Who Influences You?

Traditionally, children have been raised by not only their parents, but also their aunts, uncles, grandparents, and whoever else lived nearby. Parents had vast stores of information to tap for issues that would arise and techniques to deal with those issues. Kids don’t come with instruction manuals, so this family centered advice system was indispensible. As a society, we don’t live in the same style family units as our grandparents and their families. So, where does the advice come from now?

There are those who will pick up the phone and call mom, grandma or a trusted friend, but many turn to books and magazines: not all together a bad idea. I don’t live at all close to my family (read thousands of miles away from) so I use books to gather information and ideas. Sometimes a magazine comes across my desk and I get fun activity ideas for the kids there.

The most recent issue of a parenting niche magazine came in the mail kind of randomly. I don’t subscribe to it, but it came to the house so I flipped through the issue. As usual, there were some great activity ideas, cute things children had said, articles about manners, organization, etc. What caught my eye were the ads.

There were fifteen advertisements in the magazine for highly processed, unhealthy foods all aimed at children. Touts of “Lower Sugar!,” “Natural Fruit Ingredients,” and “Unconditional Love.” There were also three pages of ads for infant formula and zero promoting breastfeeding!

Why did I notice this? Why did it bother me? In defense of the magazine, they did run articles on how to make really fun and cute veggie snacks for children and others teaching moms how to use portion control to keep dinners at an appropriate size . . . but those ads were large, bright colorful and in your face. There were only three ads promoting healthier snack options for children. With so many of our young people being diagnosed as obese, is it irresponsible for magazines to run these ads? I think so.

As books and magazines further replace the trusted advice of grandma and mom, they carry a heavier burden of responsibility. So do their readers. While article content becomes more geared towards healthier living and child raising, the advertisers keep making their ads prettier and brighter and trickier. It is up to us readers to sift through the muck and mire and filter out the bad. Processed foods are never as good for your children as whole, real foods.

Instead of processed foods, here are some great resources for developing your own nutrition plan for your children: (I reccomend Deceptively Delicious with a caviat: use butter instead of margarine. Butter is a whole food, margarine is 100% processed. Also, use natural extracts instead of "flavors" and plain yogurt. Great ideas for healthy snacks, though. Formal Review to come!)