Senate Hearing on Childhood Obesity Glosses over Parents' Role

(MoneyWatch)  The first paragraph of an Associated Press article today:

Combating the growing obesity problem among children will require stronger action at all levels from food makers to governments and schools, witnesses told U.S. lawmakers Tuesday at a hearing about how foods are marketed to kids.

Notice anything missing there? That's right, "parents."

Don't get me wrong, I think food companies (certainly), schools and even the government each have a role to play in keeping our kids from eating a lot of junk food. But unless parents take the initiative, it will make little difference whether food companies join in the "voluntary" initiatives that the Senate Committee on Appropriations heard about today, or whether the government restricts advertising Twinkies to preschoolers.

The only mention of parents at the hearing, at least in the AP account, was when Julie Gerberding, the head of the CDC, said that "children can't make healthy food decisions for themselves and they and their parents are being influenced by advertising."

True enough, but at some point, parents have to take responsibility for what their kids eat, and blaming the obesity of our children on a nation full of zombielike parents whose minds are controlled by advertising messages seems like the wrong path to getting us where we need to be.