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Do parents know what good nutrition is?

Do parents already know what's healthy in terms of nutrition and exercise?


  • Total voters
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But everyone knows that cocaine and cheeseburgers are bad for you. We don't need to spend millions of dollars to "teach" something that everyone knows already.

Since the first statement is false, (ask McDonalds shareholders) the second question is irrelevant.

But that's what you said in the OP so why are you repeating yourself?
 
But everyone knows that cocaine and cheeseburgers are bad for you. We don't need to spend millions of dollars to "teach" something that everyone knows already.

who said cocaine is bad for you,thats how i stayed awake for 3 months and lost 100 pounds years ago!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Speaking of drugs, I wonder what Michelle tells her daughters about cocaine since their daddy admites to useing it and proudly said he smoked pot and inhaled "that's kinda the point". Does she say now dearies, no Big Mac's but smoking pot and crack cocaine is ok.
 
Speaking of drugs, I wonder what Michelle tells her daughters about cocaine since their daddy admites to useing it and proudly said he smoked pot and inhaled "that's kinda the point". Does she say now dearies, no Big Mac's but smoking pot and crack cocaine is ok.

Oh, c'mon. That's just stupid.
 
pot isnt a drug,and illa rgue other conservatives on this,it grows in the ground.that spice crap made in labs kills people and people use it in record numbers because pot is illegal.


cocaine just kills,it has a very usefull but limited use in medicine,all other caines remove the high but keep the numbing effect,so beyond an extreme few medical cases medicinal coke and meth arent needed.both of them have a risk even in perfectly healthy people of causing heart attack through irregular and rapid heart beat.


weed increases heart beat but only to the levels of someone who jogged for 20 feet.to date there have been no cases of marijuana causing death.there were some causing heart attack and death,but in people who would have a heart attack from getting up too fast or even running weed cant be blamed for it,if it wasn weed it would have been two weeks later when they saw an almost naked chick on tv and their heart raced.
 
My daughter is 15 months old. We chase her around and play with her quite a bit. She eats nothing but carrots, asparagus, peas, chicken, and fresh fruit. If we buy fruit cups its packed in fruit juice with no syrup. Nothing but juice besides milk and water as well. We don't buy canned food. Every so often she will have a french fry or chicken nugget, a little taste of candy like Swedish fish. I think we do much better than a lot of parents we know.
 
But, big picture, the population is getting fatter every year. I don't see where the government offering information on diet and obesity is a problem.

I don't see where it helps either.
 
My daughter is 15 months old. We chase her around and play with her quite a bit. She eats nothing but carrots, asparagus, peas, chicken, and fresh fruit. If we buy fruit cups its packed in fruit juice with no syrup. Nothing but juice besides milk and water as well. We don't buy canned food. Every so often she will have a french fry or chicken nugget, a little taste of candy like Swedish fish. I think we do much better than a lot of parents we know.

your lucky most kids wont eat healthy,but maybe because fruits and vegetables in alot of states suck.when i was in cali i wouldnt eat any fruit unless it came from a farmers market.the states apples oranges vegetables etc were so flavorless that no one can stand em,when i went to basic training in fort jackson i got to eat fruits and veggies that were naturally ripened and not forced into ripeness,and omfg those aples were amazing,eating a real granny smith apple was like eating sour apple candy it was so sour and sweet.


maybe if we sold real fruit not something mass produced and force ripened kids would eat it,i know i would have eaten vegies everyday if i had know how good they tasted from a farmers market when i was a young adult.
 
Well, little kids often go through food "stages." One week it may be the hotdog; the next it may be the bun. Although I don't necessarily approve of this, V-8 runs commercials all the time for their fruit drinks with "hidden" veggies. There are ways to compensate for nutritional deficits...vitamins, for example. Nerves of steel too. I've seen kids who "wouldn't" eat "anything" except bowls of mashed potatoes. There are ways to solve this problem too. :mrgreen:
 
I think most everyone knows the basics of nutrition and exercise. It's a waste of money to teach what is already known.

you know what else was a waste of money? putting anything other than MacNCheese, rice, cheese, or apple in front of my oldest son between the ages of 3-4.

