Your kid is fat!

[Quiddity]

I do want to note that half the stuff I used to it eat, I had no idea it was bad for me. Things like twinkies, slice of pizza, and myriad of other things are quite obvious, but others are not. So I don't necessarily believe that the majority parents don't care. I could have been one of those parents out of ignorance, not because I didn't care about my kids.

If they were enourmously obese, then that's a clear sign, but some kids can eat junk food all day and night for years and not gain weight.

So education and change of attitude is key. With parent involvement....

 

[Booko]

I cannot, nor do I want to, imagine a parent who knows the risk to their child's health and does nothing about it. I cannot fathom that.

Like Danisty, I've observed it. I have no idea how a parent can do that, but I know that they're out there.

 

[Ðanisty]

I dont see how any one here can sit back and honestly say that a 6 year old kid must get over the teasing, must decide for themselves what is good and bad to eat, can set up an exercise routine for themselves, etc. It is ridiculous!

We're not really talking about 6 year olds. 6 year olds are barely in school. From what I got out of this, I imagine we're talking about 10-15 year olds. Plus, any child in school shouldn't have to decide for themselves what is healthy to eat and how to exercise. The school should have already started teaching that.

The other thing we haven't touched on here is the difference between the food we ate and the food our kids are eating. As long as we have chemical companies buying out food companies, expect our kids to get fatter and sicker, no matter if they exercise or not.

The problem is only partly us. The other problem is our food.

The reason we have kids coming up with Type II diabetes is a change in daily diet, in part. We drank sodas for a treat. They drink sodas from toddlerhood on. ack!

Tell me about it! Food these days is loaded with all kinds of crap. Why on earth do we have to put sugar in fruit juice??? I was recently diagnosed with type II diabetes and let me tell you, there isn't one prepackaged thing out there that I can really eat. Plus kids are spoiled. Their parents seem willing to buy and feed them whatever they ask for. When I was little, we didn't have any snack cakes or kool-aid in the house. The only sodas we did have were diet sodas. I didn't have access to all the stuff kids get now and I was still overweight. I can't imagine what it would be like now. I saw a video clip from Dr. Phil the other day where this mom suggested oatmeal and the kid threw a fit demanding pizza rolls. I would bet anything that in the end, that kid got pizza rolls. If I had acted like that, I'd have got smacked!

Also, when I was in school, the school lunches were always greasy and loaded with carbs, not to mention absolutely disgusting. I don't think I ate a single school lunch after 1st grade. If I had eaten school lunch, my problem would have been even worse. I was one of the lucky ones with parents that cared and even with that I was heavy and had to deal with the teasing. Kids these days don't stand a chance. The only ones that seem healthy (and I say that because being thin doesn't mean you're healthy anyway) are the ones with naturally high metabolisms. If their metabolisms were slower, they'd be fat too!

 

[Booko]

fourth, parents! information leaflets should be available for parents detailing all the basic ideas they need to have to keep their kid healthy.

I'd be much more inclined to send out leaflets to parents of *all* children, in the hope it might educate at least some of them on healthy nutrition. Even the parents whose kids are thin -- guess what -- those kids still might be eating unhealthy diets.

What happens sometimes if you eat a high GI carb diet is you're really really thin in your 20s and 30s, and then you hit your 40s and have a complete turnaround. You put on weight you can't take off (even by exercise), your blood pressure goes up, etc.

Doing BMIs and giving reports to the parents doesn't seem to do a thing to actually improve kids' health. There are lots of other things we could be doing, but aren't, because money (not science) is running the curricula in areas like health.

fith, the kids themselves! if a kid is getting to an unhealthy weight, why? although i am no expert on this subject, i suspect there is more than one potential reason why a person may be gaining weight.

Exactly. I can't tell you how tiresome it is to be told "oh, if you want to lose weight, you have to cut back on your food and exercise more." Bullcrap! That's true maybe if you have a few vanity pounds.

For *some* people, that is a recipe for even more weight gain long term. Unless and until you look at the hormones involved in the weight equation, you don't really *know* what's going on.

My doc told me I had to *stop* cardiovascular exercise a couple of years ago because my cortisol levels were screamingly high. In addition, I had to eat *more* calories (but properly balanced for *me*).

I lost 15 pounds in one month and stopped getting sleepy in the midafternoon. My energy level was a lot better, and I slept more soundly at night. All the cutting calories and exercise never did that.

