Food Addiction as Bad For You as Tobacco?

[Jaymes]

I used to steal cigarettes from my parents. If you think kids of responsible parents aren't doing things behind their parents' backs, well, I have a bridge to sell to you.

Cute. But that was not my question. At all. My question was "do you think responsible parents would GIVE cigarettes or heroine to their children."

And, if not, why not?

[weinoo]

Actually, I'm more concerned with those same parents (as has been posited above) giving their kids that first lunchable. Because, as many of us know, it's that first drag, that first line, that first, dare I say it, lunchable, that gets one hooked.

[SylviaLovegren]

It's not that it's high in fat, sodium, carbs, etc. It's that it's BAD food. It doesn't taste good, it has no connection to real food or to the real animals and plants that it came from. Edible products (I won't call them "food") like Lunchables train kids to have no respect for that very important thing that all humans have to do, which is to eat.

It's tough to know who to "blame" for the sorry state of affairs that leads to anything like Lunchables.

But I used to work in an elementary school and saw what parents would send to school for a kid's lunch. Lunchables was bad, but not the worst. One mom used to send every day a lunchbox packed with 4 or 5 different kinds of cookies, 2 or 3 different candies and a juice box. That was it. I always wondered what the family's relationship to their dentist was.

[rotuts]

Society has the right and duty to encourage 'good' health. History has shown that to prohibit something one views as causing an illness would result in "Prohibition"

Bittman in the past had an article on sugar in cheap drinks: the point is not to prohibit them nor their size, but to make them costly.

The tobacco problems have decreased as a result of this tax, but have not been eliminated. The poor of course still suffer here and

the various bankrupt .GOV's enjoy this revenue and use it poorly.

The Tax argument fails on various items such as Cocaine and Crack, but Im not so sure it fails on Home

Grown Marijuana which would be taxed and licensed. The penalties for selling the HomeGrown or making it

available to minors would be severe.

Edited March 2, 2013 by rotuts (log)

[Jaymes]

Actually, I'm more concerned with those same parents (as has been posited above) giving their kids that first lunchable. Because, as many of us know, it's that first drag, that first line, that first, dare I say it, lunchable, that gets one hooked.

Well, it certainly didn't work that way with my kids. I only tried it a very few times, when I had a particularly stressful week coming up, and didn't want to deal with my usual method of having imaginative, tasty, nutrituous lunch stuff at the ready: ( http://forums.egullet.org/topic/72760-brown-baglunchbox-meals-for-kids-adults/?hl=%2Bthermos#entry110447 )

In fact, I got the "really, Mother?" eyeroll.

[rotuts]

I havent read through this whole thread as it would make me 'Pull a Cork' a bit on the early side.

then there is

Salt

[annabelle]

Certainly, the ideal is that all children will have healthy nutritious lunches packed by a loving mother in a committed, financially stable two parent household. This isn't the case, has never been the case and most likely won't ever be the case.

As Jaymes has stated above there are times when trying to make ends meet (timewise), someone moves the ends. A note about a field-trip found too late in a young child's backpack. A once in a lifetime visit with a famous person, et al. All of these have happened with my children. Life happens.