Letting fat children eat junk food is child abuse

This was a brilliant lead column by Amanda Platell in the Daily Mail in response to the Jamie Oliver initiative on school meals (see the blog “Jamie’s school meal revolution shunned by 400,000 pupils”). In great Amanda style – say it how it is – Amanda argues that Jamie’s plan required the support of all parents and they have let him down. Amanda noted “Far from helping him bring about his dietary revolution, many mothers sought to undermine him by continuing to feed their children junk food at home or – worse still – smuggling takeaways into the playground.”

Amanda ends the article by saying “It’s not just ignorance to reject Jamie’s healthy eating plan. It’s child abuse.”

I have to agree with Amanda. There is overwhelming evidence that an overweight child will become an overweight adult and being overweight, let alone obese, will substantially increase the risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and the major fatal illnesses. (Much research continues to be done on the link between diet and weight and cancer). With the exception of a few monsters, I believe that all parents love their children and yet how can passing bags of chips under the school gate, rather than encouraging the child to have Jamie’s nutritionally rich meals, be ‘loving one’s child’?

Please parents – give your children the best possible start in life with the most important fundamental of all – what they eat.