Think Sesame Street's Cookie Monster and think ... broccoli? In a fit of drastic behavior modification, the cookie-addicted bundle of fur is declaring that cookies are, in fact, only a "sometime food." With any luck, the PBS kids show is onto something significant as it opens its 36th season next week: a new way to tackle childhood obesity affecting even preschoolers. And growing fast. Wednesday, the new annual Index of Child Well-Being showed childhood obesity tripled to almost 17% in 2004 from 1975. The New England Journal of Medicine says about 10% of kids under 5 were overweight in 2000, a doubling in 30 years. Sesame Street has taken note. While some cartoon characters - in Nickelodeon's LazyTown, for example - already encourage exercise, Sesame Street is going further by teaching healthy eating, active play and plenty of rest along with ABCs and 123s. Regulars Big Bird, Elmo and others are being joined by new vegetable Muppets. They'll encourage kids to "eat your colors," play the "healthy foods name game" and sing The Mango Tango. And they'll tackle one of the most painful repercussions of obesity in kids: teasing and bullying. A few episodes of Sesame Street do not a slim and healthy new generation make. But they can help mold informed behavior that, in the end, may be the best answer to the obesity epidemic. The preschool years are critical to forming habits and attitudes. Without change, the future kids face is alarming. Two-thirds of American adults are obese or overweight. Some experts believe obesity will reduce life expectancy by months during the next half-century, after decades of progress. Financial costs are soaring. Medicare is increasingly strained by treating obesity-related diseases. A Kaiser Family Foundation report says junk food ads now dominate TV pitches to kids, often with cartoon characters. Perhaps Sesame Street really can make "C," as the new Cookie Monster might say, for carrot sticks and change - besides that sometime cookie. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/news?tmp...oday/20050331/cm_usatoday/hisforhealthyeating "C" is for cookie and that's good enough for me!
We all know he never ate any cookies but crumbled them in his mouth and made big messess for the maid to pick up.
This is tickle me elmo's fault. Ever since he came onboard Sesame street has become Wussy Avenue. He's a playa and his act has gotta stop. The act is only so he can get chicks and I'm going to expose the charade.
That's it. I need to find copies of all the old Sesame Street and Muppets episodes. Why don't they just kill cookie monster via heart attack and bring in his "cousin" Veggie Monster? C is for veggies.... No. No it's not.
"vegetable muppets?" If Cookie Monster eats those vegetable muppets, he'll redeem himself in my eyes. Veggie Muppets- Eat your colors kids. Cookie Monster- Raaa what are colors? Veggie Muppets- Vegetables are colors. Cookie Monster- What are vegetables? Veggie Muppets- Why, we are vegetables, silly. Cookie Monster- Ok, me love vegetables, num num num (veggie muppets screams mixed in) num num num!
Cookie Monster has been a sellout since he covered Limp Bizkit. http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view.php?id=1204
Next thing you know, Oscar's gonna get a job, move out of the garbage can, into a penthouse, and become Oscar the Humanitarain.
totally serious. Have you actually watched Sesame Street recently? If you remember what it was like in the old days, you'll be sorely disappointed. They've gone way too far out of their way to be politically correct and make statements. It's healthier to see Cookie Monster eat broccoli. But it's a lot more fun to see him eat cookies. -- droxford
Rumor on the streets has it that broccoli Monster will soon take Cookie Monster's place if CM does not lose 10 pounds prior to the start of the season.
Why don't they just have him keep eating cookies and have the other characters remark "See what happens when you eat nothing but cookies - you turn into a blue monster that can't use pronouns correctly and you have some guy's hand stuck up your butt all the time."
Sesame Street should do a mockumentary on Cookie Monster where he balloons to monstrous proportions and faces the prospect of heart disease. His doctor visit ends with the doctor giving him a pamphlet, "So your ass is spiralling out of control."
Its gonna take a lot more to treat obesity in kids than having cookie monster eat broccli. This has got to stop.
