Sugar-coated messages.

Tuesday, October 05, 2010

“Sugar-coated messages – right from the crib, children hear advertising promoting unhealthy food and drinks."

This was a feature story on the front page of the Plain Dealer last Friday. There’s this super-cute kid standing in his crib, which is filled to overflowing with what appears to be M & M’s , a toy made from doughnuts, a McDonald’s handbag and emblems on the wall behind him promoting Pepsi, Fruity Pebbles, and Trix. “Do our kids really have a chance?” That’s the question the writer asks us…and it’s a pretty effective picture and convincing story about the possibility that childhood obesity, at least in part, may be tied directly to the advertising barrage every child faces whose goal it is to get them to eat foods laden with sugar and fat.

I’ve got a problem with the theory though. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think kids should eat pure sugar cereals, loads of candy crap, and unhealthy snack choices, but I have trouble with the idea that they’re eating more of it because of the genius and persistency of advertising. I remember watching Tony the Tiger, the Fruit Loops Lepricon, Captain Crunch’s Captain and the Coo Coo Bird and wishing I could get my hands on all of those cereals. I did get them once in a while when visiting my cousin Donnie, but at home it was Wheaties, Cheerios, Rice Crispies and Corn Flakes – none of them pre-sweetened. That’s what my dad bought when he went to the grocery store, that’s what was in the cabinet when I got up in the morning and…that’s what I had to eat. Pretty simple.

As for the argument that candy bars are eye-level for kids at the grocery store in the check-out line which gives the 5-year old easy access to them, I can also remember asking my dad for those products as I passed through similar situations fifty years earlier. I remember pretty clearly how it played out.

“Can I have a candy bar, dad?”

“No,” he said without even looking down to see the kind I wanted or to look into my soft, pleading eyes.

That was it. ‘No’ meant ‘no’ and not ‘maybe’. He was a lot bigger than me, had all the money and the car, and didn’t take kindly to pleading. I waited for grandma’s and Halloween for candy bars and ate apples, which he provided in abundance, the rest of the year.

I suppose advertising could be having some effect on parents’ choices for their children…I don’t know. I do know that when my kids were young, Holly and I made the choices and they had to live with them. Like me, they learned that ‘no’ meant ‘no’ and that was the end of it. If they got crap to eat, it was only because we gave it to them and, in my opinion, had nothing to do with the advertising.

It was drizzling again and riding was out so I headed to the park to see how running three days in a row would go. This time I would stick to the pre-run plan and go only 30 minutes. I still feel like I’m living on borrowed time and don’t want to push the hip. I love running in the fall, which is here, and don’t want to miss it by running too much too soon. I felt great for the entire run and might try it again tomorrow.

I had another very bad eating night and need Holly to return. It’s Ash’s birthday week and so I made burgers on the grill and followed that with a trip to East Coast Custard. She’d never been there before and since it’s the best ice cream anywhere, I figured she needed it. Of course…I couldn’t let her eat alone and ordered a strawberry custard smoothie…probably 500 calories…or 30 minutes of running, coincidentally. Oh well…”tomorrow, tomorrow, I luv ya, tomorrow, you’re always a day away.”

Run duration: 30 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 140 bpm.
Calories burned during workout: 500…or…a smoothie.