Obesity worries show signs of backfiring

[lightningandsnow]

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/story.html?id=07767938-a038-466a-adf8-4bbf5f77c096&k=49025

I remember learning how to count calories when I was 12 years old.

We're so busy drilling into kids that "Fat is bad", that we ignore the fact that kids have all kinds of self-esteem issues already. Plus, starving yourself is way worse for you than being overweight.

It also annoys me that junk food is being taken out of schools - of course it's not good to have that stuff everyday, but what you're doing is sending a powerful message that you can NEVER have treats. What happened to everything in moderation?

And why are we so obsessed with size? Why can't we promote "Health at any size"?

[Celebration]

1. here is what *should* happen

Kids get healthy foods put in front of them at school and at home, including healthy "treats." Kids get outside and get plenty of exercise every day. Nothing is ever mentioned about size, obesity, eating too much or too little. They select as much as they want of the healthy foods that are available (which includes treats) and worry not at all about calories or the food police, because they don't even know what a moon pie or twinkie is. They don't get lectured about avoiding them. They simply are not available at home or school. And that is the way they grow up. If they are somewhat overweight with this lifestyle nobody should lecture them about food, just accept the overweight for the time being. That is my two cents.

[lightningandsnow]

11. Amen to that.

Awesome.

[lizerdbits]

2. Most doctors I've been to go by weight tables

If you don't fit into the table then you're eating too much, eating the wrong things, or not exercising enough- period and no argument. I agree that people can have a healthy lifestyle and still be larger (or smaller). A lot of people who have a healthy lifestyle will fit into those tables but many won't. And of course there are people who will fit into them who are not healthy. I think they should be focusing on healthy eating and staying active. Focusing on size is a bad idea IMO.

As for fat phobia, I think a lot of it is the media. A celebrity gains weight (usually a woman) and it's some kind of scandal. I make that statement by reading the covers of magazines while in line for the grocery store, so I don't know if that's the case for other forms of celebrity news since it's not something I follow. I work with plenty of people who are obsessed about their size but couldn't care less about the impact of what they eat has on their internal organs. If you told them drinking motor oil would keep them thin forever they'd do it.

There are some fats we need to ingest also, so eating NO fat is not healthy. I'll have to disagree about the junk in schools assuming it's available all the time. I can see an occasional goodie but free access vending machines of candy bars and soda I think is a bad idea. Maybe a cookie day or something.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

3. Millions of Americans have this autoimmune disease.

And are never treated or are undertreated for it. This condition attacks many females shortly before puberty, and often at menopause. And it can cause small or large amounts of obesity. It's a metabolic problem.

Read further at Mary Shomon's website:

www.stopthethyroidmadness.com

[kdmorris]

9. That is NOT Mary Shomon's site

I don't know why you keep saying that. Mary Shomon runs the About.com thyroid site, not Stop the Thyroid Madness. Stop the Thyroid Madness is run by a woman named Janie (I'm sorry. Her last name escapes me.) You need to stop saying this. It's an inaccuracy.

Not that Stop the Thyroid Madness isn't a great site, but it's not Mary Shomon's.

Edited to add: Not all cases of low thyroid are caused by autoimmune disease (usually Hashimoto's). It may be a large factor, but it's not that "millions of Americans have this autoimmune disease".

[flordehinojos]

4. i used to love ...

pizza
cheetos
ice cream
cake
pecan sandies
oatmeal cookies
hot corn on the cob with butter running all down on it
fried okra
french fries
fried oysters

kit-kats
cheeseburgers
toasted casava bread with lots of olive oil and salt on it
doughnuts
cakes

don't eat any of that anymore

don't much miss much any of those things anymore

but yes, kids ought to be able to have some of those sometimes .

[Celebration]

7. snacks and treats for kids

Can be healthy. As an example, "fries" can be baked instead of fried. They taste better actually. Oatmeal cookies can be made that are not overly sweet, have some fiber, and have a little honey in them for taste. I don't see anything wrong with pizza if it isn't overly greasy or overloaded with salt.

Of course some of these things aren't diet foods for us adults.

But, for kids, a lot of times, it isn't exactly what they eat, but how it is made.

[noamnety]

5. speaking as a teacher here

when junk food was available at our school, there was no "moderation." That's a myth, at least from what I saw, when it comes to junk in the schools. The kids who ate it often ate it EVERY day.

There was a time when our lunch program was canceled because it was sending us into debt. I've written about that some previously, but I don't know if you saw those posts. I took it over as a fundraiser for my class. I was really unhappy with the previous program, which - even for the hot lunches - tended toward junk food, and I wanted to show that there was a better way. The old program was stuff like chicken nuggets with a side of fries, that sort of thing. And fruit that was just nasty, grapes that were too soft, apples that were grainy, typical bad cafeteria fare. When I took it over, I was limited because I was teaching in my classroom - I could do prep before school opened in the mornings, and I didn't have a chance to visit the kitchen again until we started serving. So we did a salad bar, and hot soups or lasagna done in crockpots, and fresh bread from a really good Iraqi bakery down the street from me - I picked it up fresh baked daily, on the way home each day.

Many of the kids walked in the first week and didn't understand what had happened to their fried chicken and grease. After a couple weeks (mainly when I switched from raw spinach to romaine lettuce and hummus without spinach), I won them over. I never said it was related to losing weight - I tried to phrase it as a positive - providing healthy food, which really is not something we'd done before. And the thing is, the kids ended up being far more excited about fresh baked bread than they ever were about doritos. I agree with your point that if you present it as "you all need to stop eating this junk so you can lose weight" there are some negative effects. But if you present it as "oh my god, try this, this is the best bread I've ever had," the message they get is that good wholesome real food made by local people is amazing and wonderful. I took a photo of the baker and taped it to the salad bar, so they could see, this is the person that made what you are eating. The bread for me is partly symbolic too, even though I'm not religious, I have a little of that Christian "breaking bread" custom ingrained (no pun intended) into me.

