I can't remember exactly where I found it but I read an article recently that talked about Jamie Oliver, the chef, going into a public school system either` here or the U.K. and asking the kids how often they drank water. There was a large percentage that said, "Never" and even more who said, "Less than 16oz per day!" I also came across an article about attempts by some people to get vending machines removed from schools. There was a picture (I've tried but can't find it again) of parents and lower elementary aged kids picketing with signs proclaiming their "right" to twinkies when they want them. Honestly, when did twinkies become a right and not a privilege? I went through 12 years of public school without ever having the option of buying a candy bar, snack cake or soda pop on school property. Well, except during sporting events at the snack bar. Since when do kids have an actual need or right to have 24/7 access to junk food? And when did parents stop givnig their kids water to drink? I'll tell you how to figure out the answers to those questions. You can make a little timeline that leads directly from when those things started happening to when obesity rates for children in grade school started going through the roof and childhood diabetes became common instead of rare as it was when I was a kid. If I was techie enough, I would love to make you a graph showing the rates of heart disease and diabetes and the age of onset. Those were diseases of the lederly when I was a kid. Now they strike people my age (51) and younger every dang day. Our kids and grandkids will be experiencing heart disease, stroke and diabetes in their 20s and younger. Authorities predict that this generation of children will die younger than their parents. I suspect that my grandkids generation will die far younger.
The big food companies have spent a fortune creating an entire society addicted to harmful substances in the food. Parents are so steeped in the hogwash that passes for nutritional wisdom that they don't even realize they are raising their children to die young. "We deserve Twinkies!" You have a right to them and I, as a Libertarian would never use the law to inhibit your right to choose. But I feel so bad for the children. And there is a big difference between your right to choose those things and society's responsibility to provide access to them 24/7. You have a right to smoke but we don't have to put cigarette machines in all our public buildings to make sure you have ready access to them at all times. So no, I don't think it is right to have junk food vending machines in the schools. Trust me the people who are egging that trend on (and it is a trend - a pretty recent one) are the people who want to make darn good and sure that your children and grandchildren are well and truly hooked on all the most addictive substances in food by the time they have their own income to contribute to the wealth of those companies. Don't believe me? Take a peek at this...
Yes, that is a toddler vending machine. They say it will be filled with only healthy, nutritious snacks. Well, good for them:/ Problem one - unless you are tending that thing daily, it isn't going to have things all that healthy. Maybe things that pass for healthy nowadays but really healthy? No. Because truly healthy things don't keep for long in a vending machine. If they do keep truly healthy, stuff in there it will be expensive. Promise. So poor mom says, "I'm sorry honey, I can't afford that machine but I don't want you to feel left out so have a cupcake from this machine instead." God bless the few moms that will say, "No honey, we don't get our nutrition in a little foil wrapper from a machine. I want you to live a long and healthy life!"
Problem two and, in my mind, the bigger problem: it is just establishing a pattern of behavior that suits the companies like Pepsico and Frito Lay quite nicely thank you. Let's get our nutrition a prepackaged ounce at a time from a machine. We deserve it! Can't we teach kids they deserve something MUCH better!
I was a victim of one of the earlier and most successful campaigns of this kind. Pepsico and CocaCola companies successfully converted my entire generation to drinking nothing but pop all day every day. Hence, my generation is no stranger to many, many 300, 400 and 500 pound people. I never met a person over 300 pounds in my life until I was an adult! And women over 200 pounds were quite rare. Now a good half the women I know are over 200 lbs. And over 300 is common as dirt. My kids drink water, thank you. And since discovering that Naked and Bolthouse are owned by Pepsico and Cocacola respectively, we don't buy those either. These companies have a vested interest in making you crave their products. And until people understand that and realize the full implications of it, the outlook for the little ones is pretty dire. My grandkids are being taught what true nutrition is and what the human body thrives on and the consequences of living on poison. Are yours?
