Should parents face fines or criminal charges over their kids obesity?

• EndlessDreams wrote on 2014-02-27 02:56

  Quote from Hanna;1202361:

  Mandatory food preparation classes to teach parents to cook, we do the same with parents who have substance abuse problems
  I've spent time in foster care and a lot of people lose their kids until they get their shit together
  Most foster kids go back to their parents within a year when their parents show they're actually trying for the sake of their kids
  I think it should be the same with food, make parents take classes to teach them how to cook and shop smart and find time for their kids. It is possible, if you are too lazy or don't have the patience then you shouldn't be allowed to have children.
  Obesity is a very dangerous problem and is only getting worse
  We feed our kids junk at school and then we feed them junk at home and act surprised when little billy weights 200lbs at age 12

  
  
  No, grade schools are probably the only place where the government can directly force children to eat healthy food. In fact, it is probably the biggest way for government to fight obesity.
  
  Mandatory classes for cooking is just stupid. It takes away the parent's time away from children and work. Even when they finish the course, that doesn't mean they will cook.
  
  It really doesn't help that you compare it with substance abuse programs. A lot of those people who go to those program end up into those programs once again.
  
  Fundamentally, substance abuse isn't even on the same thing as unhealthy eating. Substance abuse have both physical and psychological addiction.
  
  That being said, according to New York Times, children ages 2-5 has dropped 43% rate in obesity due to a combination of current government programs.
  
  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/26/health/obesity-rate-for-young-children-plummets-43-in-a-decade.html?_r=0
• SlurpTASTY wrote on 2014-02-27 05:23

  Quote from EndlessDreams;1202365:

  
  Fundamentally, substance abuse isn't even on the same thing as unhealthy eating. Substance abuse have both physical and psychological addiction.
  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/26/health/obesity-rate-for-young-children-plummets-43-in-a-decade.html?_r=0

  
  
  You may as well say obese people who eat alot of fast-food have a mental and physical dependancy on fast-food. Not to sound like some illuminati conspiracy theorist bullshitter but fast-food companies invest hundreds of millions of dollars in propaganda and making fast-food to seem like the best thing ever. The realest thing is that it all starts at a young age, people who regularly eat fast-food as kids will continue to do so until they die, since it's something they've become so accustomed too.
  
  Its certainly not an addiction, but it's something that makes you feel "good" for a cheap price, and that's why it can be such a big problem. You can't blame the fast-food companies though they just want $$$, it's up to parents to raise their kids in a household where fast-food is not the norm. I wasn't allowed to eat any fast-food when I was a kid, and now I barely get cravings for mcdicks or whatever it may be (maybe like once or twice a month, idk).
  
  My whole argument is based upon the fact that obesity is mostly just from eating fast-food (I define this as basically anything thats just plain shitty for you, from oreos to KFC). If there's some other defining factors then shit idk, I'm pretty ignorant about how people get fat as fuck.
• Tropa wrote on 2014-02-27 05:33
  If you you wanna fine anything, It should be the people who produce junk/fast food.
• Space Pirate Nithiel wrote on 2014-02-27 05:46
  I dunno about where you guys are from, but every night my parents asked me "What do you want for dinner?" So I did have a choice whether I wanted to eat healthy or not. At any point I could have said "I want something healthy! Lets have boiled cabbage for dinner!" I would have coated the house in vomit afterwards, but I could have said it.
  
  And most kids(At least pretty much all the ones I grew up with) do know the difference. It doesn't take a genius to know that broccoli is better for you than chocolate dipped bacon.
• Hanna wrote on 2014-02-27 06:43

  Quote from Space Pirate Nithiel;1202409:

  I dunno about where you guys are from, but every night my parents asked me "What do you want for dinner?" So I did have a choice whether I wanted to eat healthy or not. At any point I could have said "I want something healthy! Lets have boiled cabbage for dinner!" I would have coated the house in vomit afterwards, but I could have said it.
  
  And most kids(At least pretty much all the ones I grew up with) do know the difference. It doesn't take a genius to know that broccoli is better for you than chocolate dipped bacon.

