How to Reverse Childhood Obesity in the USA – Step #1

There are a number of reasons why America has a childhood obesity epidemic.

• The cost of healthy food
• The cost of un-healthy food
• The convenience factor of eating un-healthy food
• The fact that we are programmed to enjoy sweet, salty, fatty (un-healthy) foods
• The fact that un-healthy food producers know we are programmed to enjoy sweet, salty, fatty foods
• The fact that un-healthy food producers spend a lot of money convincing us to eat their un-healthy food
• The fact that our kids eat a large percentage of their meals at school and that up until now, our schools serve mainly unhealthy food.
• The fact that kids whine and cry about being forced to eat healthy food by their parents
• The fact that after a long, hard day, most parents don’t have the energy to fight with their kids about eating their veggies

And that’s only a small sampling of the reasons why America’s kids keep getting fatter & fatter.

So…how do we turn things around?

How do we reverse childhood obesity?

Step # 1

Kids are emotional.

They are not going to respond to a logical argument about how vegetables are good for them and that they should stop eating from that bag of chips and replace it with a handful of celery.

Not going to happen.

So….to combat all of the un-healthy food advertising being thrown at them every single day, we should begin with a healthy eating campaign aimed straight at their emotional little hearts.

And that’s exactly what Michelle Obama did with this video.

Little kids love Elmo.

And because of the immutable Law of Monkey See, Monkey Do, if Elmo eats healthy, our kids are going to want to eat healthy.

And if kids want to eat healthy, they are going to bug their parents about it.

And if kids bug their parents…day after day…families will start to eat healthier meals at home.

And when you combine healthy home-cooked meals with the healthier school meals promised by the new Childhood Nutrition Bill, you should end up with a lot of kids eating a lot more healthy food.

And that’s a good thing.

.

Related posts:

1. Do Your Part to Help Fight Childhood Obesity
2. Genetic Link to Childhood Obesity
3. Attention Parents: Your kids are going to die before you do…and it’s all your fault.
4. World Obesity Stats – 2010 and Beyond
5. Globalization of Obesity…Outsourcing Fat