Study Conclusion: Having home-grown fruits and vegetables available for kids makes them more apt to eat healthy.

I start with the conclusion of the study because I'm not so sure that I agree with everything that comes before it. You see, this recent study, conducted at St. Louis University's Obesity Prevention Center, found what is pretty much stated above. After interviewing approximately 1,600 parents of pre-school aged children who reside in rural southeast Missouri, they found that kids who were given homegrown fruits and veggies were more likely to consume the recommended five to thirteen servings per day.

With childhood obesity rates on the rise, dangers of heart disease are becoming something of concern for our children as well as our adult population. Naturally, this whole growing-and-eating healthy vegetables and fruits push is a step in the right direction to combat the issue. What's my problem with it, then? Availability.

It is expensive to eat healthy. It is also expensive to grow healthy food. I'm by no means a green thumb, but I know that to grow crops, you at the very least need some land! Kids living in poor communities most likely live in apartments, not houses. Consequently, they do not have deeded access to any area in which to grow fruits and vegetables.

I hate to come across as negative with all this, but I just don't think it is as easy as the report makes it seem. True, kids can plant gardens in school -- but that's assuming that they are going to school. True, kids who eat fresh vegetables will be more inclined to reach for this healthy snack instead of a Twinkie and a bottle of soda -- but the twinkie and soda only costs about two bucks and can be bought today, whereas growing fresh vegetables and fruit can cost quite a bit of money upfront and will not be ready to eat until months after being planted. And true, kids from homes with fresh gardens are more likely to see their parents eating healthy fruits and vegetables -- but that's also assuming that their parents are home and are not instead working two or three part-time jobs, just to make rent and provide as best as they can for their kids. Quite frankly, they don't have time to sit around and watch flowers grow.

I don't mean to turn this into a social commentary, but I feel that addressing the obesity problem and the rising rates of cardiovascular disease is not something that should be assigned arbitrarily, but should be done through initiatives and methods that can be applied universally. Planting fresh fruits and vegetables in a garden may be a viable solution for .001 percent of the population (and a good one at that for those people), but it does little to help the remainder of the people at risk.