parents know their kids better than government. yay, put out a promo video. but coercion? GFY, nannystate.
 
your lucky most kids wont eat healthy,but maybe because fruits and vegetables in alot of states suck.when i was in cali i wouldnt eat any fruit unless it came from a farmers market.the states apples oranges vegetables etc were so flavorless that no one can stand em,when i went to basic training in fort jackson i got to eat fruits and veggies that were naturally ripened and not forced into ripeness,and omfg those aples were amazing,eating a real granny smith apple was like eating sour apple candy it was so sour and sweet.


maybe if we sold real fruit not something mass produced and force ripened kids would eat it,i know i would have eaten vegies everyday if i had know how good they tasted from a farmers market when i was a young adult.

Yeah the south is good for that. I was actually born at Ft Jackson when they used to deliver babies. Speaking of SC, there is one canned thing she eats since you can't buy boiled peanuts in paper bags in KY.
 
Yeah the south is good for that. I was actually born at Ft Jackson when they used to deliver babies. Speaking of SC, there is one canned thing she eats since you can't buy boiled peanuts in paper bags in KY.

no boiled peanuts?????blasphemy boiled peanuts are gods food,georgia alabama south carolina and florida its the snack of choice,yeah its extreme levels of sodium but n states where you sweat out extreme amounts of sodium its not a bad thing.
 
I think they assume healthy = boring salads and bland veggies. Complete lack of concern and adventure in the kitchen is more of the issue.

A lot of it comes down to lifestyles and what and where you were raised. Not making excuses but if someone enjoys fried foods, was raised on em and it brings them comfort? Some are not willing to step out of that comfortzone to try new things. I think that is a big problem and while a lot of people will not admit they are picky eaters? They are and only eat what they grew up eating or have to desire to try new foods or even new ways of cooking those foods.

It all boils down to people having to adjust their lifestyle of eating fried foods 7 days a week with baby steps to try new ways to cook their fav foods. and to trying more healthy foods in general.

Eating Healthy is a lifestyle choice and a lot of times people need to be re-taught HOW to eat and what foods to eat, how to cook them, etc.

Then we still have starving kids in this country and I would rather poor kids be eating bad foods than nothing at all.
 
Many things that I was forced to eat as a child because it was "good for me", are now listed as bad for you foods. Anything that's considered healthy today could easily be tomorrow's cancer causing food. Remember in the '80s when hamburger went back and forth between cooked well done causing cancer and cooked too rare causing cancer. Come to find out, hamburger doesn't cause cancer at all.

Finish your milk.
 
Many things that I was forced to eat as a child because it was "good for me", are now listed as bad for you foods. Anything that's considered healthy today could easily be tomorrow's cancer causing food. Remember in the '80s when hamburger went back and forth between cooked well done causing cancer and cooked too rare causing cancer. Come to find out, hamburger doesn't cause cancer at all.

Finish your milk.

Very good point. Dairy products are in constant focus - so are meats in general (high fat vs protein vs cholestorol) - and fish (mercury or not so much mercury) And just knowledge of the human body and viatamins: always changing.

There's also this standing belief that home-cooked meals are healthier or at least lower in fat or calories than anything from a restaurant. . . not.
 
Michelle Obama recently said:



Do we need to spend money teaching parents about healthy eating and exercise habits? Or do you believe most parents already know this (even if they don't encourage a healthy diet/exercise routine for their children)?

Some parents know what good nutrition and healthy exercise is and some don't. Just like how it always been.The reason children have a higher rate of obesity than say 20-50 years ago is because kids were more active then than they are today. Kids have a more sedimentary life style today. Instead of walking around neighborhoods with their friends, going to parks,the woods,riding bikes and doing other stuff they are sitting at home playing video games and playing on the computer. Instead of participating in P.E./gym class they are fiddling around if they even take that class. I can't really say that it's the video games that are the problem because 20 years ago we had video games,heck even 30 years ago we had video games. The problem are parents who don't know how to tell their kids to play the **** outside or to limit a child's time on electronic devices.
 
An unhealthy diet doesn't always result in obesity - health conditions as well related to poor diets are on the rise.
 