In the case of one of my best friends, she's always had a weight problem. She eats less than you thin people do, always has, doesn't eat fatty foods, exercises like mad, and can't take the weight off. Why? Lots of reasons. In her family, the women nearly all come up with thyroid problems (not the diet induced kind either). Well lo and behold, she was *finally* diagnosed with Hashimoto's (non-functioning thyroid) put on replacement hormones, and then the weight started coming off. It's not coming off well enough though, but that's because she's allergic to wheat and soy and can't bring herself to change her diet that radically.

I am, quite frankly, damned tired of seeing people stuffed with guilt trips about their weight, because they're all *obviously* lasy and sit around eating bonbons all day. That is undoubtedly true of some people. Then there are those:

- that just eat cheap American food because they don't know better or they have too little money to choose much else.
- who've been seriously misinformed about what a decent diet is, due to interference from agribusiness and advertising
- who know they need to consult docs qualified to find out what's up, but have no insurance coverage to pay.
- that are bamboozled into thinking "it's all my fault" and it never occurs to them to see someone who actually knows something
- that do see a doctor, but it's a G.P. and they know bloody NOTHING about nutrition, and will actually tell you stuff that's wrong...try and endocrinologist, not a G.P.
- have undiagnosed food allergies, and don't realize it's messing up their entire system, bigtime

sixth, parents rights over their child! parents should be offered meetings, doctors appointments, appointments with dieticians, councelling and any other resources they may need to help their kid - but these should only be offered!

Mike, in a country where our gov't has declared ketchup a vegetable for school lunches :biglaugh:, there's no way in hades I'd care to see the school dieticians telling anyone anything. It's misinformation at best. Silence would be better.

 

[Booko]

On a outside note about weight and school, I recently heard that american public schools were considering banning running during recess ! Because running causes accidents so lets wrap our kids in foam til they look like the little brother from a christmas story and waddle them off to school .

Heck, opensoul, here in my school district we just decided to ban recess altogether.

It's not because a kid might get a scraped knee and need a bandaid.

It's because the school might get sued, and they can't take the chance.

 

[Ðanisty]

I am, quite frankly, damned tired of seeing people stuffed with guilt trips about their weight, because they're all *obviously* lasy and sit around eating bonbons all day. That is undoubtedly true of some people. Then there are those:

- that just eat cheap American food because they don't know better or they have too little money to choose much else.
- who've been seriously misinformed about what a decent diet is, due to interference from agribusiness and advertising
- who know they need to consult docs qualified to find out what's up, but have no insurance coverage to pay.
- that are bamboozled into thinking "it's all my fault" and it never occurs to them to see someone who actually knows something
- that do see a doctor, but it's a G.P. and they know bloody NOTHING about nutrition, and will actually tell you stuff that's wrong...try and endocrinologist, not a G.P.
- have undiagnosed food allergies, and don't realize it's messing up their entire system, bigtime

:clap

Mike, in a country where our gov't has declared ketchup a vegetable for school lunches :biglaugh:, there's no way in hades I'd care to see the school dieticians telling anyone anything. It's misinformation at best. Silence would be better.

Hell, I don't trust the hospital dieticians! The "expert dietician" I went to when I found out about my diabetes gave me a whole bunch of bad information.

 

[Mike182]

I'd be much more inclined to send out leaflets to parents of *all* children, in the hope it might educate at least some of them on healthy nutrition. Even the parents whose kids are thin -- guess what -- those kids still might be eating unhealthy diets.

i hadn't thought about that, i guess because i would be inclined to throw it into the bin as spam mail as opposed to read it :whrug:

Mike, in a country where our gov't has declared ketchup a vegetable for school lunches :biglaugh:, there's no way in hades I'd care to see the school dieticians telling anyone anything. It's misinformation at best. Silence would be better.

really? :cover:

well, our country has Jamie Oliver , who is bumping up school meals, although sadly i've not been keeping track of his progress.

 

[Booko]

Golly Gee Sharon, seems you've been putting more then a couple minutes of thought on this one. Good stuff!

I've had to do a lot of self education over the past few years, just because of my health problems. And because of the Chemistry background and the fact that I'm a hopeless aggie, I've always been an avid label reader and curious about where food comes from and how it's handled. It's something of a hobby.

This sounds like a problem much bigger then the school to me...
I'm not even sure if having the school serving vegetables alone will tap into the problem. Knowing me, back then, I wouldn't eat and would wait until after school to eat a slice of pizza.

Oh, it's a very huge problem. It runs from agribusiness to the way we provide healthcare in this country, to what "normal" healthcare providers are actually taught (M.D.s are not taught anything about nutrition. Nothing. Nada.)

