LET THEM EAT CAKE

LET THEM EAT CAKE

By Andy Malekoff © 2007

I recently learned that some schools have banned parents from bringing cupcakes into school for their children’s birthdays in an effort to decrease childhood obesity. Some parents agree and some object. Those who agree are encouraged by reports that the children don’t miss the sweet treats when they are replaced with healthy snacks and fun activities. Those who object to substitute foods and activities see an end to an age old childhood ritual.

What’s the big deal anyway? Cupcakes can be replaced with healthy snacks like rice cakes. I tried to stick a candle into a rice cake and the rice cake split in half. I tried it again and the candle wouldn’t hold. So I bought a container of low fat Jell-O, scooped it out and put it on top of the rice cake. I stuck the candle into the Jell-O and it stayed, although it did jiggle.

Some think that fun activities are good alternatives to cupcakes. I would steer clear of pin the tail on the donkey and bashing a piñata with stick, particularly if the piñata is an animal figure. I think pin the tail on the eggplant might work. Just think how things might have turned out for Michael Vick if he pinned the tail on an eggplant when he was a child.

I am in favor of anything that will help children to grow up healthy, physically and emotionally; anything that will help them to fit in socially and gain a real sense of belonging. Some call this latest movement to reduce childhood obesity “culinary correctness.” It is fun to joke around about this, just as it was fun when Ronald Reagan declared ketchup a vegetable some years ago when he and his budget director David Stockman took on school lunches during Reagan’s budget cutting days in the early 1980’s.

If depriving kids a couple trays of cupcakes each year will really help to keep them fit and trim I am all for it. And, of course I know that this is just one part of a grander plan for improving kids’ healthy development and an easy target to poke fun at. The reality, according to national studies is that between 5-25 percent of children and teenagers in the United States are obese and, according to some reports, on the increase.

According to experts, obesity is easier to prevent than to treat. Prevention focuses in large part on parent education that includes encouraging proper nutrition, selection of low-fat snacks, good exercise/activity habits, and monitoring of television viewing.

Specialists at the Mayo Clinic advise parents to, “Keep in mind that many overweight children grow into their extra pounds as they get taller. Realize, too, that an intense focus on your child's eating habits and weight can easily backfire, leading a child to overeat even more, or possibly making him or her more prone to developing an eating disorder.”

In the final analysis and if I had to take a stand, I say give the kids an extra lap or two during gym class on birthdays. And, let them eat cake.

This article was originally published in the Anton Community Newspapers, Long Island, NY.