Should Your Children Be Eating What They Watch on Television, Essay Example

For the purpose of this research observation I watched three hours of Disney shows, The Suite Life on Deck, Hannah Montana and Wizards of Waverly Place for one evening. Commercials were shown including food that included fish and pasta.  The fish was being prepared around the world and the pasta was prepared fresh from the kitchens in Italy. The commercials go further to show adults and children in the market purchasing fish and bringing it home with their parents to cook. The fish is used as a tangible incentive in that the children can catch their own fish or choose their own catch and bring it home to ‘mommy or daddy’ fresh from the market for cooking. The tangible incentive with the pasta is that of a picturesque Italian architect and beautiful restaurants with children running around playing and having fun, then the picture moves to the restaurant where large plates of spaghetti and meatballs are prepared by the chef in a kid friendly restaurant. Children are stirring the pot in the restaurant which serves as an incentive for the children to want to eat the spaghetti.

The nutritional value of the fish appears to be very adequate as the fish are fresh from the river to the market which in the eyes of the children or the adult you cannot get fresher than this. However, one must keep in mind that when he/she purchases fish from a market you should ensure it is properly stored on ice and the eyes of the fish should be checked for same day catch freshness. In regards to the pasta, it is a great source for starch and carbohydrates which is essential for a child’s nutritional daily caloric intake. As long as it is boiled properly and it not stale, it can serve as one of the needed attributes to the food group. Children burn a lot of energy and starches and carbohydrates are essential to their diet.

I have seen many prior children related commercials that advertise foods and drinks that are high in sugars and with no little nutritional value. These commercials prey on little television watchers to promote their items through parents’. However this particular Disney series of shows presented two foods that appeared to be adequate in nutritional value for children.