Legislating Food Compliance

Here’s the question:

Should we look at legislating junk food advertisments aimed at kids?

I understand regulation of cigarette ads to children, because nicotene is addictive and tobacco is lethal … a terrible combination that mystifies anyone who asks, “and WHY is a lethal addictive carcinogen on the market at all?”

But having one Cheeto is not awful. Having several sleeves of Oreos every day is. And this is the difference between the two cases. One is “quantitative” and the other is “qualitative”.

The cigarette case is Qualitative. In other words, there is something uniquely bad about them. Junk foods are only Quantitatively bad. In other words, it’s not deadly in itself, until you eat so much of them that they become that way. They become bad with greater quantity.

Because of this, we need to exercise restraint when trying to police what our kids watch, because eating too much chocolate is BAD for you. But a little is very heart healthy. Eggs are healthy for us, until we eat a dozen-egg omelet. Same with cheese, same with butter, same with carb-laden “white foods”.

As parents, this is where we need to talk to our kids about food choices. As a society, this is where we need to talk to parents about talking to their kids.

In this case, we need to focus on responsibility, not abstenence.