The Obama administration has turned healthy eating into one of the hottest topics in the news today. The latest headline — a new symbol is about to be released – the Dinner Plate — to replace the familiar, but apparently confusing Food Pyramid. First Lady Michelle Obama has made it one of her priorities to combat childhood obesity and she has taken on some not so small battles such as the food marketers pushing their products to children, getting kids to exercise more and educating families on healthier eating.
It’s inspiring. But it drives home an important fact about the way we live today. We have lost our way. We don’t know how much is too much, what is healthy, what is not healthy . . . I remember one of the first headlines after Obama took office — it was about the Obama girls 8pm bedtime! Why? Because American families have neglected to enforce reasonable bed times for their children and as a result more kids have concentration and behavioral problems in school related to lack of sleep. So after educating us on the need for kids to have reasonable bed times, Michelle Obama is now helping us to understand portions — how much to eat of each type of food.
Could Internet use be next on her agenda? I hope so! With most parents not playing any role in setting rules about how much time children can be online and what they are permitted to do online, the Internet is having a profoundly negative effect on our children’s lives. Don’t misunderstand – - I am not suggesting that the Internet itself is bad or that children should be online. I am suggesting that similarly to how parents get lost amidst all of the advertising and SuperSizing going on with nutrition and diet, parents are lost in the confusion of technology, social networking, online homework, mobile gadgets, etc. it’s hard to know how much time a child should be allowed to be online, what to allow and what to block, what’s healthy, what’s dangerous. And once they have a Smartphone, how can you even have visibility into their time spent in Cyberspace?
On the Let’s Move Facebook page, Michelle Obama says: “I am determined to work with folks across this country to change the way a generation of kids thinks about food, nutrition and physical activity.” I want to suggest we start acting on the Internet front as well, before it is too late. The obesity epidemic should be a warning to how devastating it can be to allow a nation to develop unhealthy lifestyle habits.
