I think our work is done here.
Queen’s is Canadian lead on international team addressing obesity in Mexican children
A new federal government initiative that partners Canadian researchers with researchers in the developing world is investing up to $1.6 million in collaborative research aimed at reducing obesity in Mexican children.
Queen’s collaborators led by Kinesiology and Health Studies researcher, Peter Katzmarzyk, and researchers from the University of Guadalajara in Mexico will address childhood obesity and healthy body weights in Mexico. This multi-disciplinary research will inform the development of programs and policies aimed at combating obesity as it relates to under-nutrition in Mexico and in other developing countries that are beginning to experience similar problems.
“Canada is a world leader in the field of obesity research, and this represents a valuable opportunity for us to share our knowledge and experience with a country that is beginning to experience problems similar to those we’ve already been through,” says Dr. Katzmarzyk.
Queens University – the blogger’s gift that keeps on giving.
Can we address University Obesity dependent upon the feeding tube of government grants?
It’s an epidemic, on the proportion of Glow-Ball Vorming! The Greatest Threat to Mankind (TM).
Don’t worry, the Chicken Littles of this world will marginalize themselves through simple self-parody.
I’m so glad the Cdn Institute for Health Research is working so hard and investing so much money in reducing the wait times in hospitals in Canada.
Good taxpayer money being spent understanding fat Mexican kids ??
Too many calories, too little exercise.
Same for fat kids in Canada.
Lock the fridge, turn off the TV & Nintendo and kick them outside to play.
Case closed.
Lots of stories re the loss of weight etc of polar bears. So, find out why they are losing weight and transfer that info for humans. The census info shows limited amts of people in the north, so send all fat people there to lose weight. Makes as much sense at studying mexican kids.
Kate,
Sorry to go off topic, but a thought occurred to me. Over at LGF Charles has in a side bar a posting of the number of vists to his website on a daily basis from IP addresses at Associated Press and Reuters. Would you consider doing such a thing for visits to SDA from CBC? I for one think that would be fascinating and very revealing. No individual names or identities revealed, just CBC visits to SDA today: x#
I want some of this. How do I get a government grant (preferably in the millions-of-dollars range) where I get to “inform” on a topic?
After 13 years Liberals in power, Canada SHOULD be an expert in obesity. Their bloated style of government is precisely the reason CPC is putting Canadians on a proper financial diet. If the Kyoto-pornsters ever get their hands on the wallet of the average Canadian, the greatest money makers in the country are going to be the bankruptcy professionals.
This is a great idea. Now that there are no more lard ass Canadian children, we’re off to solve Mexico’s juvenile lard ass problem.
Ummmm…. Frig-me if I’m wrong but isn’t Mexico a 2nd-world country mired in poverty? Why are there fat kids?
The only Bill Maher quote worth repeating;
“America is the only place on earth where poor people are fat”.
Isn’t the “Dope from Hope,”(Bill Clinton) behind this new global push to rid the world of the global epidemic childhood obesity? I’m sure that he’ll get Al Gore on it right away…but wait. Wasn’t the world concerned about childhood malnutrition just a couple years ago?
Either way, global warming, Stephen Harper, Geo. Bush, Christians tec. will be blamed for all the worlds chaos.
Im a fat Canuck that married the Queen of Wakwaka eetemup Hawaii and we need some serious study here.
Bring the two Queens together for big feast then a short diet before humpy, humpy oolala style!
Shotgunning the subtopics…
Obesity does arise from cheap food – mostly the wrong cheap food. What? You think broccoli at a nickel a pound vs fries at 5 bucks inclines the poor to ballooning girth? Agricultural policies and subsidies do have an impact. Since subsidizing highly perishable products, such as greens, fruits and veggies, is economically unsustainable, not to mention low bang for buck (labour intensive), the subsidies go to large monocultures – wheat, corn…food that stores well. Another name for high-starch foods. It is more effort to eat a nutritious and balanced blend of foodstuffs, regardless of income. The wealthier the society, the easier it is for individuals to do so, if they know how.
You want a government grant? CIHR funds thematically – if your research is not one of their approved sexy topics, you’re SOL. Being a career academic with oodles of peer-reviewed journal papers is critical. Forget industry money – in Canada that is irrelevant on the health front.
University dependence on government grants? It’s not the dependence, it’s the type of grants – the funding mix, as it were, between the hard and the soft, between the productive and the parasitical, between the hard deliverables and the unquantifiable….
Until universities drastically restructure, and we turf 75% of the students as unsuitable to attend, this is going to continue, since the mediocrity of education and research go hand in hand. Do NOT get me started: my research funding burn rate is like that of a small company. Is it all worthwhile spending? Don’t know. Wait awhile. Someday you will tax it. In the mean time, it’s a hoot, although the significantly higher pay in industry is sometimes tempting…
Okay, time to start an international fat trading program.
Fergy
That’s a brilliant idea. I believe I’ll start my own trading exchange. A quarterly payment of $29.95 entittles the liscencee to four large DQ Brownie Earthquakes with extra sauce.
