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Jamie Dunn
English 101.07/Stahl
Unit III Research Paper
December 10, 2010
The Child Diet Solution
An awful truth has just been realized in the United States by yet another set of parents: their child is obese. Looking into their darling’s future they can already predict what kind of behavior their child will be forced to endure. Their child will be labeled “fat” and undergo continuous scrutiny and ridicule from their peers. They will face ever increasing social, psychological, and physical trials as they mature. No parents want that for their child, so they would do whatever they could to improve their child’s chances at a healthy fulfilling future. For some parents this means placing their child on a restrictive food regimen. For others it leads them to evaluate the entire family’s habits. There is no question that childhood obesity must be dealt with. The issue lies in which method benefits a child more: restricting their diet so that they are prevented from eating too much and therefore putting on excess weight, or slowly adjusting along with a child in support of a new healthy lifestyle? After evaluating child development and the effectiveness of dieting at a young age, the answer seems clear. Solely placing a child on a diet is not the answer to solving child obesity; the solution lies in the habits and lifestyle modeled by a child’s parents.
There are certain merits to overseeing how much and what types of food a child is putting into their mouth. A parent’s job is to instruct them which foods have more merit and value than others. So it makes sense to monitor which foods a child is consuming since young children establish their food preferences early on in their development. Tutoring a child’s taste buds early to become accustomed to the foods that will benefit them most makes the choice to eat healthily familiar, and not so much a task as an ingrained habit. Anna Lappe in her book Diet for a Hot Planet says that “branding can be so powerful that it actually changes how we perceive taste” (45). If while a child is growing up it is emphasized that certain foods should be given more attention than others, it changes his/her perception of food. If this is used constructively in the interests of health it may cause a child to reach automatically for a vegetable instead of a cookie at snack time. Such influence at a young age may prevent a child from developing eating habits that may negatively affect their overall health later.
It is especially important to supervise what a child eats given that the percentage of obese children is increasing annually and at progressively younger ages. Pediatrician Dr. William Sears, interviewed in the article “Shaping your Family’s Eating Habits”, warns that along with obesity, children are developing health conditions that used to only be thought of as concerns for adults. More and more commonly children are developing conditions such as high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and high cholesterol (Schipani 52). In order to help prevent such health risks from happening it is wise to establish a healthy diet for a child early on because as stated in The Handbook of Pediatric Nutrition, “The older the child, the less likely it is that he or she will outgrow obesity due to slowed weight gain, weight maintenance, or weight loss” (Queen 560). If parents wait until the child is already obese or has developed health concerns such as high blood pressure, it may be too late to successfully alter their habits long term.
There is another positive to controlling a child’s dietary intake from a young age. The food that children ingest has a direct effect on their behavior and learning capability in school. The brain is especially influenced by the nutrients a child takes in. Dr. Sears--interviewed in the article “Foods for Thought”-- states: “Science tells us that children who start the day with a brainy breakfast—high in protein and good carbs, like yogurt and oatmeal—make higher grades, pay better attention, and are better behaved at school” (Friedman 98). All parents want their children to do well in school, so in the interests of their children’s success it would be beneficial to make sure their kids are living up to their full potential as sponges by giving their brains sufficient access to the right types of food. True, children should not be loading their bodies with junk food since as Sears puts it, “you put junk food in the child’s brain, you get back junk behavior and junk learning” (98), but children should not be placed on a specific regimen in order to promote maximum performance in school.
While it is necessary to monitor what a child eats it is not necessary to tell them specifically what they can and cannot eat on a given day according to a calculated food regimen. A well-fed child may not even have to worry about how much of any one food they consume. The online article “A Vitamin a Day” sponsored by the American Academy of Pediatrics explains that kids don’t need to eat nearly as much of certain food groups as some may think in order to get a sufficient supply of nutrients. Due to a child’s capability of storing nutrients for long periods of time they don’t have to replenish a specific nutrient supply every day (Jana). Dr. Steven Dowshen in his article “Is Dieting OK for Kids?” agrees that strict diets are not necessary to correct childhood obesity: “All children need to do if they are overweight is to eat more nutrient rich foods and become more active...” Since children are still growing, often an increase in height is all that’s needed to solve a weight issue. There is significant value in physical activity and natural growth that makes a specific regimen unnecessary.
