Guest blog submitted by Healthkicker readerThe whole fight against obesity continues to get out of hand. I read a
New York Times article over the weekend that said California is banning bake sales in schools to abide by new laws set to fight obesity.
I know this isn’t a nationwide law yet, but bake sales? Come on!
It’s one thing to ban soda and chips from the schools but the occasional bake sale is not going to make a kid fat nor is it going to give them diabetes.
School bake sales are held a few times a year, so what if a kid were to eat a cookie or a slice of cake a few times a year? It’s not like he’s going to get addicted to it and run off everyday after school to buy an
Entenmann’s cake.
The school system, like many parents have to be realistic. The more a kid is denied certain foods, the more they’ll want it. The best approach is to limit the bake sales, not completely ban them.
A research scientist from
University of Illinois at Chicago said this ban “will do for junk food what smoking bans and taxes did for tobacco.” Really?
The researchers along with many others have it all wrong. You can’t stop kids from eating junk food, just like you can’t stop smokers from smoking.
What they need to do is limit the intake of junk food, and have these kids exercise more.
One of the key reasons for obesity, seems like many have forgotten, is not because kids are eating five
Twinkies everyday (kids have been doing that for years) but because kids today are getting less physical exercise.
Before video games became accessible to every child, the young kids I mentored in elementary and JHS were outside playing football or basketball. But now they play basketball or football on a screen while stuffing themselves with chips and soda.
If you want to fight obesity, banning junk food isn’t going to solve the problem. Kids need to be taken out of the living room and pushed towards playing a sport or doing a physical activity.
I commend the California school system for taking a healthy approach in fighting obesity but banning school bake sales is pushing it a little too far. Plus don’t you remember your school bake sales, when everyone gathered around, having a good time while raising money for a good cause. Ahhh the good old days.
Should school bake sales be banned to continue the fight against obesity? Why or why not?
Have parents and experts forgotten that kids need daily exercise to stay fit? Did you have bake sales in your school growing up?
Comments (37)
in my school we're not allowed to have candy sales (like chocolate bars, etc) to raise money, but bake sales are allowed. i'm not sure if the candy sale thing is state or even national but that's what my school doesn't allow.
bake sales making you fat? really now? unless you are eating 239483 muffins/cupcakes at a time then okay.. other than that it shouldn't be making kids fat. after all, how many pastries could a child eat?
if the kids don't get the sweets from the bake sale, i am pretty sure there are other outlets to get it from. i just think parents should teach their children healthy habits and tell them that once in awhile cupcakes, cookies, etc are okay.
You can’t stop kids from eating junk food, just like you can’t stop smokers from smoking.
We don't let kids smoke, though. Adults have a responsibility to help children lead a healthier lifestyle and create good habits.
I also don't agree that kids have always been eating Twinkies. Junk food is a relatively recent invention, and the portion sizes have grown a lot in the last few years.
We should ban public school to fight stupidity.
Yes we had bake sales over the years, mainly in first school (age 4/5-7) and junior (age 7-11) not sure about secondary school, we had charity week once a year (for a week)
It's so stupid to take so much away from kids. We had bake sales when I was going to school. Unfortunately the public schools here don't allow any kind of food into the school unless it's pre-packaged by a licensed kitchen. So we can't even send our kids to school with home made sandwiches... It has to be store bought and wrapped. It's so stupid!!
Make kids take a PE class and actually make it fun. Or make them run laps, whatever. I remember not caring much for gym but liking a personal fitness class so they could look into having a variety of things. Also, school menus aren't that helpful.What do you think a kid is more likely to want to eat: pizza, hamburgers, and fries for lunch or a side of vegetables that look pretty unappetizing because they come from a can? And like you said, the occasional bake sale isn't going to do that much damage especially considering all the other junk they're shoving in their mouths.
tsk tsk. finding scapegoats for people who can't help themselves..
The more a kid is denied certain foods, the more they’ll want it.
Haha just like alcohol!
