One of the hardest things for me currently as a father to a 4 1/2 year old daughter is the seeming endless (at this stage) dietary struggle between 'good' nutritional choices and an endless and constant stream of processed sugar and flour. As my child is just about to enter the public educational domain, I realize that our dietary struggle with her is going to take on a whole new dimension. It may go well, who knows. Let's just say that I have my concerns and fears as she enters the world of Cheetos and Honey Buns. I guess all parents go through this, but that doesn't make it any more fun or ease my concern any less. I realize that this is an issue that has plagued all parents over time in varying degrees. I can see how some might've totally given up in light of the challenges of the process. In an age where diabetes, heart disease, and obesity are on the rise in such a fashion that many of our youngsters are plagued with these very 'adult' diseases, it is my hope that the revamping of the dietary plan and snack machine offerings in the public schools does not lag in any real way. As a parent of a young child, you start to realize at this age that it is not just the child that you have to contend with in matters of well being and health, but also the social conception at large. That conception is in massive need of an overhaul and could not come about a day too soon. As parents, ultimately we have to step back a little, if only to preserve our sanity and equilibrium. We will continue to make healthy choices at home and hopefully this will radiate outward to family and friends, having a beneficial effect on our communities. In the long run we shall chip away at this. It is by generations of this kind of determination that standards of nutrition will prevail. Hopefully one day we will all look back as a society and see food-caused diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure in the rear view mirror as we adopt a truly healthy dietary for our own homes and families. These issues hit human beings hard because we place so much pleasure--and hence, personal issues--in food and in the process of eating. Should I dare say it? ......It was never meant to be this way. We have ladeled so much responsibility on a process that was solely meant to give nutrition to the physical body that it (eating) cannot be expected to deliver. As long as we pack personal issues and food in the same activity it seems that we will have trouble adjusting to dietary change, and therefore of making real and lasting food choice/changes in the name of health or longevity or God or whatever--take your pick! Nothing about what I have just said is 'hot off the press' or freshly pioneered in any way, but it is true and real and will remain as such, no matter whether or not we seriously consider it today or in 5, 10, or 20 years. It has come to the fore for me because I have a young daughter to look after and care for, and I know that I am not alone in this. Perhaps all of us, looking out for our family and ourselves in a dedicated way, caring about the types of food and the quality of nutrition that we are feeding our bodies, and really loving one another through these efforts, will actually inspire fundamental changes in the outward systems that we touch? I certainly hope so for my child's sake.