Among a gazillion other sources I've run across over the years, I caught a webcast of a university lecture by this lady (Ph.D. in something...I don't recall) that was the best easy to understand 1.5 hours I've seen "following the money" in our food chain. It's a real eye opener. I think they run it on UCTV a couple times a year if you have satellite TV. Look for "Politics of Obesity."

I see she's written a book that might be worth a read as well:

http://www.amazon.com/Food-Politics-Influences-Nutrition-California/dp/0520240677/sr=8-1/qid=1170955450/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-0288949-2408618?ie=UTF8&s=books

You need a whole change of attitude to fix something like this. You can have all the programs you want, but if I want a slice of pizza, what are you going to do?

Hm...like the pic of the parents sneaking fish and chips through the fence. American parents will do that too. My guess is, they'll be even worse about it. :yes:

I remember when our kids were little realizing there were parents giving their 1.5 year old kids Sprite in a sippy cup. These were not uneducated impoverished people either. Why would any parent in their right mind do that? And yet I see it frequently.

Heck, my best friend who's always battling the weight problem let her daughter have Diet Coke all the time. Oh sure...no calories. It must be good, right? I mean, the ads would lead you to think so. It's just freakin' poison with the fake sweetner. That stuff will mess you up worse than a *little* sugar would.

So you see...doing BMIs, from my pov on this, is more like peeing into the wind than anything else.

Danisty's right...it'll just be an excuse to abuse and put blame where in many case, blame isn't the issue.

Funny we don't blame people for having heart disease or cancer and make them wear little tags on their forehead that say "lazy and stupid." But for obesity, we do exactly that.

Eisenhower warned us of the dangers of the military-industrial complex, and history has shown him to be right on that.

The thing is, we have yet to be warned by any "big name" about the dangers of the agribusiness-healthcare complex. Until we can break up the money's influence, we can expect our kids to keep getting fatter and sicker.

We'll wake up eventually (it looks like it's beginning already), but we'll likely have to wait for things to get a lot worse before this issue gets any serious public attention.

Whatever you hear on the media about obesity and nutrition -- remember who the advertisers are.

 

[Ðanisty]

Heck, my best friend who's always battling the weight problem let her daughter have Diet Coke all the time. Oh sure...no calories. It must be good, right? I mean, the ads would lead you to think so. It's just freakin' poison with the fake sweetner. That stuff will mess you up worse than a *little* sugar would.

Diet drinks are really the only option for me in a lot of situations. It's not like I can drink a glass of orange juice instead...that still has too much sugar in it. I do drink a lot of water though. One thing that people don't realize is that diet sodas are just as bad for your teeth as sugar sodas...it's the acid that's the problem.

I want to say that you always have to do your own research. Everyday I learn something new about myself that should have been a huge red flag that I have diabetes. In fact, I was just asked what the signs were and I looked some up and found signs that I have that I didn't even know were signs! Even now that I'm diagnosed, doctors are failing to tell me exactly what can be connected to diabetes.

 

[Green Gaia]

I am, quite frankly, damned tired of seeing people stuffed with guilt trips about their weight, because they're all *obviously* lasy and sit around eating bonbons all day. That is undoubtedly true of some people. Then there are those:

- that just eat cheap American food because they don't know better or they have too little money to choose much else.
- who've been seriously misinformed about what a decent diet is, due to interference from agribusiness and advertising
- who know they need to consult docs qualified to find out what's up, but have no insurance coverage to pay.
- that are bamboozled into thinking "it's all my fault" and it never occurs to them to see someone who actually knows something
- that do see a doctor, but it's a G.P. and they know bloody NOTHING about nutrition, and will actually tell you stuff that's wrong...try and endocrinologist, not a G.P.
- have undiagnosed food allergies, and don't realize it's messing up their entire system, bigtime

I liken it to our how we must change out attitude on the environment in order to save it. We must change and challenge everything we've ever been taught about how we eat and what is good for us. So I still think ignoring the problem is only going to make it worse.

You need a whole change of attitude to fix something like this.

Exactly!!

 

[Quiddity]

I liken it to our how we must change out attitude on the environment in order to save it. We must change and challenge everything we've ever been taught about how we eat and what is good for us. So I still think ignoring the problem is only going to make it worse.

Sharon can set me straight if I misunderstood her, but I don't think she is saying to ignore the problem. She just doesn't trust whom your trying to solve the problem through (school, government, corporations, media, etc.). They are the ones contributing to the problem, so why go to them?

