Frank Bruni was until recently the food critic at the New York Times. He’s also the author of a new book, Born Round, in which he chronicles his deeply troubled past when it comes to food, including a history of chronic overeating and bulemia.
This weekend I happened to stumble across a posting on Bruni’s book web site (I can’t link to the exact post, so scroll down a bit) in which he questions whether Michelle Obama’s widely lauded “Let’s Move” campaign might actually have unintended negative consequences. Here’s the crux of the essay:
Not long ago I spoke at a small conference of mental health professionals, a few of whom were upset-—really upset-—with some of what the Obamas were doing and saying. They felt there was, in the Obamas’ talk about sweets and treats in their own family as well as others, too much demonization of pleasurable but unnecessary foods and too much demonization of a few extra pounds. They felt that a path was being paved toward the kind of anxiety-—and the kind of undue obsession with appearance—-that can make a child’s or adult’s relationship with food less healthy, not more.
I’m not sure. But I DO know that there’s a maddeningly delicate balance and fine line between exhorting people toward better eating and making them feel shameful and panicked and such about hungers and habits that aren’t optimal. I also know that I’ve met many skinny kids with parents who have loose rules about food, snacking and such. And I’ve met many fat kids whose parents are vigilant and voluble when it comes to healthy eating, limited snacking, etc.
Sound familiar? As regular readers of The Lunch Tray know, many of us wrestled with just this issue last week, in response to my post, “‘Good’ Food/’Bad’ Food: How Do We Teach Healthful Eating Without Driving Kids Nuts?”
Interestingly, Bruni comes out right where many of us did, which is that ultimately, for better or worse, kids are likely to emulate their parents’ actions and attitudes when it comes to food, no matter what labels we apply.
[Hat tip: Daniel Bronson of The Atlantic]
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Bettina Elias Siegel
Mendy says
I truly appreciate all of Michelle Obama’s work in getting this problem some deserved attention, but I personally wish we could get away from all the talk of obesity. It’s a problem, yes, but the bigger problem is that kids aren’t eating right – not just the obese kids – almost all kids. I know many kids (and adults too) who think because they aren’t obese they are healthy. Lots of kids eat cheese puffs and cupcakes for breakfast and muffins and chips for lunch, but they aren’t obese. If we made it a matter of health and not a matter of how you look (obesity), I think it would be better. Almost everyone I know needs to eat better, not so they will look better, so they will be healthy. I think most fat kids already know they’re fat. If we concentrated on teaching ALL kids to eat better and exercise more and offer them opportunities to do so, then maybe the fat kids won’t always be the fat kids, and almost all kids will be healthy!
Constantly using the word obesity when it really is a bigger problem