And The Boys Are Just As Fat

The sight of a mother feeding her tiny tot Pepsi from the bottle, almost made my eyes roll right outta my head.

"And The Boys Are Just As Fat"

I think they may be fatter:

-Canadian boys aged 2-5 are slightly fatter than their female counterparts:
cansim2.statcan.ca/cgi-win/CNSMCGI.EXE?regtkt=&C2Sub=HEALTH&ARRAYID=1052002&C2DB=PRD&VEC=&LANG=E&SDDSLOC=&ROOTDIR=CII/&RESULTTEMPLATE=CII/CII_PICK&ARRAY_PICK=1&SDDSID=&SDDSDESC=

-34% of measured Canadian males aged 12 - 17 are overweight or obese, compared to 23% of females. Source:
www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/82-221-XIE/2006001/tables/t015c.htm

Come on Kate, that's a little harsh don't you think?

Persons of size deserve the same sort of respect as anyone else. We should pay even more for medicare so that they do not have to bear any burden (pardon the pun) for their corpulence. We should gladly pay more for airline flights and share our seat with half of theirs.

Seriously though, every time I see a thirty-something porker in one of those psudeo-wheelchair riding carts in Wal-mart I just want to scream "OBESITY IS NOT A DISABILITY!! GET OFF YOUR ASS AND WALK!"

Never saw so many horrifically FAT people as when I lived in Minnesota.

I'm not talking plump here, or gut hanging over the belt, or even morbid obesity. I'm talking "how the hell can you WALK dude?"

5'2" women weighing in at over 300lbs, guys going 400+. Arms the size of watermellons with little tiny hands peeking out the end. Three-and-a-half axe handles wide across the beam. Gawd.

Normally you see maybe one or two like that in a week (or once a month in Arizona, whales don't like the heat), but any time I'd go to the store there'd be two or three of 'em at the same time.

The high school cheerleader squad averaged over 180 lbs. Girl watching is a complete waste of time unless "more fun by the ton!" is your motto.

Of course its not a strictly rural thing, in Buffalo you'll see "people of size" on every street corner.

Glad to be back in Hamilton, where the sea mammals mostly stay at Marineland and the girls can actually run and not just waddle fast.

They ought to be, yes - but the more they worry, the fatter they get. What they need - and more importantly, what their parents need - is something constructive to DO, not just worry about. Liberalism, environmentalism, socialism, in their most popular (and harmful) forms, feed people a lot of worries and not much real action to take (carrying placards, checking labels, writing letters... instead of growing a garden, walking to the store, helping build a house).

Doesn't anyone think the self-hatred being taught by the left might have something to do with it? The cause is not the tostitos. The cause of the problem is healthy minds being made sick by assault of the left on our society.

John

Laziness, fear, lack of time...

Parents are working too much to spend outside time with their kids. They pack "ready-made" lunches and nuke "ready-made" dinners - all made of super-fat, over-processed crap.

Parents won't let their kids out to play on their own because our cities are no longer safe. Instead, our kids sit in front of the TV playing video games instead of going out and playing active games and sports.

In our schools, no longer have gym ever day. Instead our kids have to learn about tolerance and earth day while turning into little globes themselves.

Our society is unhealthy. We need to eat real food and get off our fat asses and get some exercise.

Does anyone else find it ironic that an "obesity conference" is worrying about the "weight-hostile environment"?

If you go to Drudge you will see a link to a lame story about how some pseudo-scientists are claiming that obesity now is linked to "evolution." It's just amamzing how a "scientist" along with the so-called "intelligensia" cannot comprehend a simple fact:

We are the most wealthy (and also healthy) and affluent society (acrosss ALL strata) that has ever existed in the history of mankind with an overabundance of cheap food and little reason to exert ourselves physically.

2 + 2 = 4

DUH.

At the end of the day, if your kid is a fatty, you are the only ones to blame. Parents have ultimate control over what little kids eat and what they do in their free time. They can't procure the garbage food on their own.

What's wrong with just plain old fashioned water? It floors me when I see people loading up on carbonated sugered beverages at the grocery store. Sometimes I wonder if that's the only liquid they drink. The schools are no better. They have vending machines. Parents need to demand they are removed.

Of course, greedy lawyers of the leftist persuasion filed class action suits against McDonalds bypassing all personal responsibility as they always do.

I doubt obesity has much to do with politics. There's no shortage of fat folks among both left wingers and right wingers (just look at pictures from political conventions of parties across the spectrum). Too much food, not enough exercise seems to be an adequate explanation in itself.

Of course, some of the epidemic is just based on stats Canada using the BMI, which doesn't distinguish between muscle and fat. Almost every basketball player in the NBA is overweight using BMI, and half the NHL is obese according to it. Waist to hip ratio is a much better metric. But even with that caveate, there's no doubt that the number of obese people is rising.

