For the first time in 100 years, children in Texas have a lower life expectancy than their parents. The reason is actually quite simple: children are on average more obese than ever. Now the Texas Department of Agriculture has decided that the time has come to reverse the damage. I'm here to tell you that the wailing and gnashing of teenage teeth will be loud and long.
Why the caterwauling? Well, read on and see if you can figure it out. Under the rules, schools will be forced to get rid of deep fryers (French Fries will be off the menu completely by 2009). They will be required to serve more fruits and vegetables, control the types of snack foods available on school property, and reduce the amount of trans-fats served to students. Serving candy in elementary schools will be banned, and will be greatly restricted in middle and high schools. In addition, the new guidelines call for 100% fruit juice and either skim or reduced-fat milk, as well as smaller size soft drinks in school vending machines.
Taken as a whole, this new policy is a step in the right direction. Without some radical changes, we will continue raising children with no more than a rudimentary knowledge of nutrition. Of course, without the involvement of parents, this may well be an exercise in futility. Unless children are taught at home about the importance of good nutrition and eating habits, nothing much TDA does is going to have a lasting impact. Just as in every other aspects of a child's life, parents must get involved. We cannot expect our public schools to do our jobs for us.
In the meantime, I feel for the students who will have to endure these changes and adapt to them. Living as I do with a 16-year-old boy, I know from personal experience about the horrible eating habits of teenagers. I was not all that much different at that age. If it was green, it ended up in the garbage. If it was fried or came with the word "pizza" in the title, I was all over it. The reality is that taste buds don't mature until the late teens or early-twenties. I enjoy vegetables now, and perhaps someday Eric will. It's hard to imagine, but it could happen.
The kids who are going to have to adapt to these new rules will be whining as if they were being held captive in Stalin's Gulag. In the long run, though, they'll be healthier for it. Besides, given the choice between vegetables and starvation, does anyone REALLY think we'll be dealing with an epidemic of teens committing suicide by starvation?
