Empowering Healthy Kids Blog

Kate Carnell, the chief executive of the Australian Food and Grocery Council, outlines her defence of the Australian food and beverage industry:

The recent release of the CSIRO’s Australian National Children’s Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey, which studied the habits of more than 4000 children, found the number of overweight and obese children in Australia has only increased marginally since the last major survey in 1995.

The study found Australia does not have a childhood obesity epidemic, but it does have too many overweight (17 per cent) and obese (6 per cent) children, while many more have significant problems with their diets.

It is not that Australian children are eating too much food - they are not eating the right food.

The survey revealed that while childhood obesity rates seem to have plateaued over the last decade, very few children are now eating to established dietary guidelines. The result: many are at risk of nutrient deficiencies and other diet-related issues. The survey showed the levels of saturated fats, sugar and salt being consumed were too high, while intake levels of micronutrients, including calcium and magnesium, were too low.

For too long the food and beverage industry has been labelled by some as being the sole cause of childhood obesity by providing too many high salt, high fat and high energy food products. This could not be further from the truth.

Read on.

My take is simply based on the fact that parents make the choices on what their children eat. If there were no demand for these types of food and drink, companies would simply stop producing them. I know that many are concerned that the marketing barrage of “junk food” ads makes parenting harder. However, in a free society, we are free to choose how we live our lives and how we choose to raise our children. If we blind our children to advertising and not teach them the skills of self-discipline and leading a healthy life, what happens when they grow older and are suddenly exposed to these “evils?” They simply will not have the aptitutude to make informed and rational choices for themselves.

This entry (Permalink) was posted on Tuesday, January 6th, 2009 at 2:58 pm and is filed under research, survey, nutrition, childhood obesity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response , or trackback from your own site.