I was in a supermarket...in Idaho, where there really aren't toooo many fatties....when I heard this sound I couldn't recognize....(usually, when you hear a noise you know right away what's causing it)....turned around, and here was this girl...maybe aged 18...wearing pants, and her thighs were 'swisssshing' together as she, (slowly), walked.

If I hear it again I'll know NOT to turn around.

At the end of the day, if your kid is a fatty, you are the only ones to blame.

Allow me gently to disagree with you, Penny. The parents certainly bear part of the responsibility, but not, I think, all of it. I'm the oldest of four boys, born in 1952, 1954, 1956, and 1964. I'm not obese by any standard (5'9" or 175 cm tall and 160 lbs or 73 kg weight). The one born in 1954 is probably thirty lbs/14 kg overweight. The one born in 1956 is more like sixty lbs/27 kg overweight. The one born in 1964 could probably stand to lose a bit of weight but is certainly not obese. Same parents. Same house. Same food. Same attitudes towards food displayed by the parents.

Blame MacDonald's and video games.

Silicon Valley Jim

Penney was simply saying that a child's eating habits are taught (or not taught) by the parents/guardians. What you do as an adult is your choice despite the fact that you all ate the same growing up. There are many reasons why one eats or doesn't eat. I have a very good friend who has been clinically obese for the past 15 years. When I met her, she was just chubby. She is a wonderful, smart person but even when she was chubby, she couldn't get a date. It makes me terribly sad to know that she might be alone for the rest of her life because of her weight. She's one of the good ones, and I would rather be in her company ANY DAY than having to listen to the neurotic female co-workers I am forced to listen to who OBSESS about their weight. My friend knows I love her whatever weight she is, but I just wish she could understand what she is doing to her body. Her parents are no help--her father is quite ill and has been for years, and her mother suffers from mental illness. She turned to food for comfort and has never broken out of that cycle. How do you let go of the one thing that has always been there for you?

Silicon Valley Jim - my operative word was "kid". An eight year old doesn't do the meal planning and the grocery shopping, nor can they drive themselves to fast food joints. Your brothers have been adults for some time now.

All anyone has to do is to look at the ever increasing in sq ft snack and beverage aisles that are so disproportionate to the produce department in a supermarket to get the picture. Who's buying all of that junk? Who's buying all of that sugar coated cereal? If your kid is a couch potato, why aren't TV or video games restricted in your home? Obese children are becoming an epidemic. Genes haven't alter that much in a few generation.

Penny has a point but then so does SV Jim. Like everything else in life it isn't just one thing that makes you fat. Education and attitudes taught by parents to their children are certainly part of the equation. Peer pressure and society also have a roll in developing a healthy lifestyle. I had a comment earlier that got lost in cyberspace but basically when I went to school I walked. Now kids are driven everywhere. Major mode of transport for teens back in the day was Footmobile and maybe, just maybe after you hit sixteen you got the use of the family VistaCruiser for an evening.

Like diet without exercise, it lose weight and/or keep in shape takes a whole lot more than a magic pill.

Silicon Valley Jim - my operative word was "kid". An eight year old doesn't do the meal planning and the grocery shopping, nor can they drive themselves to fast food joints. Your brothers have been adults for some time now.

You are, of course, correct; I was talking about obese adults; children have far fewer choices and far less knowledge. I should have made it clearer that I was talking about those children once they become adults.

What's scary is that we could be raising a nation of morons. Check out this study. The findings, although very preliminary, are frightening if eventually confirmed.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-08/uof-ssl083106.php

Study shows link between morbid obesity, low IQ in toddlers

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - University of Florida researchers have discovered a link between morbid obesity in toddlers and lower IQ scores, cognitive delays and brain lesions similar to those seen in Alzheimer's disease patients, a new study shows.

Although the cause of these cognitive impairments is still unknown, UF researchers suspect the metabolic disturbances obesity causes could be taking a toll on young brains, which are still developing and not fully protected, they write in an article published in the Journal of Pediatrics this month.
...
"It was surprising to find that they had an average IQ score of 78, whereas their control siblings were 106," Driscoll said. "We feel this may be another complication of obesity that may not be reversible, so it's very important to watch what children eat even from a very young age. It's not just setting them up for problems later on, it could affect their learning potential now."

So...um...are they fat because they're stupid, or stupid because they're fat?

I blame the f*%ktard liberals for releasing pedofile sexual predators to roam the streets preying on kids who escape outside to play.

Free the children and kill the pedophiles, perhaps wound a few liberals just for safe measure. :)

Nemo2,

Just plain stupid will do.

