Should You Let Your Kids Eat Junk Food?

By Tana Ganeva, AlterNet. Posted January 12, 2009.

The assault on food is just another assault on liberty from the pseudo-compassionate you'll-be-healthy-whether-you-like-it-or-not crowd … The agenda of these self-appointed arbiters of everyone's health is to kill us all with kindness--not a literal death, but a spiritual death. They want to siphon every last drop of fun and indulgence out of existence as part of a vast anti-hedonistic philosophy that holds collective health as being more valuable that individual choice.

But many readers disagree. After all, isn't it a parent's responsibility to protect their kids' health?

Naoma highlights the advantages of teaching your kids to eat healthy;

Years ago I had someone leave their child with me for a day. My daughter was used to eating only healthy foods -- no white bread, no snacks, etc. This "visitor" proceeded to go to the refrigerator wanting snacks and could not find anything to eat. I said we eat at regular times and no snacks. He could not wait to leave with his parents the next day. I still eat healthy -- no white bread, fructose or palm oil in any food. And I read every label. I am very healthy and so is my daughter.

Ladyoracle points to the terrible health problems many kids face as a result of eating too much junk:

Too much [junk food] can lead to childhood obesity and diabetes, and that is serious. Younger and younger kids are having hypertension and problems like that, which are linked to unhealthy food and being sedentary. Those lunches might be fine for the kids if they are active and eat well overall, but the writer goes too far to other extreme championing the cause of less healthy food, and I am left wondering if the writer doesn't protest a bit too much?

According to Sunnydaze, it's counterproductive to attack parents who keep their kids away from junk food:

It seems like the new attack is on those parents who are trying to back away from the junk food, from the chemically treated foods and the garbage often called food. Kids are getting thousands of messages every day that encourage them to eat junk food and at the same time are getting very little support or education on healthy eating and lifestyle. Of course the kids are going to go for the junk food, its filled with chemicals like MSG that would make you think cardboard tastes great! Its full of sugar and fat as well. This is an uphill battle for a parent so its extremely hard when you have other adults working against you and playing good guy by feeding the kid junk food and having no respect for your parenting choices.

But lizryan points that out it's in fact ‘food nazi parents' who make things harder for others to make the best decisions for their kids:

Where I live, food-nazi-momism is a popular lifestyle. "You'd let your kid EAT that?" is not viewed as an impolite question here, even when the answer is self-evident. "Crunchier than thou" is practically a religion. So, although I try to give my kids reasonably healthy things to eat, I make a point of politely backing up the would-be nutritional advisors when I encounter them. One mom (a total stranger) saw me buying the organic version of GoGurt -- that's yogurt in a tube -- at the grocery store, and admonished me, "That stuff has no nutritional value at all! It's just like pudding!" That, of course, prompted me to reply "Oh yes! Pudding is next on my list. Do you know which aisle it's in?" :-)

Let's continue the discussion. Is it criminal to let kids eat junk food, considering the child-obesity epidemic? Or should parents stop playing health-police? Has our safety culture gone too far?  More generally, what's the best way to teach kids the importance of eating healthy, enivornmentally sustainable food, without killing all the fun?

See more stories tagged with: health, parenting, food, organics, junk food, kids

Tana Ganeva is an editorial assistant at AlterNet.

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