Many healthy foods are not expensive and with a little effort, like canning fruits and/or vegetables when they're in season and cheap, you can stretch that even farther. There's nothing wrong with beans and rice when eaten in reasonable quantity. I think that's the biggest problem America faces, not being able to do the one exercise that would do us the most good - pushing ourselves back from the table.

I totally agree. I don't think that any government should be telling us what is good to eat, I'm just pointing out that I most adamantly object to the federation doing it.
Rant on about what the Fed should or shouldn't do but it's sheer stupidity for 50 States to have 50 different programs all trying to find out the same thing. That's spending 49 times what's required to get the information you need. That's what I call government waste.

I for one am glad the FDA did all the Recommended Daily Allowance studies and forced companies to include RDA information on their product labels, as well as an ingredients list. Without all that this thread and entire conversation would be moot because we would have no facts on the subject beyond what the food companies themselves might give us. Would you really trust the food companies, who have a direct, vested interest in the outcome, rather than Uncle Sam who is at least somewhat neutral on the subject?



Ed:
Just to be clear, no I don't think the Fed needs to spend money to push good eating habits but I wouldn't mind them putting it on the required list for schools. Everybody should be taught basic nutrition just like they should learn the Constitution and other important information for their life.
 
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again fried catfish and hush puppies!

once you eat southern breakfast you will realize their food is like crack,its so good you cant say no!!!!!!!!!!!!
Actually, for breakfast you can eat almost anything as long as you have a non-sedentary job. My grandfather ate bacon and eggs most mornings, sometimes ham, sometimes cheap steak, along with fried potatoes, toast, butter, etc, etc. The key is he didn't eat like that three times a day, it was only at breakfast. He lived to be 96.
 
Actually, for breakfast you can eat almost anything as long as you have a non-sedentary job. My grandfather ate bacon and eggs most mornings, sometimes ham, sometimes cheap steak, along with fried potatoes, toast, butter, etc, etc. The key is he didn't eat like that three times a day, it was only at breakfast. He lived to be 96.

Eat breakfast like a King, Dinner (lunch for you Yankees) like a Prince, and supper like a Pauper. This stops people from gorging down before going to bed. There's no chance to burn off a late supper. Avoid nighttime TV snacks too.
 
I think most parents may lack knowledge for an optimal diet but are well aware that what they are providing is not one. Convience, price, and taste rule the American diet and that will be a very hard to overcome.

I however do not view the government and their food pyramid as an optimal diet but rather an attempt at a in-between to get people to eat more healthy. As I have gotten older and grown more concerned about my health in future years, I have done a lot of research regarding diet recently. My observation is the governments food pyramid is really not a proper diet, they suggest dairy to much meat and to many grains. All of which are less then optimal and research has found that in some areas can have a negative impact on ones health.
 
Healthy foods are cheaper. People don't eat them because they have no idea what the **** a healthy life is is. It's not just fruits and vegetables. It's knowing how to cook them. It's knowing how to properly season meat. It's knowing how many portions are healthy. It's knowing that a glass of water with your food is FAR more healthy than a Coke. It's knowing you should get minimum 3 hours of exercise a week. It's knowing to walk down the street instead of taking a car. It's knowing that kids aren't supposed to be eating McDonald's twice a week. It's knowing you should get a medical check up every 6 months as a bare minimum.

We live in a society where "more" is pitched as better and the right is all too happy to agree for the sake of "free markets". 200 years of dietetic freedom have led us to become like the Greeks. Fat, lazy, unable to do anything more than drink, eat and pretend 66% obesity rates are something to be proud of.
 
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i grew up poor too......staples were what we called goulash, hamburger gravy (sounds disgusting but to this day i LOVE it) beans, sometimes chuck rost, round steak or chops. mostly all canned fruits and veggies. all of us were pretty healthy.
 
i grew up poor too......staples were what we called goulash, hamburger gravy (sounds disgusting but to this day i LOVE it) beans, sometimes chuck rost, round steak or chops. mostly all canned fruits and veggies. all of us were pretty healthy.

The above is even more healthy than what most parents pass off as a diet for their kids. I'm going to hate the day my kid goes to school cause then I'll have to hear about happy meals and other nasty **** that I refuse to have in my house.
 
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