It shouldn't be banned. People need to sell to fund their activities.
i think they're right when they say the ban on bake sales will do the same as smoking laws and taxes. NOTHING. the kid will still get his cigarettes from a vending machine or an older guy. i will still smoke, i'll just have to pay more for it. the kid will not have baked goods readily available a few times a year, but he can walk to the grocery store and get a more processed, preserved, and possibly sweeter offering than the homebaked option at bake sales. so... yeah, it will do nothing.
@NightCometh@xanga - I wholeheartedly agree
A-FREAKIN-MEN
a collaboration of both excercise and cutting down on sweets/fatty foods helps to fight obesity. it's all about moderation here. like others said above, totally banning it will make them want it more
Ridiculous, bake sales bring in money for the school, so they are losing out in this instance.
we had bake sales all the time at my school..... it was a bit much... so maybe limit the number of bake sales
Just another way of them trying to control us with stupid little laws like that... >.<
good thing whichever person made up that rule isn't even an idiot. NBD.
whether there's a bake sale or not is irrelevant, b/c fat people are going to be fat until they exercise and follow the rule of moderation.
@N_Aunimus_of_ECC@xanga - hahaha true that
You're right, children need to be taught how to have a relationship with food, not simply have it taken away because it will make them want it more. Exercise is also so important, it's totally forgotten and needs to be more evident. Society gets silly some times with it's attempts to be p.c.
how about rewarding people who excercise as an incentive.
Let's completely forget that bake sales raise money for important things that would otherwise get no funding, because people don't like to raise taxes to give that money to schools and because the state and federal government doesn't give that money out either.
If they had banned this when I was in high school, my school wouldn't have raised thousands of dollars to help Hurricane Katrina victims. And that was just one high school in the nation.
It is possible to have bake sales without all of the children stuffing their faces and getting fat. This is another instance of schools stepping in where the parents should be in control. Teach your kids to have healthy eating habits, and teach them to budget their spending. Then they won't be wasting money on brownies instead of the healthier options in the cafeteria. They can spend fifty cents on a treat, maybe bring something home for their mom, and help a good cause. Good freaking grief.
@LadyLibellule@xanga - But didn't Twinkies used to be made with banana filling, and the only reason they switched to cream was World War 2? So they've still been around a long time (and I guess banana filling is, arguably, healthier than cream.)
Actually, it really really bothers me that the state is making laws like that anyway. It's the parents' job to teach a child not to eat to much, and to have him/her exercise properly. It only takes two people to raise a child, not a friggin' state, nor a village, nor anything else people will claim. (Or even one person, if the parent is single and can juggle all that. Two is best though.)
I go to school. And I appreciate the bake sales. At my school... they're run by students to get a little extra money, because there really isn't much funding for anything anymore.
I do vote to increase the amount of exercise, at any age.I also vote to change the school lunches. I mean, they say what they're giving us is 'healthy', but I would bet that at least half of the adults at our school wouldn't go near the crap they serve for school lunch. Everything is brown - chicken nuggets, chicken patties, tacos, mozzarella sticks, you know. If it's brown and fried, its probably in my cafeteria. And the so called 'vegetable' that is giving us our oh so important nutrition... the least they could do is not cook it to a pulp! Stewed tomatoes, broccoli, or whatever it is... sometimes the only clue to the item is the color. I think kids grow up with bad attitude towards vegetables because the schools mutilate fruits and veggies into unrecognizable substances. Maybe if they tried like a small cup of carrots and broccoli with low fat ranch, they'd get somewhere. But stewed tomatoes? I've never met a kid who's like 'mmm, can't wait for my red mush today!'I think they need to supply children/teens with resources to learn to be healthy. I mean it's not about avoiding the occassional cookie. You are making them feel powerless when they do have a craving and if they slip up like its hopeless. You can eat a damn cookie once in a while if you burn it off with exercise and physical activity. Way to promote EDs by setting the example that food is the enemy.
It's naive to think that the obesity problem is limited only to a lack of physical activity, or just an increase in consumption of junk food- it's clearly a multifaceted problem with MANY sources for blame- both of these are included.
I say bravo to the schools for taking a stand for what they believe is truly important, the health and well-being of our nation's children.
Sure, they can't control the kids once they're out of the class, but why not take the time they do have to do what's right for the kids?
@NightCometh@xanga - LOL
I agree.