Food is NOT the Cause of Childhood Obesity

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Food is NOT the Cause of Childhood Obesity

July 14th, 2010 by bgowland

“Lecturing people on how to live a healthy lifestyle can be counterproductive, unless individuals can be persuaded to change their behavior.”

It is no surprise that Jamie Oliver’s plan to eliminate childhood obesity did not go exactly as he intended. His main goals on the show “Food Revolution” were to change school meals, to teach cooking classes, and to encourage people to eat more meals at home. These goals may be desirable for a few families, but seem completely impractical for most people I know. First of all, changing school lunches would require a lot of government funding and may cause an increase in prices of lunches for students. Currently, many families rely on the inexpensive (sometimes free) meals and snacks that schools provide for their children.

Secondly, these families probably do not need cooking classes. I would imagine that they are choosing not to cook because of their busy schedules, lack of time, or simply because it is not enjoyable for them; not because they need to learn how to do it. Each of these goals seems more like preaching and less like dealing with the root of the problem, which may be the reason why there was a drastic decrease in the number of children eating cafeteria lunches in the particular schools that were targeted. I do not think this was the outcome that Oliver hoped for.

More importantly, none of these changes address the relationship with food. In order for a change to withstand the test of time, it must be behavioral. By telling children (and adults) that certain foods are good and others are bad, it sets up a negative dichotomy. Children are told, or forced, to restrict certain foods, which will cause them to inherently sneak, hide, and binge these forbidden foods.

Another problem that is not addressed regarding school lunches is the short amount of time that students are given to eat. When they are rushed, they tend to eat everything on their plate, without taking the time to notice if they are even still hungry or if they are already full. This causes children to overeat, which can be considered a major cause of childhood obesity, not the types of food that the children are eating.

So what should be done to manage childhood obesity?

Deal with the relationship with food
Encourage schools to allow more time for lunch
Seek the advice of a skilled dietitian

3 Responses

Myrtis Kumar writes:
December 30th, 2010 at

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Amber writes:
January 31st, 2011 at

“More importantly, none of these changes address the relationship with food.”

I think Jamie’s goal definitely touches on people’s relationships with food. I absolutely think an issue is that people don’t know how to cook – especially young adults. Being “too busy” is not a valid excuse, health and family = happiness. If those of are value to you, you will MAKE time. Time to learn to cook, teach our children how to cook and spend time as a family at the dinner table. The Food Revolution is not just centered around food but it’s also centered around family values.

I definitely agree on the timing of school lunches. If anything we can make an attempt to make it easier for students to eat their lunches (cutting up oranges and other fresh fruits or avoid excessive packaging).

School lunches are hurting, school in general is hurting it’s about time *anyone* is taking notice.
Crystal writes:
February 23rd, 2011 at

Contrary to what Food Network would like you to believe, you don’t need them to know how to cook. Cooking is nothing more than the “fine art” of heating food. It is actually possible to eat a balanced diet without cooking at all (I’ve done it before, if you don’t count heating oats with water in the microwave as cooking.) Also, I find it funny that most of the time people in poverty are targeted as supposedly having horrible diets that consist of fast food and have children that would depend upon cafeteria food for sustenance, yet any sort of show like Jaimie Oliver’s comes on a cable/satellite channel that poor people can’t afford to watch. I don’t even have a TV. Jaimie Oliver is a classist %&^@$*^&! or something haha. Also, some people really DON’T have time to cook. Some people work WAY more than 40 hrs. a week. The person who commented above me and Jaimie Oliver both don’t seem to understand what it is like to be overworked/underpaid and how that affects what you eat. You’re lucky if you have a family, let alone a family who is all at home at dinnertime.