The Strong 4 Life ads from the state of Georgia are considered highly controversial due to people’s fears of how they will affect kid’s self esteem. I disagree and think they are right on the mark. Sick and fat is sick and fat. There is no hiding from it. Kids are resilient, and if these ads spur parents to help their kids avoid disease, obtain health and consequently improve their self images – it doesn’t get any better. It is time that children are rescued from the slow and painful death march that corporate America has created and their parents have largely sanctioned.
As a formerly overweight, tv watching, sugar addicted, junk food eating kid from the 1970s and 80s, I know that it feels like crap to look and feel like crap. My parents didn’t know how to communicate and teach me anything else because they ate junk and battled weight and disease. I fortunately only experienced too much weight and hypoglycemia until taking control of my life as an adult in my late 20s. Through my teens I was able to remain a relatively non-descript, unnoticed kid, but I wish that my parents would have had the knowledge and belief in health to try and help me lead a healthier life. I know first-hand how self-image is tied to health.
Once I took control of my life in my late 20s, became muscularly fit and shed the excess weight, I soared personally and professionally. My belief in myself was strong. I still battled hypoglycemia because I didn’t know how to eat well (Lean Cuisine is a nasty, disease causing starvation “food”) and I ate too many carbs, but I was still vastly better than my younger years. Once I found real food at age 40, I began my climb to the stratosphere of health – stronger, faster and healthier at 45 than 28.
The kids in these commercials are suffering much more deeply than I did with health and self esteem issues caused by the food choices they and their parents make. If it takes these ads to wake parents up and lead their kids to brighter, healthier, stronger, more fulfilling futures, then Amen. And if the parents don’t take notice, maybe some of the kids will and they will save themselves.
Believe me, kids can handle the truth about the food they eat and will excel if given the chance. Everyone’s body just wants the chance.
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