 

[standing_alone]

I'm a late-comer to this thread, but I have to agree with what Danisty and Booko are saying. I was in-shape when I was younger, but once I got into junior high, I started to turn to over-eating. When we did the BMI when I was in school, it was in the gym, in front of everybody, one at a time with about twenty to thirty pairs of eyes staring at you waiting their turn or waiting for gym to be over. Being an overweight kid, it was very embarrassing, so I despised gym class and would go out of my way to not participate. What Booko says about the load of garbage people are taught about nutrition in school is true, too. I've taken various classes that taught nutrition as part of the course and it was always garbage like "pizza can be a great way to get dairy, grains, vegatables, and meats together" and such. It's only now that I'm trying to lose the extra weight I gained in junior high and high school that I'm learning how almost everything I learned in school about nutrition is wrong and being a college student, it's so hard for me to get the food that's right because it's hard for me to afford and the school cafeteria doesn't have many healthy foods and when it comes to vegatables, they tend to be of poor quality. It's frustrating because if I want to do what I want to do with my future, I need to lose weight, but with the way our society is set up it's going to be a struggle for me to do that. I'm learning this the hard way. So I really don't expect nor want the schools teaching anything about diet and nutrition until they get their facts right and stop getting commercialized information from agribusiness. Heck, the schools can't even teach history correctly, how can we expect them to teach proper, healthy habits?

 

[Green Gaia]

Sharon can set me straight if I misunderstood her, but I don't think she is saying to ignore the problem. She just doesn't trust whom your trying to solve the problem through (school, government, corporations, media, etc.). They are the ones contributing to the problem, so why go to them?

We're contributing to the problem too. I'm saying everyone must be part of the solution. It requires an attitude change on everyone's part.

 

[Quiddity]

We're contributing to the problem too. I'm saying everyone must be part of the solution. It requires an attitude change on everyone's part.

That, I agree with.

 

[Radio Frequency X]

We're contributing to the problem too. I'm saying everyone must be part of the solution. It requires an attitude change on everyone's part.

Which is why people who believe that government should solve all our problems for us are trying to get government to ban all kinds of things that are "bad for us". Where does it end? Furthermore, once the government gets more involved in the Health Care industry, they are going to be even more inclined to outlaw everything "bad". Eventually, we'll have no choice how we eat. We'll eat and drink only what the liberals tell us we can eat and drink and that scares the hell out of me. What if I want a beer with a hamburger? Well, that isn't good for me. If the government is paying for my health care, then they'll want to prevent me from doing things that aren't good for me. So what? They ban hamburgers and beer?

 

[Green Gaia]

Which is why people who believe that government should solve all our problems for us are trying to get government to ban all kinds of things that are "bad for us". Where does it end? Furthermore, once the government gets more involved in the Health Care industry, they are going to be even more inclined to outlaw everything "bad". Eventually, we'll have no choice how we eat. We'll eat and drink only what the liberals tell we can eat and drink and that scares the hell out of me. What if I want a beer with a hamburger? Well, that isn't good for me. If the government is paying for my health care, then they'll want to prevent me from doing things that aren't good for me. So what? They ban hamburgers and beer?

No, I'd be upset if they banned hamburgers and beer, too. I was thinking more of banning junk food advertising to kids and the sale of it in schools and promoting healthy foods and diets instead.

Trans fats do need to be banned however. There is no need for that poison in our foods.

 

[Ðanisty]

Sharon can set me straight if I misunderstood her, but I don't think she is saying to ignore the problem. She just doesn't trust whom your trying to solve the problem through (school, government, corporations, media, etc.). They are the ones contributing to the problem, so why go to them?

I'm not saying to ignore the problem either.

All I've been saying in this thread is that drawing attention to a child's weight will create more problems. I've also said that people have to be responsible for their own health and that only they can actually make changes. It's common sense. Do drug users stop taking drugs if they don't want to? No. Do alcoholics stop drinking if they don't want to ? No. Obese children are not going to improve their health if they don't want to. As strange as this may sound, bringing attention to their differences is not going to make them improve their health. They will either decide that they're already doomed and go straight to comfort food or they will do something drastic like anorexia and bulemia. The best case scenario is that they won't change a thing!

 

[Radio Frequency X]

No, I'd be upset if they banned hamburgers and beer, too. I was thinking more of banning junk food advertising to kids and the sale of it in schools and promoting healthy foods and diets instead.

Trans fats do need to be banned however. There is no need for that poison in our foods.

So why Trans fats and not high fructose corn syrup which prevents the burning of fat? Why not ban sugar from various foods?

I just don't trust the government to ever draw the line. All we'll get is more and more restrictions. Especially if government nationalizes the health industry.

