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Michelle Obama and Jamie Oliver — Hurting Kids’ Self-Esteem?
Lesley Kinzel, author of the blog Fatshionista, knows that kids today, perhaps more than ever, need to be taught the value of good nutrition, the joy of regular movement and exercise. She just wishes we’d all quit calling Michelle Obama’s movement for kids’ health a childhood obesity campaign.
In a recent essay in Newsweek titled Fat Kids, Cruel World, Kinzel wrote:
The need for better education of both children and adults of all sizes on the subjects of nutrition and exercise is undeniable, and on this account the intentions behind Michelle Obama’s efforts are admirable. But approaching this subject by employing (and even exploiting) the entrenched culture of guilt around the state of our bodies is unlikely to succeed in making any of us healthier. All that I learned as a result of my efforts to combat my own personal battle against “childhood obesity” was that being fat was one of the worst things a person could be, and I was obligated to do everything possible—no matter how unhealthy—to change. It was only as an adult, after I gave up dieting, that I began to exercise because I enjoy it, and to eat a healthful diet because it’s delicious. Eating well and exercising regularly work together to make a body—any body—feel good, even if they don’t result in weight loss.
Kinzel isn’t the only one who is worried that this newest fight against childhood obesity might backfire. Fat acceptance activists have been calling Jaime Oliver out on his fat-shaming ways ever since his show, Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution (deemed a failure, as of last Friday) started. After watching the first episode, Melissa at the blog Shakesville wrote:
Headless fatties? Check. Enormous food stock footage? Check. OHNOES Obesity CrisisTM? Check. Being fat is ugly? Check. Fat people are lazy? Check. Fat people are stupid? Check. Fat people are sick? Check. DEATHFAT? Check. Mother-blaming for fat kids? Check. Fat as a moral failure? Check. Religious shaming of fat? Check. Fat people don’t have “the tools” to not be fat? Check. Fat people need a skinny savior? Checkity-check-check!
Not exactly the message that we’re hoping to send to our kids.
But at the same time, both Obama — who was called out for discussing her daughter’s weight back in January — and Oliver are bringing much needed awareness to an undeniably important issue. As a country we have forgotten how to eat, and our kids are being raised on french fries and fruit roll-ups.
Rather than waging war against obesity which, if not handled correctly, could end up being a battle against fat kids themselves, maybe we should consider what anonymous teacher Mrs. Q, who eats a school lunch with her kids every day and writes about it at Fed Up with School Lunches has to say.
She rightly points out that it’s not just the kids who are obese noshing down on greasy pizza and limp fries. The normal-sized kids do too, which means that no one — fat or thin — is getting the proper nutrition. “I think I know why the Let’s Move folks chose “childhood obesity” as the enemy,” she writes. “Because it’s an easy win — who can argue? If they instead tried to focus on nourishment or nutrition, they would lose people. Let’s face it, ‘childhood obesity’ conjures up a picture of ‘a fat kid’ (not politically correct but true). In our thin world it’s easy to say ‘Let’s fight fat!’ ”
Obesity is a complex issue — it’s not all about school lunches or fast food or TV or video games. And solving it, as this article points out, will be anything but easy. But promoting the message of good health is fairly simple: eat when you’re hungry, choose mostly healthy foods with a few treats thrown in, and move as much as you can. Is it possible to get our kids to understand it without crushing their self-esteem in the process? What do you think?
Photo: treehouse1977, Flickr
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[...] With apologies to Rose, and Michele Obama and Jamie Oliver, this isn’t something I’m likely to quit anytime soon. And maybe I shouldn’t. There’s a growing backlash against Oliver’s Food Revolution and Obama’s Let’s Move program from people who think the focus on fat is hurting kids’ self-esteem. [...]
Love Is An Ice Cream Sundae | Strollerderby commented on Apr 26 10 at 1:20 pmGtothemfckinP commented on Apr 26 10 at 11:27 amThe author of the AlterNet article says “But America’s ever-expanding waistline is caused by systemic issues: widespread poverty, sedentary lifestyles, junk-food advertising, a lack of health care, corporate control of the food system, the prevalence of cheap fast food, food designed to be addictive, and subsidies and policies that make meats and sugars cheaper than whole fruits and vegetables.” Blaming EVERYTHING except personal choices. I still contend that basic, healthy foods are not that expensive in this country. I’ll give them the education part. People may need to be educated about making these simple, inexpensive foods…but, all the other things, while they may be true and they may be contributing factors…to me are a cop-out to people just bucking up and making the right choices for themselves.
Heather commented on Apr 26 10 at 12:27 pmYou may not like the fact that these programs are focusing on obese or “fat” kids, but that fact remains that our children are in trouble. I agree with the fact that it is not only the obese children who are eating the junk, but the average sized ones as well. That doesn’t change the idea behind the movement. I also agree that people are so busy trying to blame someone or something for their personal choices. Give it up, and face the fact that your actions have consequences. Yes you can be overweight and still be healthy, but your chances of that are slim.
America needs to realize that what we are feeding out kids isn’t good, fat or thin, and that if we want our kids to be healthy then we need to change what we feed them, and teach them how to feed themselves in a healthy way.
Laure68 commented on Apr 26 10 at 3:30 pmOne thing I do agree with is that skinny does not necessarily mean healthy. If we focus on good nutrition and exercise, good health should follow.
As an observation (and this really is all this is), I have noticed that the more we focus on things like “low-fat”, “skinny is good”, etc., the fatter we get as a nation. I think what happens is that someone gets a good idea (eating too much fat is bad, etc.) and then suddenly you see all these packed food products labeled “low-fat”, “healthy”, and people replace fresh food with these products. Michael Pollen once said that, if you want to be healthy, never buy a product labeled as “healthy” and I have to agree. This is one reason why I believe it is better to focus on nutrition than weight. (Again, just a personal observation.)
GtothemfckinP commented on Apr 26 10 at 4:35 pmYeah, I agree…”low fat” foods are gross, unless they are naturally low fat. Just have a sensible portion of the “real thing”…although it doesn’t hurt to drink lowfat dairy and and use lowfat cheese in recipes, IMO.
addicted commented on May 01 10 at 3:48 amAll these comments about Jamie Oliver, and Michelle Obama “hurting fat kids’ self-esteem” is a complete joke. As someone who grew up overweight, I promise you that I didn’t need the First-Lady, or the host of a TV show to remind me that I was fat, and to damage my self-esteem. Every kid around me did a fine job of that… At least these folks are offering hope, and solutions to improve my health, unlike everyone else around you…
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