The North Carolina House is poised to passed a bill (HB 1726) dictating what kind of food can be provided at private child care facilities.
It is interesting how some legislators oppose big government except when it comes to an issue where they want to impose their own wishes. So much for principle.
Sara Burrows recently spoke to one of those legislators (Rep. Brown) and his focus seemed to be on the failure of parents. Even if we buy his argument, the bill doesn’t address what parents provide their kids. It only focuses on what the kids eat at child care facilities (I’m not trying to give them the idea that they should regulate what parents feed their kids, but that is coming).
Terry has an excellent post on the research that shows the problems with the approach taken in this bill. In simple terms, regulating what is fed to kids at these facilities doesn’t work.
It also is important to note the utter failures the government has had when it comes to providing any direction on diet. For example, see the failure of the Food Pyramid and the new Food Pyramid.
At least the Food Pyramid was guidance to provide a general picture to the public on how to eat. The supporters of this bill are so arrogant that they believe the government has objective knowledge on what is best for kids when it comes to what to eat (and also the appropriate level of physical activity).
For example, the bill bans:
– Serving sugar‑sweetened
beverages to children of any age.
– Serving whole milk to
children two years of age or older or flavored milk to children of any age
– Serving more than six
ounces of juice per day to children of any age.
Plus, there is a a requirement that all juice be served in
a cup and not in a bottle.
How much would you like to bet that some of these nutritional guidelines will be disproved in 10 years and there will be unintended consequences?
Parents and child care facilities can make decisions far better than the government on what is best for their kid. At least if they fail to do so, they were free to make mistakes as opposed to being forced to live with the government’s mistakes.