One thing I love about being part of a blogging community is the way we can draw upon each other’s work and resources to advocate for our common goals.
That’s how I felt when I read this recent post from Sally Kuzemchak of Real Mom Nutrition, addressing critics who think that instead of reining in the food and beverage industries’ $2-billion-a-year effort to market junk food to children, parents should just stand firm and say “no” to their kids. This is a common refrain from those who oppose limits on youth junk food marketing and Sally’s post is such a definitive and perfect response, from now on I’m just going to link to it every time this issue comes up and say, “What she said.” It’s definitely worth your time to read.
There’s only one point on which I and some of my colleagues (including, perhaps, Sally) differ when it comes to the marketing of food to children. I’m previously on record as supporting youth-directed marketing of just one type of product — whole or minimally processed fruits and vegetables — even though some advocates believe even this type of marketing is taking unfair advantage of kids.
But as I wrote in a debate on this issue with advocate Casey Hinds in Beyond Chron earlier this year, “Given that eating plenty of fruits and vegetables is unequivocally good for children, how different are [such] efforts from using Sesame Street characters to encourage kids to brush their teeth or licensing Dr. Seuss’s Cat in the Hat character to get them reading?” You can read the entire debate with Casey here.
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Sally at Real Mom Nutrition says
Thanks so much for highlighting my post! I’m actually with you on the marketing of healthy foods to kids. I have no problem with cartoon characters being used to market fruits and vegetables. If it draws kids to those foods–and makes those foods seem like “fun kid foods”–then all the better. It doesn’t level the playing field, for sure, but every little bit helps. Thanks again Bettina.