I blame the schools and the self-esteem crap. Remember when there were trackmeets, intersquad volleyball, basketball, baseball teams etc. These were all stopped because it hurt the self esteem of the kid picked last for a team, and also hurt the self esteem of the team, (players) of the losing team. Phys ed was eliminated because not all kids could do everything so nobody could do anything. Same goes for the gym classes. No one could fail or repeat a grade, hurt the self esteem. The kids grew up and discovered that out in the real world one does fail, get fired, follow rules, and no one cares about their self esteem. Wonder how many of these kids are clients of the safe injection sites or homeless on the streets. Anyone ever notice that the majority of teachers and their unions support the NDP and other leftist views.

mary,

It's mothers who coddle their children ad nauseum that should be blamed for all that self-esteem crap.

Mothers as well should take the blame for juvenile obesity. They can't handle their own sexuality so little Samantha and Jason are fed all kinds of crap to make them resemble pigs rendering them sexually unappealing.

Don't blame Leftists and Dippers who just took up the chant when they saw the opportunity. The trend was already in full motion.

Penny and SV Jim: May I make a counter-argument? I believe that the fitness of kids is not ENTIRELY due to nurture...there is a certain influence from nature, too. I know a family where mom and her family are big/chubby/obese while dad and his family are skinny as rakes...and they have one obese kid and one skinny kid (both of the same sex). One takes after mom (genetically) and the other takes after dad.

I believe that nature versus nurture applies to body shape/size as well as personalities.

So, the upshot of this is...it's not necessarily just the fault of the parent's ACTIONS, it could be their genes. BUT, it still is the parent's fault! ;)

As for obesity and IQ, I believe there has been studies that show your brain function slows after eating foods high in fat. I can't remember if this was perminent in children or if they even looked at that.

I just remember they recomended you eat better, especially around exam times (the study was put out while I was in university.) There was a bunch of other stuff that slows you down too. Lack of excersise being one. If you have a fit, healthy body, you have a fit, healthy mind. Seems reasonable to me. Your brain is part of your body after all...

And as for the BMI, it's useless if you are active. I'm 6'1" and just under 200lbs. I have a 31" waist and roughly 10% body fat. I may not have a 6-pack (hard to do at age 35) but I'm a hell of a lot closer to that than obesity. The BMI calls me overweight... The page after that in health can's booklet says that a normal waist line for someone my hight is 32" to 40". So I'm overweight but an inch under normal around the waist and could gain a third around the waist and still be in the healthy range. That's a bit of a contradiction!

Fit healthy body equals fit healthy mind???

A few people I know certainly do not fit that mold

Neither do these celebrities:

Paris Hilton, Jessica Simpson, Britney Spears, Micheal Jackson, hell, all the Jacksons

They all need to sit down and do a few crosswords or play a game of scrabble...

Hassle - your point, nuture vs nature is well taken. I lean on nurture. Where were all of these fat kids 50 years ago? The mainstream garbage food was non-existent then.

There is a theory with Native American obesity, which beats Americans of European origins hands down, that they are not that far from a hunting-gathering culture. Today's easy calories, always in supply, are what's killing them. They have the number one diabetes problem of all groups. I feel, like every other cultivated modern narcissistic impulse, food is now love and hunger pangs can't be coped with. A glass of water, for God's sake, is deprivation. We as a species were meant to work for our food. We never had pop in our house except on designated pizza night. I will forever go screaming "drink water" into the night. Ask my grandkids.

Hey Warwick. I had a 31" waist... once. and I can't get a six-pack no matter how many I drink. {drum roll please}

With nothing in life being absolute, there are genetic reasons for differences in body shape but there is no excuse for lack of fitness. It reflects on the ability to learn as does diet. When I hit high school and no more recess, I can remember the after lunch sleepies right about the time the grade schools would let their urchens out to play. Coincidence, I think not.

http://tinyurl.com/8reym

[...] First, there is little evidence to support the notion that otherwise healthy adults have shorter lifespans simply because they may be overweight. In fact, the new CDC study reported that adults who are merely “overweight” actually live longer on average than adults who are of “normal weight.”

Next, there is absolutely no evidence to support the notion that, for otherwise healthy children, childhood weight determines or impacts longevity.

Perhaps worse than any weight problem that may or may not be occurring, is the problem of the obesity scare industry, consisting of government regulators, the media, politicians, and various nonprofit groups. [...]

Kate asks: Now, how does one get a corresponding level of concern to register with the parents shoveling the Tostitos and soft drinks into their shopping carts?

