The War On Fat Kids

From a letter to the editors of the Wall Street Journal, in response to a report from the Institute of Medicine that states the federal government and the food industry aren't doing enough to combat child obesity:

Why should taxpayers be saddled with yet another task force and more government programs to combat childhood obesity when the two causes of this epidemic for the overwhelming majority of children are clear and agreed upon by all: an unhealthy diet coupled with a lack of appropriate exercise?

In the past, these behaviors were the responsibility of parents, who both monitored and modeled these activities for their children. Now, too many parents are unwilling to set aside the time and resources that it requires to prevent obesity in their own children. When my children were young, I sacrificed time, income and career advancement to ensure that they exercised on a daily basis, ate a well-balanced diet and learned to prepare healthy food for themselves.

Now that my children are grown, I, as a taxpayer, resent being asked to take on this responsibility for other parents by paying for more studies and government programs for remedies that are obvious to all. Similarly, I am fed up with the liberal agenda that makes parents the "victims" of television advertising about non-nutritious foods and the downsizing of school-based physical-education programs.

Parents need to recognize that their children's health is their responsibility, whether that means modeling a healthy lifestyle, preparing nutritious food, or assuming a more active role in schools to reverse the trends of unhealthy food choices and the elimination of physical-education programs. Our precious health dollars should be targeted toward the diseases for which we don't understand causes and cures. For the vast majority of obese children, both the cause and the cure are apparent, and both are modifiable by parents.

I agree with the letter writer, except about the characterization of the "liberal agenda." It is a common trait of all Americans to expect the guvmint to tackle society-wide problems; as well they should, since democratic government, at its best, represents the efforts of collective will. In fact, what this letter writer rails against is what our society, and our goverment task forces, should address: crappy parenting.

So, what to do? The dominant "liberal agenda" notwithstanding, no cultural force is going to make corporations stop aggressively advertising junk food to kids and their parents. And compulsory exercise already exists in most public schools in the form of gym class; extending gym through legislative mandate is politically infeasible, if not unenforceable. What this requires is creativity. How abou tax credits for parents of skinny kids? Annual child body-mass measurements, with mandatory parenting classes for moms and dads of fat kids?

There must be other great ideas out there, short of eugenics. Anyone?