Charisa Darling

I saw about 7 minutes of a show called, "Honey, We're Killing the Kids" last night. It's an hour long show that focuses on an all-around unhealthy family and tries to correct their bad habits.

The family featured last night consisted of 2 overweight parents and 4 overweight kids. They didn't spend much "family" time together, no one-on-one time with the kids, and never any physical activity. The majority of their meals were fast food and the pantry was filled with unhealthy foods. You get the picture.

I've seen shows like this before, as I'm sure we all have. I'm going to ignore the obvious problems here and focus on one thing. The eating. The host/nutritionist supplies them with new recipes that they must try. The first dinner that they made last night was some kind of paella, complete with mussels and clams. Mussels and clams. To kids. Who are used to eating burgers and fries. The second night it was something with tofu. Again, tofu. Tofu.

Yes! Give someone who doesn't cook much somewhat advanced meals to prepare! And make sure that all the ingredients are totally foreign to them as well! While I'm sure this is done to make the show interesting, it drives me nuts! Why not start them with tacos using ground turkey? Whole wheat tortillas, low fat cheese, and veggies to top it off. Because that's too easy. I'm thinking if I'm overweight, sitting at home watching this show I'm going to say, "See, I can't make paella, guess I'm going to go hit the drive-thru..."

It's the same principle as make-over shows that try to turn a Goth teen aged girl into someone who would carry a pink fuzzy purse.

Baby steps people, baby steps.

(And, yes, it's still raining.)