Television Reviews : ‘Diet of Danger’ Takes Look at What Children Eat

If we are what we eat, our children are in big trouble. That’s the message tonight in ABC News’ “Burning Questions” report on “America’s Kids: Diet of Danger” (10 p.m. on Channels 7, 3, 10 and 42). The title sounds like sensationalism, but this straightforward, serious presentation doesn’t use shock tactics; it doesn’t need to.

According to nutritionists, physicians, and statewide and national studies, the mass consumption of convenience and fast-food, combined with limited physical exercise seem likely reasons for the high cholesterol counts, high blood pressure and obesity seen in even very young children today.

We’re given statistics to chew on:

--Forty percent of children between the ages of 6 and 17 can’t do a single pull-up.

--Obesity (among children) has risen 40% in the last 15 years.

--Only 25% of our medical schools require students to take nutrition courses.

--Only one state--Illinois--still requires daily exercise for children.

We’re also given an eye-opening look at big-business Saturday morning television advertising. The contrast between cereal manufacturers’ sugar-saturated messages aimed at children and their “high in fiber, low in fat” ads aimed at adults is eloquent.

ABC’s own vice president of children’s programming, Jennie Trias, is put on the spot, saying the ads are necessary or “I don’t have any shows to put on for kids.” She says that it’s mom and dad who must be in control.

Parents are definitely on the hook here, but they’re not alone. The program, hosted by ABC News anchor Paula Zahn, refreshingly minces no words, targeting profit-hungry manufacturers, a reluctant, foot-dragging government and a neglectful school system.

It repeatedly emphasizes, however, the need for parents to educate themselves, to demand change and to see that their own ignorance and hectic life styles seem to be creating disease-prone children . . . children who think that the four basic food groups are “McDonald’s, Burger King, Pizza Hut and Kentucky Fried.”