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Games, activities and teaching ideas > Debate Topic: Books on Dieting For Kids - A Good or Bad Thing?
Debate Topic: Books on Dieting For Kids - A Good or Bad Thing?
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Zora
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Debate Topic: Books on Dieting For Kids - A Good or Bad Thing?
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Now I ran across this video last night (hopefully, you can all see it) and it really kind of bothered me that such a book was allowed to be published; mainly because it �s focus will probably not be towards those who need it...
I see that obese children are not going to be the ones who read this. It �ll be that
shy, skinny girl who doesn �t quite think she �s pretty or skinny enough.
She �ll be the one to pick up the book and empathize with the character
and feel she needs to go on a diet to be popular... hence a dangerous but innocent move towards the social mantra "to be beautiful and successful you must be skinny, not fat".
http://ca.shine.yahoo.com/video/parenting-22429512/controversial-book-encourages-dieting-for-kids-as-young-as-6-26366737.html
What do the rest of you think? Oh, by the way... take the interview with a grain of salt since it IS Fox News! Not the most news worthy source out there.
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24 Aug 2011
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juliag
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Hi there dear Linda,
Thank you for choosing another interesting subject. Nobody posting so far so though I don �t have much time for a long message, I thought I �d try to kick things off. I �m with you and Stacey. I think this kind of book is potentially very harmful, putting across the message as it does that with dieting and losing weight comes success and happiness.
From my own experience and looking at one of my (very thin, but not dangerously so) students, I think that having a mother who is obsessed with her weight is very harmful for daughters. My mother at over 60 skips lunch because she wants to lose weight and so on. Although I don �t do such silly things now, I did for a while. In a similar way said very thin student has been talking about dieting since she was about 9, though she really doesn �t need to, and I know it is the influence of her mother who is also exceptionally thin and, nevertheless, concerned about her weight. The girl (and not just her some of the other students, too) says things like, "We shouldn �t eat anything after 7pm or we �ll get fat."
I think this is a very dangerous attitude. Eating is good for us for goodness same, it gives the nutrients and energy we need, and is also something that can and should be enjoyed as a sensory and social experience.
I think young children and girls in particular are already too concerned about their weight with the pervasive influence of weight-obsessed mothers and older sisters and fashion magazines, media culture etc. I am completely against bringing this harmful influence into the realm of children �s books, which should be a world where children can either escape their problems or deal with them vicariously, not a world which adds to their problems.
I do think most developed countries in particular have a problem with child and adult obesity and that something needs to be done about it. I think the focus should be on making healthy lifestyle choices and enjoying healthy foods and exercise, rather than on dieting which is very negative and can lead to obsessive disorders such as anorexia, bulimia and so on. I agree with you and Stacy that most of the people who read this and are affected by it will be impressionable girls who think they are fat/ugly when they are not and are possible candidates for such eating disorders rather than the overweight kids who could benefit from learning its lesson.
More to the point, I don �t believe we should encourage our children to equate being thin (or being rich, being beautiful, being clever etc,) with happiness. I think we should be encouraging them to explore and find their own happiness and putting across the message that it doesn �t reside in such superficial trappings.
Just my humble opinion, look forward to reading what some of the rest of you have to say but have to run for now so will try this new subscribe feature, thanks again Victor.
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24 Aug 2011
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PhilipR
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I see nothing wrong with this book. There a zillion overweight kids, even at a younger age than 6. Although I agree that healthy eating is the best way to keep in shape and limit their weight, what do you do when it �s already too late, I mean when kids have already reached the point where they are overweight or obese?
In that case, changing your eating habits would partially help, but to shed those extra pounds, a healthy diet may help. I �ve seen some porkers  in the classroom (even younger than 6) and I think parents are neglecting their parental duties if they let their kids reach the point where their weight is endangering their health.
Bring in the scales! 
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24 Aug 2011
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ueslteacher
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It �s all about education and moderation. We need to teach our kids healthy lifestyles wisely. We also need to teach them to cherish who they are and to take care of their bodies in the right way. Extremities in anything are never good. There �s a book called Cherry Cola Champions which deals with a similar problem in a very nice way (it has Christian moral references though throughout the story, so maybe not all people are ready to accept it). When my two sons were younger they loved that story even though it �s told from a girl �s point of view:)I also watched Jamie Oliver �s Food Revolution and I dread the thought of feeding our kids junk. I do agree our children copy our lifestyles and transfer childhood habits and complexes as well as health problems into their adult lives. Sophia
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24 Aug 2011
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Zora
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After reading everybody �s opinion, I just cannot help but think some parent is going to buy this and hand it to their 7 or 8 year old child without taking into account the harm it could do. Maybe that child is not really overweight, maybe she/he is just a bit pudgy or they are not as perfect as their parents think they need to be.
