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I think it'd be a good idea to ban those types of commercials, but I wonder if that would ever happen. Our gov. subsidizes so many different crops...WOULD they ban something on one hand, but on the other hand they're subsidizing it?
And for the record, I don't know for a fact what's subsidized, and what isn't, so someone could probably easily disprove my theory. lol
I would be fine with regulating all advertisements for negative influences in everyone's life. Is that realistic? No.
If the government was really serious about improving kids' health, they would make healthy foods the cheapest and easiest to access. That is a very difficult and expensive proposition, so they are simply knee-jerk grabbing the lowest-hanging fruit to pretend they are doing something.
As any parent who does it will tell you, it takes a LOT of time, effort, and money to prepare 5 healthy meals a day for multiple children. Schools where I live demand that you send children with a shelf-stable room-temperature lunch and snacks, or they will give them a couple of items of processed junk food accompanied by some unwashed bruised/rotten fruit or soggy raw vegetables (which the children wouldn’t eat since they can get by on the cookies or whatever garbage snack is included, even if the fruits and veg were in decent shape).
On weekends, we only have to provide 3 healthy meals that do not have to be sitting at room temperature for six hours, which is somewhat easier.
We put a lot of effort into feeding our children well. That means multiple trips every week to the store and farmer's market to ensure a steady supply of fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, dairy, and bread/grains. Multiple hours dedicated to washing, chopping, steaming, and otherwise preparing meals that must be shelf-stable for at least several hours. We can only cook one day ahead of time, because schools don't provide refrigeration or reheating implements. It is not something the average family can manage in the United States. (or Spain, I imagine)
Some ways to do it better are:
- Provide steamers in the classroom/s as they do in Japan, Taiwan, and China. This allows students to have healthy, hot lunches without having to worry about bacteria growth over several hours at room temperature.
- Subsidize fruits and vegetable farmers to lower their price at the market.
- Add a discounted grocery delivery service to the WIC and other food stamp programs (and/or subsidize it for anyone who enrolls their children in existing grocery delivery services) that will deliver inexpensive fruits and vegetables to households with children at low or no cost.
- Offer ONLY healthy food at school. Kids have the choice of eating healthy food or going hungry. I recall Obama (1st lady) trying this and getting a lot of backlash from people who care more about politics than children.
None of this is going to happen, though, and the average family will continue to feed their children with the cheap and easy trash like lunchables and other shelf-stable crap, because there is really no choice unless you can afford to have one working parent, servants, or some other form of help.
.......- Subsidize fruits and vegetable farmers to lower their price at the market.
..........
It doesn't have anything to do with advertising sugar, but just be aware, the farmer is not the one getting high prices for fruits and vegetables (or meat or grain). So it wouldn't make any difference to lower what the farmer is paid for produce.
I don't want the government telling me what I or my loved ones 'should' eat. I've always known a few, if very few, parents who restricted sugar with their children and they managed without Big Brother's interference. Spain and everywhere else can take away their own choices if they want to.
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