  
  
  As a parent it's your responsibility to MAKE your children eat healthy? Do you honestly ever see children willingly plan for their future? How often do you see children putting away pennies for their college tuition.
  If it were up to most children most wouldn't even go to school. Anyone who had spent a good amount of time around children knows that children don't give a shit about "one day" they care about what's going on here and now.
  If your child wants fast food every night and to drink soda 24/7 you say
  "The fuck you are, eat this or go to bed hungry"
  
  Also you make it seem like all healthy food is salad
  No, there's a balance.
  You can eat seasoned meat, carbohydrates, vegetables, and fruit.
  You can prepare hamburgers with actual meat and fries WITHOUT it having added sugar and 88% of your daily value of sodium in one sitting
  
  If you want to be a stubborn fat idiot and give yourself and array of preventable diseases that will result in a slow and agonizingly painful death? That's on you, but if you willingly do it to your children who are not old enough to buy their own food and make the appropriate decisions on their own health, I will hope you are sent to prison for child abuse since you are basically slowly killing your children by feeding them poison.
  
  

  Quote from Tropa;1202406:

  If you you wanna fine anything, It should be the people who produce junk/fast food.

  
  
  I think we're taking a step in the right direction by banning transfat but more intervention is needed
• Space Pirate Nithiel wrote on 2014-02-27 07:28
  "Eat what I say or starve" Yeah, because that -isn't- child endangerment. If you try and force kids to eat healthy that will just make them never want to eat healthy because it will be tied to bad memories of sitting in their room starving to death.
• Ashikoki wrote on 2014-02-27 07:37
  We have so many programs world wide for help with drugs, alcoholism, gambling addiction, even internet and gaming addiction. I don't see why creating a commonly accessible institution or support group that aids/promotes a healthier lifestyle balancing exercise and better diet can't exist in a similar fashion.
  
  I mean, one in which it becomes mandatory to participate, much like many rehab programs. Once you hit that BMI line for obesity, you become legally required. It won't be hardcore, just some casual help that trims you down over the following months. It won't cost much, and it'll save people's lives. I'm mostly libertarian, but I imagine if the service was mandatory, free, and had a fee for not showing up, it could assist in funding itself. People would complain, but we're quite literally saving their lives and helping them.
  
  Of course there are plenty of problems, such as monetary costs, or obese people no longer visiting the doctors and therefore not being cared for other health threatening matters. And there's the public reaction over "loving your body" and "free to be fat" nonsense that they all actually only tell themselves as an excuse for being obese.
  
  The term "obese" does differ from "overweight", which does have their own categories. Crossing the line in to obesity is where our bodies begin to change significantly in a number of dangerous ways. A hyperbolic example would be suddenly adding smoking cigarettes to your daily life or deciding to hike through abandoned radioactive facilities every weekend. Suicide is illegal, but it seems we're free to do it when we do it really slowly.
  
  Treat yo self good now.
  
  Edit: In slightly relevant news, America's obesity rates are supposedly falling really fast. Good news for us, but not so much for the haughty Europeans who are just as fat yet love making fun of America for the same thing.
• frncsjhnhawaii wrote on 2014-02-27 07:57
  While you guys talk about nutrition, you have to also factor in activity. American schools are soft as hell when it comes to enforcing physical standards and that needs to be changed. I heard that gym class is optional on the mainland...
• Ashikoki wrote on 2014-02-27 08:18

  Quote from frncsjhnhawaii;1202449:

  While you guys talk about nutrition, you have to also factor in activity. American schools are soft as hell when it comes to enforcing physical standards and that needs to be changed. I heard that gym class is optional on the mainland...

  
  
  This is a district by district decision. I for one have never heard of a school in America that doesn't require a rather sizable chunk of your total credits to physical activity courses. Even college forced me to take one physical course, which was quite ludicrous considering how much I was paying for every credit.
  
  America's inaccessibility to walking, large personal properties in myriads of suburban communities, an absolute necessity to get in our cars and drive for even the most basic errands, contributes a long way towards our lack of physical activity compared to many other countries.
• Kingofrunes wrote on 2014-02-27 08:25

  Quote from TLCBonaparte;1201131:

  That would go against civil liberty. However government CAN introduce some programs that encourage more healthy diet for children such as free dietary lessons for parents, minicipal children vegetable delivery programs.

