuse, it's not like these parents are deliberately trying to harm their own children. Their simple doing what they think is best as a parent and that's their right.

Why should somebody else tell me what I can and cannot feed my own child? The only thing I think the government should do is try to educate parents and children on proper nutrition, that's all.

Anything else would be ridiculous. I mean what are you going to do? fine parents if they give their children a happy meal? It's pathetic ;p

I think theres a line to be drawn between only feeding your child junk food at meal times (I knew a guy whose daughters sole diet was MacDonalds) and giving your child junk food occasionally.
Some kids rarely get anything other than crisps, chocolate and sweets and get them all day every day. Some kids don't get anything like it at all, and are fed home cooked made from scratch meals every day.
The parents that only feed their kids fast food are, in my opinion, ridiculous. It's far more rewarding (not to mention cheaper) to cook a meal and have the whole family enjoy it. For the price of one family to eat fast food for ONE meal, I could feed my family for a week if I needed to.
I'm not against giving kids treats once in a while, but a line does have to be drawn between occasionally (ie once a fortnight or when they've earned them) and 'occasionally' (three times a week)

If it's child abuse to give a kid junk food, than that opens the door to all kinds of things.

It's murder to drive a car, since you are polluting carcinogens all over the place.

Letting a kid go outside is murder too, because the air is so polluted that they may get lung cancer one day.

Letting a kid have a glass of water is murder too, since there are so many pollutants found in drinking water globally these days, especially pharmaceuticals.

You see where I am going here?

You are damned if you do, and damned if you don't.

Originally posted by Sherlock Holmes
reply to post by Freedom_is_Slavery

 

Yeah, I agree it's not really a UK v USA thing.

But, then again, if you've ever been over to the US, then you will realise that they are very large people.

I'm not just talking about Americans being fat; they are - on average - disgustingly obese, and they don't even seem to care about it !

Outrageous !

That is just ignorant prejudice based on your preconceived notions imo.

I am an American and I am 5 foot 11 inches tall. And I weigh roughly 125 lbs. So I am kind of small.
I eat like twice a day though. That is probably why.

My wife is American and is the same build as myself. And our two children are also of the same build.

So in my household you are 100% incorrect.

reply to post by mushrooms


It's a parents right to allow their kids to eat themselves to obesity which will have a lifelong effect on their health? I have to disagree there. I agree that parents should have the right to feed their kids what they want, but only up to the point where it starts harming the health of the child.

It is most certainly abuse to do that to a child who doesn't know any better. If an adult wants to kill his/her self with food then I have no problem with that, but to do it to a child is definitely abuse. Just because the effects of that abuse take years to appear does not make it any less a form of abuse.

reply to post by Freedom_is_Slavery


Yes too much is a form of child abuse in young children. Except in circumstances where medical issues cause obesity children under the age of about 11 years should not be fat ...... period. If they are it is the parents fault!

Once a child gets older than 11 they start to make their own lifestyle choices. If a child is in a healthy weight range before eleven and develops obesity in their teens in most cases it is the child's fault. Not the parents!

I have friends who are overweight but their young children are not. That is because they feed them responsibly and ensure they get proper exercise! So yes too much junk food is a form of child abuse!

Is junk food child abuse? No, of course not. Is being a careless parent and buying your child and stuffing it's face with that crap child abuse? maybe. I think the child abusers are the ones that make all this unhealthy garbage, and the ones that allow it to be made. If people want to do something about overweight children and people in general then they should get off their lazy posteriors and stop the production of this crap, then there wouldn't be threads like this.

I wouldnt blame junk food, i would blame parents who cant control their kids eating habits. (Or maybe even too big allowance so they CAN buy it) But then again i like junk food and i'm more of a skinny guy actually.

Stumbled upon this article also few days ago.
www.uihealthcare.com...

Originally posted by JudasIscariot
I think the price of junk food is also a problem, its so cheap.
They should impose a higher tax on it like cigarettes, make it harder to buy.

I think this is a great idea but some people will call it creating a "nanny state." Presumably we have a right to kill ourselves with toxic substances if we want to and in that light it is hypocritical to make all my favorite drugs illegal.

reply to post by Freedom_is_Slavery


To all the "junk food parent" haters...
When was the last time you were at a school an ate one of their "nutrition" based meals? That so called meat was so over processed, it took my stomach 3 days to stop cramping. I was shocked at the way the meat looked and tasted. It would have been easier on my stomach if I had been there on what the kids call "pizza day".

So, since you are all blaming the parents I wanted to provide you with a little more information. Making a "balanced" decision on whos fault something is should only be attempted when you have as many facts about the situation as possible.
No, I am not blaming the school, they make decisions based on the same limited food choices and budget as most parents do these days.
In fact, I'm not trying to blame anyone or say they don't deserve to be parents. We are all doing the best we can with what we have.
My question would be, what are any of you doing to help bring real light to this problem and find a solution?

