Childhood obesity

[jmurrayhead]

Then that's OK.
Just as long as people realize it is probably not the intent of the OP to raise social awareness.


Continue discussion.

I think everyone posting here hasn't paid much attention to anything other than the topic that was posted and don't really care about the intent. Needless to say, it's still an engaging conversation.

 

[pk698]

Childhood obesity. Who is to blame for it? The parents? Television? School lunches? Other?

could it be that the problem is mental rather outside influence? I don't know, I'm just sayin'. I mean, I have a co-worker who loves food... period. He's always hungry (that's what he said), and has food, soda at his work place all the time. my wife eats constantly too. if she walks pass food, any food, she won't pass up the chance to taste it; and eventually eats it all. (I know my marriage is in trouble when my wife spends more time with a box of twinky than me)

 

[Elizabeth]

could it be that the problem is mental rather outside influence? I don't know, I'm just sayin'. I mean, I have a co-worker who loves food... period. He's always hungry (that's what he said), and has food, soda at his work place all the time. my wife eats constantly too. if she walks pass food, any food, she won't pass up the chance to taste it; and eventually eats it all. (I know my marriage is in trouble when my wife spends more time with a box of twinky than me)

I agree as in most of us who have or will have weight loss surgery have to go thru nutrition classes, have to have psych evaluations done, spend months if not years fighting the insurance companies to be approved and yet we still, in spite of all this have our demons call food.

Unlike alcohol or tobacco where one can do without completely, the same can not be done with a food addiction. That is why there is so much to go thru to qualify for surgery. Yet most of us who go thru this ARE willing to try because we know diets do not work. If they did, more than 5-10% of those overweight to super morbidly obese would have lost weight that way as we've tried almost every one known out there. I've been on one diet or another since I was 12 years old and hit puberty as I was not a fat child but life thru me a curve at 12. I've lost close to a ton of weight in those years between then and now and have succeeded in regaining all and more of it every time.

About 15 years ago, I finally gave up on diets, but still can not lose weight altho I have maintained a consistent weight for most of that, except for medicine related gains (coming off the offenders made me lose again to a certain point).

My father is 83 and is food/weight obsessed. He's not obese altho he is still overweight by the BMI calculator. He's in good health for the most part but his weight goes up and down too much. But my husband, who is also having the weight loss surgery, and I were in Costco with my father about 2 months ago. We watched in amazement as he went from one station to the next trying every sample they had. BTW, my husband and I had none and we are the obese ones.

For those that are interested, I am maintaining a journal of my experience thru weight loss surgery...why I am doing it and which ones are out there, my feelings, etc. It's at http://www.ewljourney.gblcreations.com

 

[Kim]

I think there are way too many glib answers.

Childhood obesity is a complex problem, largely caused by the fact that we are more protective/engaged with our children than we were 30 years ago.. or 50 or whatever.. when kids roamed the streets from after school until dark, and parents didn't worry about what they got up to, so long as they weren't under foot, seen and not heard.

The exact opposite is now true, ironically we also over compensate for the lack of time we can spend with our kids too, by indulging them, we wrap them up in cotton wool, as we only have one or two, and we have them when we are older, and we over compensate for all the in-attention we got as kids, and we know the value of human life... or rather place a huge price on it, to the extent we would rather someone was alive, than alive and healthy.

Times change dramatically.

Our diets have changed dramatically.

Exercise patterns for kids have changed dramatically.

Blaming it on one thing or another is rather short-sighted, it is a complex intermingled issue, with complex solutions... what works for Jimmy, might be a total disaster for Jane etc...etc etc.

I hate glib answers to such a complex issue.

I was a very healthy weight child, incredibly active and sporty, my parents were OBSESSED with health, healthy eating, we only ever had (what even now would be considered) super healthy foods, and they were obsessed with my weight, to the extent they made me feel fat even when I clearly wasn't, weekly weigh in's and the recriminations if I was a pound or two over what they thought was acceptable. This was not an emotionally healthy place to be.

I am an overweight adult, despite that upbringing, and being well educated, despite knowing full well what makes you fat and what to do about it. It is a combination of a lot of factors, many of them well hidden and psychological in adults.

I have a kid who has his whole life been dramatically UNDER weight, as in until a few months ago, not even on the charts, and yet that is not taken as seriously as if he was the equivalent amount of overweight.. either will kill you just as quickly. Both are unhealthy, but I have had so many people tell me that it is fine he is so underweight, "at least he is not fat" >_< He will no doubt grow up with a horror of his family "forcing" or "nagging" him to eat his whole life. No doubt I have created in him some kind of demon he will have to feed with one bad habit or another when he is an adult.

Life is complex.

 

[Floris]

I am overweight now, it's gone worse the last ten years, but hey ho .. *eats chocolate cake after reading dragonfly her delicatece thread*