Have We Gone Too Far?

Bronx Assemblyman Michael Benjamin wants to make cupcakes the official children's snack food of New York State.

Benjamin's bill is in response to a ban on cupcakes at school birthday parties in some Long Island school districts.

These school districts want to combat obesity problems in children and have banned the cupcake as one of the prime offenders in the war against fat.

Benjamin acknowledges there is a huge problem with childhood obesity in this country, but thinks the school cupcake ban is going too far:

Benjamin said that while even his wife thinks his bill encourages childhood obesity, "it's a personal pet peeve of mine that everything that brings warm memories, the muffin mullahs want to cut out of our diet."

"I recognize that there are some overweight children and obesity is a rising problem among some of our children, but it makes no sense that school districts are banning cupcakes parties for little children," he went on.

Is Benjamin making a good point here? Are the food police going too far when they start banning cupcakes and other goodies from schools for even special occasions like birthday parties and holiday fests?

Or are these school districts right to ban sweets of all kinds from school in an attempt to get kids socialized into eating healthy early on in their lives?

I dunno, maybe there is a third way to deal with this problem. Maybe cupcakes could be allowed in school for very special occasions like birthday parties but otherwise banned from the school?

I tend to think the special occasion idea might work best.

I don't know about you, but I try and eat healthy as much as I can (lots of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, low-fat, etc.) but when it comes to special occasions, I like to celebrate with something fun like cupcakes or ice cream.

As good as carrots and hummus or a fresh fruit salad can be, there's nothing like cupcakes and ice cream to really mark the occasion "special."

And of course you can make the cupcakes or other goodies healthier than say the Tastycake/Hostess/local bakery loaded with lard and fat variety.

What do you think?