There may be certain benefits to supervising a child’s dietary intake but not only are specific restrictions unnecessary but they can prove to be dangerous as well. The pressure put on children by today’s media to have a slim figure can seriously damage a child’s image of themselves, so when told by the people they love that they need to go on a diet because they weigh too much, it further intensifies the notion that a slim figure is more important than the overall health of the child. This presents a dangerous message to young children that can result in unhealthy tendencies or even disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. As stated in the Evaluation and Management of Eating Disorders, “Food…has been equated with love” (Clark 51). When a child associates certain foods with the loving care of their parents and then has those foods taken away, a child may see this restriction as a denial of love unless they have their weight under control. The Evaluation and Management of Eating Disorders goes on to point out that this may lead to serious issues with resentment and anger towards their parents due to the stress caused by dieting (Clark 53-54). The last thing a child needs when dealing with weight issues is to feel alienated and judged by their family. Psychological effects such as a negative self image, family alienation, and possible eating disorders are not the only negative risks of restrictive childhood dieting.
Restrictive dieting can also provoke serious physical effects. It is not wise to place a child under a diet that is not catered specifically to them because, as explained in the Handbook of Pediatric Nutrition, children have a diverse range of nutritional needs due to their own individual traits which may include their rate and stage of growth, physical activity, body size, and any state of illness they may be undergoing (Queen 146). Every child is different, so how can he or she be expected to conform to a diet that is supposed to reduce weight in general? No it’s not good for a child to hit puberty as early as seven years old due to obesity, but is it really worth restricting their diet to slim them down when it may just cause an equally serious effect? In an article found in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, it explains that in the United States, restrictive dieting often is the cause of delayed puberty and altered growth resulting in short stature (Rogol 524S). While obesity may cause early pubertal development and other health concerns, strict diets causing malnutrition lead to shortened stature and delayed puberty. Is one of these situations really less harmful than the other? To help ensure that health risks posed by either obesity or malnutrition do not occur, a child’s diet must incorporate a good blend and variety of healthy choices. However, these healthy choices must not be the child’s responsibility alone. The weight to make the healthful food choices must be shouldered by the family as well.
By simply strolling around a public place like the mall and observing the various families milling about, it is notable that often obese parents have obese children. It has been argued that genetics do contribute in part to the likelihood of a child becoming overweight, but with a simple comparison of the habits shared by parent and child, it becomes clear that a child’s home environment plays a significant part in their attitude about and consumption of food. As with any other aspect of a child’s life, for example academics and future goals, it is much easier to be successful when backed by the support of one’s family. It’s not such a difficult task to formulate new eating habits when children witness the same practices in their role models. As described in the book Evaluation and Management of Eating Disorders, while a child grows they develop an understanding of the role food plays in their family by noticing which foods are special treat foods, the value placed on mealtimes, and general preferences (Clark, 19). Parents have a significant influence on their children’s eating habits without enforcing a specific diet on them. Speaking from personal experience children will eat whatever is available in the house, so if there are only healthy items available, they have no choice but to avoid foods high in fat and sugar. At least for the first few years of development a parent can—in a sense—construct their child’s eating habits. “Desire is constructed—food companies spend billions to construct it” states Anna Lappe in her book Diet for a Hot Planet (44). Parents can use this knowledge to their advantage without needing to spend billions of dollars.
Too many of America’s children are obese or facing serious health problems not usually experienced until much later in life. Either that or they’re precipitating self-imposed malnutrition due to a fear of being fat. If parents sincerely want to give their children the best opportunity to live long lives filled with potential, the answer lies in modifying the entire family’s lifestyle, not just the child’s. This commitment would dramatically increase the chances of a child developing healthy lasting eating habits. Children should be brought up on the knowledge that it’s not so much what they eat as how much of it and the amount of physical activity there is to balance it out. Children face enough psychological trials as they grow; they really don’t need the added stress of counting calories and worrying about whether or not they weigh too much. They deserve the opportunity to be children and explore their nutritional likes and dislikes free of pressure from their parents or the media.