Junk Food, Anyone?

For Dr. Brand's Religion in the Public Square class, we are required to write short articles every week. I think I had too much fun with this one:

I discovered a rather amusing article at the all-time resourceful www.cbsnews.com. This past week, President Clinton has formed a deal with schools who want to participate in his endeavor to remove junk food and instead replace the fat grams with healthy food. The article states, “The companies, Kraft Foods Inc., Mars Inc., Campbell Soup Co., Dannon and PepsiCo Inc., agreed to instead begin promoting snacks that meet new nutrition guidelines backed by the American Heart Association.” It goes on to say, “Fatty, calorie-ladden candy bars, extra-salty soups and anything with trans-fatty acids will be out. Low-fat chips (baked, not fried) and low-sugar yogurts will be in.” This means the all-time favorite Snickers bar might have to wave a goodbye to its pudgy consumer.

Though this article originally struck me as funny by holding a resemblance to a waste of time, it in turn made me ponder the situation with children, schooling, and the problem of obesity. During the era of Leave it to Beaver, Beaver knew the effects of eating too many chocolates and Mrs. Cleaver was seen being distressed over his not consuming the tomato she packed in his lunchbox. This draws the attention of a time when children were “packed” healthy lunches and taught the importance from their parents on eating healthy. In a family situation that can at times resemble something far from a Cleaver family, the Christian foundation for familes can be seen as quickly sliding from morals and family life.

This leaves a crisis in which parents are not taking time for family, with certainly no importance being placed on the simple facts such as eating healthy and saying no to every candy bar that beams through a vending machine door! Though at times something such as the government issuing health in the junk food industry can seem a bit trivial, it also reflects something bigger in the vending machine of morals and the characteristics behind a Biblical concept of family.

The source for this article can be found at.