What are We Feeding Our Kids? - Softcover

This guide for parents is an examination of children, diet, government and the food industry. It explains why the same dietary villains afflicting adults - too much fat, cholesterol, sugar, salt - are equally bad for kids; what the food industry does to develop brand loyalty among children; how the FCC allows advertisers to bombard children with tens of thousands of TV commercials every year; how schools, under fiscal pressure, are beginning to invite fast-food restaurants to take over cafeteria services. With its outline of nutritional guidelines and healthy eating pyramid, it also tells how you can change your childrens' dietary habits.

WHAT PARENTS MUST KNOW ABOUT THEIR CHILDREN'S UNHEALTHFUL DIETS

Assaulted by television, enticed by fast foods, betrayed by the school cafeteria, the average American child consumes a diet that suffers from the same villains that afflict American adults: too much fat, cholesterol, sugar, and salt.

But now parents can regain control of their children's nutritional health as quickly as the next meal. Impeccably researched throughout, this guide explains:

· The connection between childhood diet and disease

· Good and bad influences on your child's food preferences

· How savvy marketers, government regulators, food corporations, and school administrators fail to protect the young, and what you can do about it

· The five family food commandments

· Strategies for healthy eating in and out of the home. It even offers 12 tips for getting your child to love vegetables.

"JUNK FOOD PURVEYORS HAVE MET THEIR MATCH . . .

. . . What Are We Feeding Our Kids? Is a powerful tool in the battle to improve the health of our nations children."

--Senator Patrick J. Leahy

" . . . hits the mark. It shows the faults in children's diets that underlie the high prevalence of heart disease in our nation."

--Gerald S. Berenson, M.D., Director, Tulane National Center for Cardiovascular Health

"This important book will help defeat efforts to miseducate kids about food, and should be required reading for caring parents."

--Peggy Charren, Founder, Action for Children's Television

Michael F. Jacobson, Ph.D., is the executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the nonprofit group that has led a nationwide campaign to improve America's nutrition. He is also the co-author of the Fast-Food Guide.

Bruce Maxwell is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in Parenting, Mother Jones, and other publications.