Answer for the benefit of the parents that you've just hung up in the tree for everyone to poke at. If you are going to put yourself in a place to pass judgement then you better have a plan to help them change, or you become a tool used to divide and control. Still can't see how fruitless this "witch hunt" is? Then you are probably in it for the "hunt", not the "salvation" of the children.

If you "need" to pass judgement on someone, then go find something in your own life that needs to be changed and stop putting random people on trial with the very limited information you have concerning their lives.

Originally posted by Sherlock Holmes
reply to post by Freedom_is_Slavery

 

Yeah, I agree it's not really a UK v USA thing.

But, then again, if you've ever been over to the US, then you will realise that they are very large people.

I'm not just talking about Americans being fat; they are - on average - disgustingly obese, and they don't even seem to care about it !

Outrageous !

I'm on the other side of your anger, I am very skinny. You would look at me and say something to the effect that I must be on drugs. To you, I would be a product of the "american drug problem". That is because you would just lump me into your "US" vs "them" mind set.

I was wondering why everyone was parent bashing with no real help or suggestions on how to change. Now I know, go about what you are doing. It is fruitless to reach out to anyone with such division in their heart.

Originally posted by Bosko
reply to post by mushrooms

 

It's a parents right to allow their kids to eat themselves to obesity which will have a lifelong effect on their health? I have to disagree there. I agree that parents should have the right to feed their kids what they want, but only up to the point where it starts harming the health of the child.

It is most certainly abuse to do that to a child who doesn't know any better. If an adult wants to kill his/her self with food then I have no problem with that, but to do it to a child is definitely abuse. Just because the effects of that abuse take years to appear does not make it any less a form of abuse.

I know what your saying, but it's not like these parents are physically forcing their children to eat this food, to call it abuse is a bit extreme don't you think?

Yes, parents should try to give their children a balanced diet, but at the end of the day it's up to them to decide what they think is best for their child. What would you have the government do? fine the parents if their child is overweight? take their children away? put the parents in prison? all because of what they feed their children? come on, it's just ridiculous ;p

There's more to it than just the parents as well, I mean what about these advertising companys and supermarkets that knowingly advertise to children and make millions doing it. Just look at the amount of products in your local supermarket that have cartoon characters as mascots, isn't it obvious that their trying to entice children? It can't be easy to say no if your child is crying at you in the middle of a busy supermarket.

And there's education, do parents and children know enough about nutrition? I remember watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution and seeing a kid that didn't know the difference between a potato and a tomato. In that same program, the school gave the children pizza for breakfast... and that's a school that gets their nutritional information directly from the government. If they can't get the nutrition right, then what hope do the parents have? ;p

Originally posted by wakeup2change
reply to post by Freedom_is_Slavery

 

If you "need" to pass judgement on someone, then go find something in your own life that needs to be changed and stop putting random people on trial with the very limited information you have concerning their lives.

Couldn't agree more! If you were to look in my shopping cart you'd see a lot of " junk" food and a lot of healthy food. The junk food is not for my kids, in fact most of it they won't even touch, they prefer veggies and fruit. The "junk" food is for my hubs because he has a sweet tooth ( he's also 6 ft tall weights in at less than 150lbs and can eat all the junk he wants and not put on a pound) . So if you were to judge me on my shopping cart contents alone that's not fair. If you were to judge me on a day when I was shopping with my 14yr old daughter with the contents of my shopping cart, again not fair even thou she IS over weight that's still not a case of me feeding her "junk" food that's a case of her being on medication that put her severely over weight. Even though she no longer takes those medications and has lost over 50lbs she's still a little over weight for her age. All my other kids are healthy weights for their ages, in fact my 12yr old is a little under weight and I was actually TOLD by his Dr. to give him MORE sugary snacks to help him gain some weight, things is he refuses to eat the extra sugary snacks I try to feed him because he doesn't like them!!!
I think it's more a lack of proper dietary education, lack of money and just poor parenting choices rather than abuse. It does not take a brain surgeon to figure this out, educate the parents, make healthy foods cheaper than "junk" foods and slowly the over weight kids will become healthy weight kids.

I was raised by my Grandmother and she was a very good cook.....no TV dinners in her house!....Every night for dinner we would have a full course meal including dessert.....which was always home-made and just one serving. I was always given an abundance of various meats. fish ..poultry,,,vegetables and fruit......once in a while I would have some potato chips with a sandwich.....or a cup cake ...but always in moderation.

If a child;s daily menu is mainly junk food....this is certainly wrong and shows neglect by the parents or caregivers.