We've moved to a building now where we can't do a lunch program at all - no kitchen facilities. But I still make soups in the crockpots I collected during that time just for my own students who are with me around lunch time. It was a few years since we had the old program, so my kids now don't remember that, except the seniors. I was shocked when I brought in the first pot this year - vegan lentil soup. I wasn't sure anyone would even try it. But the first bowls went out into the hallway toward the cafeteria with my third hour kids, and before I knew it I had kids I didn't even know stopping by to see if they could have some. I ran out before our second lunch started. The next time, I brought in two crockpots. They finished those. About once a week now I bring in 3 full crockpots of soup, it's always something healthy, usually vegan, with fresh chopped carrots and celery and onions and such. And I started leaving a loaf of regular bread and a costco sized jar of peanut butter on the front table - the kids can just help themselves to it if they are hungry. One hour in particular makes me laugh, because the kids come in, they log into their computers, and then they cluster around the table making their sandwiches like it's just a normal part of their routine now.

I've always got a few extra kids that hour - about 3 or 4 who aren't really in that class, they are supposed to be in lunch, but they sneak into my room and hang out there. So they get some time on the computers, and sometimes they are hearing my lectures, and they get a lunch if they want one.

Where I'm going here is that they don't seem to feel deprived or resentful. They aren't getting lectured about UNhealthy foods or about their weight. The message they are getting (I hope) is that I REALLY don't want them skipping lunch, that wholesome food tastes better than vending machine food, and that meals are a time for fellowship.

I really am not worried that our kids won't have enough access to traditional junk food - most homes have it well stocked, as far as I can tell. It's not the job of schools to provide food that is bad for our children's health, any more than it's our mission to turn on junk tv for them during lunch time - they don't need to be watching reality tv dating shows, for instance. If they do it on their own time, it's not our job to police that - but it's not our job to provide it.

One of my friends talks with me sometimes about filling voids. If you take away something, it creates a vacuum. If you don't fill it with something, somebody else will, or it will fill itself. I think that metaphor might apply here. If you take away junk food, and that's the end of the story, kids will maybe fill that void with negative feelings about food and about themselves. But if it's replaced with real food that honestly just tastes good, that is a better treat than junk that they were filling themselves up on, and something that maybe their families don't have time to make from scratch, they'll appreciate it. My kids talk sometimes about soups they'd like me to make, a few wanted to know where I was getting my bread, one was trying to get one of his friends to drive him there so he could buy a ton of it and keep it in his freezer. That's what I'm aiming for - I want them to leave with positive memories of healthy food. We aren't a health class or anything, it's a side mission for me, but it is something I'd like to pass on to them.

[Evoman]

6. You are awesome.

It had to be said.

[lightningandsnow]

10. Wow, great points.

My school has some junk food, but a lot of healthy stuff too - I almost never eat the cafeteria food, too. I almost always bring my own lunch. The only thing I buy from there are the muffins 9ususally the carrot or banana ones), which I guess qualify as semi-healthy?

Also, I guess the problem isn't so much encouraging healthy eating, as constantly guilting people (Especially preteens/teens, who already have self-esteem issues) about their weight.

I'm almost 5 foot 8. I weigh 135 pounds. I am sick of feeling fat.

I am sick of being told I should lose 10 or 15 pounds.

I am sick of being lectured in the line at Starbucks about how much fat the frappucinos have - I go there less than once a month!

I am sick of not being able to shop in the juniors section at Winners. I didn't know juniors was shorthand for "completely lacking curves".

I eat pretty healthy, there really isn't any junk food in my house, and I really don't like greasy stuff anyway.

I am not overweight, despite what the media would have us think.

That being said, you must be an amazing teacher. That's really cool that you did that with your class...

Could you come to my school... please? :-)

[noamnety]

13. Maybe you should come to our school. :)

I am sorry you're getting beaten up with messages like that. There was an episode of America's Top Model once where the woman who ended up winning, in one episode, was simultaneously accused of being anorexic, and told she was too fat. Unbelievable - and it goes to show that really there is no weight at all where women are accepted as is.

For whatever it's worth, you are far closer to the minimum than the maximum in the army weight charts, and losing 15 pounds would put you in the "too thin to enlist" category. Not that you'd want to - just pointing that out. If people are hassling you about calories, maybe tell 'em you're trying to gain 30 pounds so you can't be drafted. :D

Seriously, I hate when people think it's their business to comment on some stranger's body. It's as much an epidemic in our culture as being overweight is, and I think the two things are related.

[depakid]

8. "And why are we so obsessed with size? Why can't we promote "Health at any size"?

For the simple reason that people are NOT "healthy at any size" -and pushing garbage food at them at school and over the public airwaves through advertisements designed by psychologists borders on child abuse.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus was once called adult-onset diabetes. Now, because of the epidemic of obesity and inactivity in children, type 2 diabetes mellitus is occurring at younger and younger ages. Although type 2 diabetes mellitus typically affects individuals older than 40 years, it has been diagnosed in children as young as 2 years of age who have a family history of diabetes.

http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/topic134.htm

[grasswire]

12. there oughta be anti-diabetes education in middle schools

I wonder if kids are taught anything about the diseases that are caused or exacerbated by food issues -- cardiovascular disease, diabetes, etc. They certainly are a personal safety issue as much as, for example, sidewalk safety or physical hygiene issues.