Today's New York Daily News posted an article about Michelle Obama's campaign against obesity in children. Although I appreciate her interest in the problem, there are a few things that need to be added to the discussion.
First of all, Mrs. Obama has stated that when her daughters' pediatrician pointed out that their Body Mass Index (BMI) was higher than it should be, she made a few changes in the family diet and solved the problem. Seems logical enough. Why then, can't the average American citizen do the same thing (without government intervention)? Why is the government planning on spending $10 billion dollars to do what parents ought to be doing?
I have a few suggestions. Let's put recess back in our schools. In the era of political correctness and extreme self esteem policies, some schools have outlawed tag and dodge ball, games that force kids to move around. Part of the program to fight obesity has been to wean children off video games. That is not totally necessary. There are aerobic video games (wii fit has a few and I am sure there are others). If your child is playing video games, why not just change the games? Competition in team sports has come under attack; let's get it back. Let's tell our children to strive to be the fastest runner, the highest hurdler, etc. These programs should already be in our schools. Let's take the snack machines out of the schools. Let's also become educated consumers who read labels before we buy groceries.
The article in the Daily News went in a different, but totally valid direction. The article pointed out that part of the nutrition problems in this country are in poorer families who receive food stamps. The food stamp allowance is not enough to put healthy food on the table. Generally speaking, a well-balanced diet tends to be more expensive.
The article concludes:
"This whole thing reminds me of a chapter in a book Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) wrote a few years ago, in which he less than brilliantly proposed that we would reduce childhood obesity by putting even more restrictions on what families can buy with their food stamp benefits. Again, he made no mention of needing to increase how much families get - and suggested that children are fat because their parents choose the wrong foods.
"Enough sidestepping of the core issue. People need enough money to eat well. I'm tired of policymakers pretending to tackle social problems without giving up a penny to ordinary citizens."
I understand the author's point, but let's do something about helping lower income families find a way to get off food stamps. Our current war on poverty has obviously not worked, it's time for a total revision of the poverty programs we have in place, including an examination of the bureaucracy that supports them.
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