  
  
  I think this is the better way to go. The other problem is the food supply in America. What does a parent do when the overwhelming amount of food in America is unhealthy and they have extremely busy lives?
  
  Some exercise programs perhaps, attach some tax benefits and cuts for parents who partake in these programs.
  
  

  Quote from Ashikoki;1202456:

  an absolute necessity to get in our cars and drive for even the most basic errands, contributes a long way towards our lack of physical activity compared to many other countries.

  
  
  I've been fighting this notion for over 5 years and it's starting to become a bit of a pain. But hey, I don't mind 20 minutes worth of exercise to walk to work everyday. Only time it really is a pain is during the winter, but alas, one of the downsides of living in the North.
• Space Pirate Nithiel wrote on 2014-02-27 08:39

  Quote from Kingofrunes;1202459:

  I've been fighting this notion for over 5 years and it's starting to become a bit of a pain. But hey, I don't mind 20 minutes worth of exercise to walk to work everyday. Only time it really is a pain is during the winter, but alas, one of the downsides of living in the North.

  
  
  Yeah, but not everyone lives where you live. For others it's a much longer walk to get to work/stores. It's currently 3 AM, if I started walking now I might get to the nearest town by about 3 PM tomorrow. Doing so in the winter would be even more unrealistic.
• Elleanior wrote on 2014-02-27 08:41

  Quote from Ashikoki;1202456:

  This is a district by district decision. I for one have never heard of a school in America that doesn't require a rather sizable chunk of your total credits to physical activity courses. Even college forced me to take one physical course, which was quite ludicrous considering how much I was paying for every credit.
  
  America's inaccessibility to walking, large personal properties in myriads of suburban communities, an absolute necessity to get in our cars and drive for even the most basic errands, contributes a long way towards our lack of physical activity compared to many other countries.

  
  
  At my high school, P.E. is mandatory until grade 10. But 90% of the students are tall, thin, Dutch kiddies who've been on 2-3 athletic teams since elementary. They may bitch and moan about what the teacher tells them to do in the class, but they'll easily push those boundaries on their teams.
  
  I very rarely see obese people, so things over here in Western Canada are quite different than some places in the USA.
• Ashikoki wrote on 2014-02-27 08:44

  Quote from Kingofrunes;1202459:

  I think this is the better way to go. The other problem is the food supply in America. What does a parent do when the overwhelming amount of food in America is unhealthy and they have extremely busy lives?

  
  
  Fast and convenient foods, cheap foods, etc. Healthy foods are usually expensive or require cooking. America has one of the lowest minimum wage compared to most other developed countries, and the standard for middle class has gone from one working individual supporting a family of four to both parents working to barely meet ends. People don't have time to cook or care for their kids anymore. School lunches are also at fault. I struggled with my weight a bit when I started eating from the cafeteria back in highschool. It happens when you switch from turkey sandwiches and fruit to cheeseburgers and fries.
  
  

  I've been fighting this notion for over 5 years and it's starting to become a bit of a pain. But hey, I don't mind 20 minutes worth of exercise to walk to work everyday. Only time it really is a pain is during the winter, but alas, one of the downsides of living in the North.

  
  
  It's simply too much of an inconvenience when you work 20 miles away. And you carry 6 bags of heavy for groceries, the milk gets warm, and your eggs break.
• Kingofrunes wrote on 2014-02-27 09:15
  ya that's the other issue. I chose to live in the city for the very reason of avoiding driving cause I never bothered to get a liscense. I used to live in the country side so I know how it is. Had to rely on others to drive me to work and even college (20 minute drive as nearest "City" was 30 miles away)
  
  Made me glad I had two brothers and 3 sisters around my age who could assist as well as a caring parent to get over this problem.
• Ashikoki wrote on 2014-02-27 09:16

  Quote from Kingofrunes;1202475:

  ya that's the other issue. I chose to live in the city for the very reason of avoiding driving cause I never bothered to get a liscense. I used to live in the country side so I know how it is. Had to rely on others to drive me to work (20 minute drive as nearest "City" was 30 miles away)

  
  
  I think you should get a license... it's somewhat irresponsible to not have one, regardless of whether you own a car or drive.