Families as a whole need better skills in nutrition and cooking skills! These things need to be addressed at the school education level but without weighing kids, out lawing "junk" food or forcing kids to exercise. Healthy foods need to be promoted at least as much as fast foods on our tvs

Hi Kate,
Which parents are stupid enought/lazy enough to make their kids obese by buying soooo much junk food.

tax the junk food sold through major fast food retailers.

There is a concerted push to educate our children about Health and Nutrition and obesity but it all seems pretty pointless when our adults are living on Krispy Cremes and KFC.

We realy need to educate our adults who should lead by example, and not blame our children for following suit.

There is a concerted push to educate our children about Health and Nutrition and obesity but it all seems pretty pointless when our adults are living on Krispy Cremes and KFC.

We realy need to educate our adults who should lead by example, and not blame our children for following suit.

The transcript states 'One very important issue is of course the banning of advertising aimed at children for food and drink.'

I think this attitude is too typical of society looking for someone to blame the problem on without accepting any responsibility.

The issue lies directly with poor parenting and it is the parents, and not the advertisers, that should be held accountable for the obesity problems of today, and the health issues that will undoutedly arise as a result.

How do you hold the parents accountable?

Parents are under intense pressure to satisfy every whim of their kids and with the lifestyle's people live these days (lots of time spent at work by both parents, etc) it's hard to say no.

Social need must be considered and if these products are ultimately causing what will undoubtedly be an extremely expensive obesity epidemic in the future the create disincentives.

People harp on about freedom of choice and the responsibility of the individual, many people have too much freedom of choice, so much that they can't make the proper choices and let their kids eat crap - they probably eat it too. "Poor parenting" it may be, but good parenting is getting harder by the week with the rampant consumerism and workaholic lifestyles that are required to support it.

Make it easier for parents to make the right decisions, the very notion that we should blame them or the food purveyors is flawed and beside the point - we need something to fix the problem and taxing junk food or imposing advertising regulations can do this. It doesn't 'harm' anyone, especially not with record levels of employment in this country and certainly not in any way that could be compared to the irreparable physical harm that is being created to the next generation of australians, and potentially far less than the economic harm that might befall the tax-payers who need to pay for all the medical costs of these unhealthy people in the many decades ahead.

:) (and yes I'm only here because of the SMH)

Although I disagree, Kyle, that parents should be cut some slack when it comes to their poor diet choices, I do agree that the problem lies more in the busy lifestyles of more and more people these days. It's the age of consumerism! And there's only so many times you can eat Subway.

Perhaps a return to more traditional family values (with one parent home at least part time) would curb the fast food fed obesity epidemic. But even that is in a large part the fault of parents, as well as wider society - with parenting no longer viewed as an acceptable occupation, or one worth sacrificing for.

On the other hand, if only Brisbane had Krispy Cremes!

[quote]Perhaps a return to more traditional family values (with one parent home at least part time) would curb the fast food fed obesity epidemic. But even that is in a large part the fault of parents, as well as wider society - with parenting no longer viewed as an acceptable occupation, or one worth sacrificing for.[/quote]

Like 'ell !
You're trying to suggest that children live in some fanciful 'Kiddy World' and parents live in the gloomier and harsher 'Real World'. I beg to differ.
They both live in the same world, kids are just sponges and absorb information from all sources (good and bad). Kids eat Carp because other kids do and the telly tells 'em it's good

Traditional values ? - lock the kids up and give them a flogging if they complain.

That said, BAN McDONALDS - probably impossible ,may be illegal but lawd a'mighty I hate McDonalds (increasingly more things American each day. Don't know how Howard could stoop so low as to befriend that buffoon)