A few months ago I read a book called ‘The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl’ by Shauna Reid. She is an Australian woman, a couple of years younger than me, now living in Scotland. She wrote the book (and the blog it started out as) to chronicle her weight loss ‘adventure’ and it was a hilarious, touching story. She began her diet when she was tipping the scales at 351lbs and now weighs literally half that at 175.5lbs. I don’t read a lot of diet books so I can’t say whether or not this is not your average diet book, but I suspect it isn’t your average diet book. There’s a lot more to Shauna’s life than her battle with her weight, and all that extra stuff makes for some hilarious passages in her book. I could go on but I don’t want to sound too much like her pimp.

One of the things she talks about is her relationship with food as a young child, and the role her parents played in her weight gain. I’ve watched enough episodes of Oprah and Dr Phil to know that ‘eating issues’ are often established in childhood, and I have family members and school friends who can trace their weight problems back to their parents’ insistence that they finish everything on their plate before they could leave the table.

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Responding to the Kellogg Company and Viacom being threatened with a lawsuit by the Center for Science in the Public Interest and the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood, Kellogg’s cereals will not be advertised during children’s programming unless it meets certain nutritional guidelines:

The voluntary changes, which will be put in place over the next 1 1/2 years, will apply to about half of the products Kellogg markets to children worldwide, including Froot Loops and Apple Jacks cereals and Pop-Tarts.

Frosted Flakes, for example, and Rice Krispies with Real Strawberries will still make the nutritional cut, though regular Rice Krispies will not (too much salt).

Kellogg’s will also be discontinuing any product tie-ins with licensed characters or branded toys. I guess that box of Shrek Apple Jacks in my pantry just became a collectible!

While I’m sure some parents might think that it’s grrreat!, I’m with writer Kerrie Flanagan:

Here I was, the whole time thinking it was the consumption of junk food and lack of exercise that causes childhood obesity. The good thing is now I can rest easy knowing it is not my fault if my kids get fat. It’s Viacom’s fault for putting images of my favorite Bikini Bottom resident on a box of food. What a relief! I no longer have to accept any responsibility for my choices.

Even though I’ll admit I find slapping characters on everything from Dixie cups to ketchup bottles incredibly obnoxious, I don’t see how marketers shoulder the culpability when kids consume food items that their parents buy for them.

What do you think? Should advertising be to blame for making our children chunky?

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