Many parents struggle to keep their children healthy. It’s not their fault – junk food becomes almost addictive to children. Once a child has started drinking Coke and eating McDonald’s it can be a real challenge to try to get them to make healthier choices. This has been illustrated time and time again, and it is getting to become a serious problem.
Unfortunately rhetoric from the mainstream media continues to place the unwarranted blame on mothers and individuals rather than having honest and critical dialogue around the systemic forces that can leave many communities with very few choices in regards to encouraging positive eating habits among children.
Many communities, especially in poorer districts, face a number of obstacles in promoting healthy eating. Many shops are more likely to stock cheaper foods and drinks which are naturally likely to be higher in fat and sugar and lack the key nutrients that our bodies need to survive. Children are often bombarded with images of junk food that is suggested to be a child’s rite of passage and yet parents are often chastised for not provided healthier food for their children.
The rhetoric of the mainstream media and amongst people who live outside of poorer communities often entirely blames the parents and guardians for the food problems surrounding the health of children. Also, very little commentary is given to how easy, cheap and widely available processed and junk food is.
Increasingly science is agreeing with the idea that processed food and junk food can be considered essentially addictive. This shows that we really should be giving it more press coverage instead of just blaming parents as being lazy and not caring about their children. It will take time, but if it is pushed that it is more important to ensure that junk food is less available it will be easier to make people healthier.
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