Can you imagine if you were 7, your mother handing you this book and basically telling you that you are fat? Remember fat can also mean ugly to a child... Don �t you think that that will cause you problems accepting yourself as you are, especially if your parents think you aren �t "good enough" as you are?
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24 Aug 2011
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PhilipR
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This book is apparently not just for parents, but for kids as well (see below). BTW, if you �re 8 and weigh well over 100 pounds, you know you �re not exactly slim, even if you �re still young. Kids aren �t stupid.
I don �t think it �s about being good enough for or as good as your parents (fair chance they are overweight too), but about understanding that eating habits are important and that parents want the best for you.
I remember seeing a similar video where someone (a pediatrician or nutritionist) wanted authorities to take obese children away from their parents as he thought letting kids stuff themselves and not intervening was a form of child abuse.
Though
not due for release until October, the diet book is on pre-order at Barnes
& Noble, where it is listed with a recommended reading age of six to 12.
Amazon offers it to an even younger readership, suggesting ages four to eight. The author says:
�My idea was just to write a story
to entice and to have children feel better about themselves, to discover a new
way of eating, learn to do exercise, try to emulate Maggie and learn from
Maggie �s experience.
�Children are pretty smart... they
will make a good choice if you allow them that opportunity. If you push them
and tell them that they can �t do something, they will probably go and do the
opposite. � From http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2029289/Author-defends-diet-book-girls-young-four.htmlPS: It seems Douglas really wants to get his point across. That or a piece of cheeseburger is stuck under the Enter key. BTW, I agree with him. It�s no cakewalk going through life as a piece of blubber. Sorry for sounding crude but not only do they get bullied more, their health is also at stake. |
24 Aug 2011
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douglas
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Hard truths:
-Overweight young people (children and younger adults) generally have a harder go at life.
-Extremely overweight people of all ages have a harder go at life.
-People with low self esteem have a harder go at life.
- Both obesity and low-self esteem cause major health problems (physical and mental).
Dilemma:
Do I take action about my child�s weight problem at the risk of affecting my childs self-esteem. If so, to what extent?
Douglas� personal opinion about diets:
-Diets don�t work for the long-term and they cause more damage than good (I have a strong anti-diet sentiment).
Options:
1) Let my child be fat and tell her she is "beautiful just the way she is" even though I know I am lying to her and that her weight will give her problems throughout her life.
2) Put my child on diets to lose weight because "fat people can �t be successful in life" even though I know I will probably instill low self-esteem and probabay mental health problems as well.
3) Teach my child good eating habits and encourage sports and an active lifestyle even though it may not work.
4) Do nothing.
5) ?????
Cheers,
Douglas
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24 Aug 2011
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chokosaki
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This is a touchy situation I think. I wouldn �t want the child to feel bad...but at the same time I would rather the child be healthy. If the book is used as a controlled tool by the parents then there could be some good changes made.
There are always ups and downs to just about everything in the world. As long as we moderate and give proper instructions...I don �t think there would be any danger there.
To Douglas,
I feel that educating the child on his or her problem can help...although, yeah, it might lower his/her self-esteem. I think parents in the USA are getting too soft. We can still build self-esteem in other areas (as well as the weight department) but for a problem to be solved, it must first be addressed. |
24 Aug 2011
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ueslteacher
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By the way do you know that all the flavour enhancers (the artificial additives) are actually addictive substances, and once the general population is hooked unto junk stuff, it �s really hard to make a change just like what you see in Jamie �s videos:( It �s the responsibility of the parents to develop the child �s tastes in food and the responsibility of the government to create such an economically favorable environment for the farmers who bring good, healthy product to the market, to ensure the health of their nation, IMHO. Sophia |
24 Aug 2011
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edrodmedina
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@morovac... Nika did you hear what Jaime tells the kids? "Eat it all up kiddies I �m going to be checking to see who eats the most" and "Let �s eat it all up kiddies" or something to that effect. When I was a child I was a rail and encouraged to eat everything. Now days I have difficulty not eating everything on my plate. |
24 Aug 2011
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