Answer: you make obesity as socially unacceptable as smoking has become. That usually involves a combination of social marketing, legislation, programs and peer pressure. You make the parents aware that they are setting their child up for increased heart disease, diabetes (with its attendent blindness and limb amputations) and bariatric surgery just to name a few. That ought to have an effect on one's positive body image to say nothing of quality of life.

And you initiate population health measures that make it easier and safer to exercise (i.e. bike paths) and eat well (i.e community gardens or replacing deep fried food and soft drinks in school cafeterias with healthier alternatives).

That said, for some (very low income or people in remote areas such as northern Saskatchwan) fresh fruit, vegetables and milk (if they are even available) costs lots and lots more than pop and tostitos and the latter contain a lot more calories to fill folks up. And they don't spoil if you have a shortage of refrigeration/electricity. An absence of inner city grocery stores and no money for cars/taxis/buses (but a plethora of nearby 7-11s) result in frequent trips to the corner confectionery for the tostitos, slurpees and Big Gulps. It's important to recognize that income is one of the determinants of health. So you also focus on improving overall education levels because of the correlation between income and education.

Obesity is, and has long been, more socially unacceptable than smoking.

If that were the answer, there would be no fat people at all. It has nothing to do with availability of choices - it's all about preference.

And the point I was getting at, is that half of these parents refuse to acknowledge their kids are fat to begin with. Too busy pumping up the self-esteem, I guess.

Since we’re into playing the blame game here, how about those multi-national fast food and junk food corporations and governments that insist on spending cuts to education budgets.

McDonald’s, for example spends $600M per year on advertising; Coca Cola spends over $1B. Hard to resist the brain washing when it begins from the first moment kids are plunked in front of the TV.

Schools cutting sports programs and gym classes are not the result of lefties concerned about kids self esteem...it’s more the result of (mostly right leaning) governments cutting school budgets, forcing cuts to "unnecessary" sports and phys ed programs (the little buggers are in school to learn the 3 R’s after all) while giving tax breaks or special rights to the same corporations who supply junk food. The UBC /Coke deal is one example: $8.4 M to be exclusive drink supplier on campus. Meanwhile, water fountains were being disconnected. Many high schools had similar deals.

So there you go...proof that right-wing economics and corporate greed are to blame for making kids fat.

Kate said: If that were the answer, there would be no fat people at all. It has nothing to do with availability of choices - it's all about preference.

MMM: Huh? What preference? I prefer to be slim? It's more complicated than that.

Kate said: And the point I was getting at, is that half of these parents refuse to acknowledge their kids are fat to begin with. Too busy pumping up the self-esteem, I guess.

MMM: Don't know about the self-esteem but a very recent survey (Health Canada perhaps) noted that most parent see their children as much slimmer (i.e. less obese) than they really are. Parental rose-coloured glasses, I guess.

I read somewhere that the two most popular names for children, in Canada and the US, are Hansel and Gretel.

By preference, I mean the preference to order a side of fries instead of the vegetables.

Just watching the shopping carts at Superstore can be an experience in itself. There's lots of choice out there, and it's simplistic to blame McDonalds. What people take home from the store in the first place tells you a lot about their dietary preferences.

Nothing that government can't save us from, Kate.

In our schools, no longer have gym ever day. Instead our kids have to learn about tolerance and earth day while turning into little globes themselves.

Warwick

good un

Turn off the TV, eat fewer processed foods, keep the kids out of daycare and do something...

anything

There are so many fat people in wpg it's pathetic.

Well, I sat on my daughter's Parent Council last year, and we worked hard at developing programs based on "the healthy child". We are doing a major fundraiser to improve the state of the playyard, which is a disgrace.

At the same time, the school board has mandated 20 minutes of physical activity each day. No word on how that's going over yet.

But I agree that the most important thing missing is kids' right to play physical games. My wife won't let my daughters out of her sight, so they aren't growing up used to playing ball or just running or biking. As others have noted, it's the fact that we're weak on crime that has my wife living in fear.

Nature vs nurture vs food choices. For 52 yrs my husband and I have eaten the same meals. Our 5 kids ate them for over 20 years. I do not exercise or enjoy outside sports. My husband was into many sports. So were my kids. But, on our 50th wedding anniversary, I wore my wedding dress, (size 6) with no alterations, and my husband could still get into the tie he wore that day. None of our kids are overly fat, and the grandkids are taking after my side of the family. Tall and slim. Also, I smoked for 50 years, he didn't. I notice a great increase in the size of teenagers today, than those of my generation. All of us smoked, and I think all non smoking orgs should be sued because they failed to tell you that quitting smoking resulted in weight gain. Just ask former smokers how much weight they have gained. It is about 10 lbs/yr. My daughter explains why I can still wear my dress and she can't, or my husbands suit is too small, She told the crowd I shrunk wrapped everything in the closets except my stuff.