 

[Booko]

Tell me about it! Food these days is loaded with all kinds of crap. Why on earth do we have to put sugar in fruit juice??? I was recently diagnosed with type II diabetes and let me tell you, there isn't one prepackaged thing out there that I can really eat.

OMG! I'm sorry to hear that, Danisty. I know exactly what you mean, because I was on the edge of that myself, and had to do some really quick education to avoid Type II. It's amazing how much food in a grocery store you just can't get near if you want to eat a healthy diet.

Since I've been diagnosed with the corn allergy, it's been even more eye-opening. They stick corn syrup and cornstarch in all sorts of retarded places where they don't need to be.

Their parents seem willing to buy and feed them whatever they ask for.

We had parents in our neighborhood who would just basically do whatever it took to get the kids to get lost and let them watch their teevee show in peace. If that meant giving them a cookie, then so be it. Though it was more likely they would be off on their bicycles somewhere. At least "get lost kid" then often meant the kid would be getting some exercise.

And advertising wasn't anywhere near as pervasive as it is now. We never had Gatorade giving out goodies to us. Boy, when my daughter came home with those trinkets in first grade, the next morning I was in the principal's office asking if he'd lost his mind. Well, we knew each other well so I could get away with that without offending him. And he was a good guy who listened to parents. You don't get that everywhere.

When I was little, we didn't have any snack cakes or kool-aid in the house.

Oh, we sure did! We always had goodies for after school. We had Hi-C punch (with vitamins...it must be good! :areyoucra). We ate worthless white bread. I hated soda, which was probably lucky. We had *some* soda but that was usually a treat for a hot weekend day. We never would've gotten soda with dinner, or daily. We always had dessert available.

The only sodas we did have were diet sodas. I didn't have access to all the stuff kids get now and I was still overweight. I can't imagine what it would be like now.

Well, you don't have to imagine. All you have to do is walk into a school and see for yourself. In my elementary school days, in a class of 30 students (normal class size then) there was typically 1 kid that was overweight, maybe 2. Now it's half the class or more.

You really don't have to do scientific studies to realize that something is very very wrong.

I saw a video clip from Dr. Phil the other day where this mom suggested oatmeal and the kid threw a fit demanding pizza rolls. I would bet anything that in the end, that kid got pizza rolls. If I had acted like that, I'd have got smacked!

Huh...yeah me too. I would be sent to bed without supper at the very least, and no goodies for a week.

Also, when I was in school, the school lunches were always greasy and loaded with carbs, not to mention absolutely disgusting. I don't think I ate a single school lunch after 1st grade.

I got headaches from school lunches. My solution? Don't eat. Save the lunch money. That was a dumb choice, but I didn't realize it at the time.

If I had eaten school lunch, my problem would have been even worse.

Considering how many trans fats and refined carbs that would be in the school lunch, you're right...it would've been much worse.

[quoteI was one of the lucky ones with parents that cared and even with that I was heavy and had to deal with the teasing. Kids these days don't stand a chance. The only ones that seem healthy (and I say that because being thin doesn't mean you're healthy anyway) are the ones with naturally high metabolisms. If their metabolisms were slower, they'd be fat too![/quote]

Yeah, I was lucky enough to have a high metabolism. I didn't start going really downhill until I was in college and was stuck eating their cafeteria food.

At one point my husband (just friends then) decided he was so sick all the time he could only eat the food that the cafeteria didn't have a hand in preparing. Instead of sitting on the john constantaly and feeling rotten, all of a sudden he felt much better. It wasn't sustainable, though. You just can't live on the bit of fresh fruit and iceberg lettuce salad and granola for long. Sooner or later, you need some protein.

A lot of the kids ate the vegetarian meal, even if they hated it, because the food quality was marginally better. At least you could get an omelette.

 

[Booko]

Hell, I don't trust the hospital dieticians! The "expert dietician" I went to when I found out about my diabetes gave me a whole bunch of bad information.

Honestly, Danisty, I am scared out of my gourd about ending up in the hands of a hospital. There's no way they know how to cope with corn allergy. I've made arrangements with friends of mine to cater in food in case of emergency. I can't afford to trust the hospital dietician. She won't see "xanthan gum" and say "oops!" Who would dream that had anything to do with corn?

To try and keep on the OP a little. *sheepish grin*...why would I have any reason to trust a school to give out good information, when even a hospital dietician can't do it right?

And I know what you mean here...many of the "professionals" are just parroting information they got elsewhere that was influenced by our ag industry.

People think Bill Gates is evil...they should check out Monsanto sometime.

There should be a special place in hell for people who run companies like that.