In exchange I will collect an equal amount (by mass) of spinach, brussell sprouts, asparagus and broccolli that my kids refuse to eat. The collected foodstuffs will then be sent to Mexico to offset the liscencee’s “fat footprint”.
For the ease of shipping, the above mentioned foodstuffs will be blended into a delicious beverage I call Salient Green.
This works on so many levels….except, of course, if yer a poor mexican kid… but that’s not the point.
Where do I collect my start-up grant?
Syncro
Uh-h umm , why do I get a funny feeling there is (Maurice) Strong factor in this saga?
If he’s not invoved, it seems right up his alley, he SHOULD be here!!
If you want to determine who the poor are, visit any Walmart store any time. The thin shop elsewhere.
If you want to determine who the poor are, visit any Walmart store any time. The thin shop elsewhere.
I’m not usually slow on the uptake, but I just don’t the point of your post, Kate. Are you implying that this research is silly? Irrelevant? Spent on the wrong people? What?
Obesity is actually quite common amongst poor people, because poverty and obesity are related:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5576/obesity_and_poverty_the_poorest_of.html?page=2
http://www.sirc.org/articles/poverty_and_obesity.shtml
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/01/040105071229.htm
http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=hamilton/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1131145801432&call_pageid=1132398398819&col=1132398398845
Are poor Mexican kids even fat? Last time I looked they weren’t.
I want grant money. I’ve wanted grant money for years for my study that lefties have a higher incidence of personality and affect disorders, impaired cognitive skills and issues with mommy.
I guess I’m destined to live out my thin life in obscurity wearing a sweater because it’s chilly outside, munching trans-fats as a consolation.
If you want skinnier Mexican kids, just keep pouring money into the ethanol boondoggle. Then when starvation becomes a problem, give wheat farmers subsidies to feed them again.
Let this be our motto: “Create brand new made-in-government problems today, make people forget all the problems government created yesterday.”
John: did you know that the savings Wal-Mart provides to lower income families in the U.S. alone amounts to almost twice as much as Welfare and Food Stamps programs?
That’s why Leftists hate Wal-Mart, they are more effective and helping poor people than the government.
“Canada is a world leader in the field of obesity research, and this represents a valuable opportunity for us to share our knowledge and experience with a country that is beginning to experience problems similar to those we’ve already been through,” says Dr. Katzmarzyk.
…already been through?!? Perhaps if they nixed the word “research” from “obesity research” it may be more accurate. And they get paid for this?
Grants to study Mexican obesity….hmmmmmm….that’s like funding social programs in a disproportionate way to a provincial populace just because a past government figured that’s how you govern a nation.
Oops! Been there done that.
I guess it’s all about looking after yourself, your family and your friends…it couldn’t possibly be about the looking after the disadvantaged in different countries never mind provinces in need within their own country?
“Uhhhh-I’m just coming here to get my car re-upholstered?”
Si Signore! For the best tucknroll in all of Mexico, try my cousin Moe’s auto body shop- open 24 hours a day, no covercharge any time.”
Bwahahahaha!
Why are we surprised Queen’s U would be involved in Pissing away public grant money in Mexico….one of the Axworthy boys at Queen’s are hooked up deeply to the CFR as a benefactor/grant guarantor/client and the NAU is a pet project…watch for more QU involvement in Mexican trade and culture studies.
Are small town Canadian kids getting fat?
Where the hell are the kids anyway?
We run with the dog in BillMore Park.. No kids.
We run with the dog in Lewis Park.. . no kids
… in Simms Park .. no kids …
Woodcote Park.. 2 kids.
Kids do collect for a party Friday nights.
They meet via the grapevine, [cellphone], at some poor unfortunate*s home, sometimes 100 strong. [Documented by police scanner].
Summary; So it*s television, nintendo and Xbox except for Friday nights?
Watch out for Kids. One might sit on you. = TG
Dawg, I’m thinking of nominating you for the Nobel Prize of Seeking The Blatantly Obvious.
And they will start a series of duamb lawsuits against TACO BELL,BURGER KING and McDONALDS by the usial bunch of greedy trial lawyers LOOK OUT RONALD McDONALD THERES A VULTURE PERCHED ON THE GOLDEN ARCHES GET OUT YOUR SHOTGUN AND GIVE IT BOTH BARRELS
When all the corn is used to make ethanol there will be no fat kids in Mexico
Twenty years ago when I went to university, Queen’s was known as one of the more serious schools in the country, and one with real academic standards. Naturally we all hated it. But it seems Queen’s has caught up with orthodoxy and can dish out leftist pap with the best (least) of them. Times they have a changed indeed (sorry, I can’t quite get that fake down home folksinger bit right).
And such fools like MARIAN NESTLIE,NEAL BENARD,JERIMIE RIFFKIN and MICHEAL JACOBSON who says americans are too stupid to take care of themselves so they in their so call superiour intellegence must care for us from cradle to grave SCREW THE FOOD POLICE