Opinions on childhood obesity...

I made the mistake of going to Winco (grocery superstore) on a Sunday afternoon, which meant it was packed. While waiting in line, here is what I noticed: cart after cart full of processed food. Stouffer's Lasagna, Hamburger Helper, Swanson TV Dinners, Totino's Pizzas, Kraft Easy Mac, Chef Boyardee Beef Ravioli, and that's not to mention the amount of soda, white bread, chips, hot dogs, treats, etc. Here's what I didn't see (and I looked because I had quite a bit of time while waiting in line): fruit, vegetables, fresh lean meats. It really made me wonder how often most households cook. I wouldn't begin to assume that what I saw on that one day is representative of all of society, but we've gotten fat off of processed foods. I heard one poster say, "If man made it, don't eat it" and I have to say that there's a lot of truth to that. The foods I saw (poisons more like) that were prevalent in shopping cart after shopping cart have been the creation of corporations looking to get rich- and they have. They've made their money off of our laziness and ignorance/denial about proper nutrition.

The sad thing is that the people in the grocery store that day were at least choosing to buy food at the grocery store instead of going to McDonald's. It's a lateral move at best, but it's something. Poor eating choices are everywhere. That's all convenience stores sell. Even regular sit down restaurants are guilty of serving oversized portions (e.g. Claim Jumper) or unhealthy "unlimited" sides (e.g Red Lobster, Olive Garden). The point is, choosing to eat healthily is sadly more time consuming and often more expensive. And an apple for $1 is less filling than a cheeseburger for $1, no matter how much healthier it is.

I think with as busy as people are they tend to take the path of least resistance. It's lazy. It's cheap. It's unhealthy. Do people know better? I think so. But obviously it's not enough to break the cycle.

But while I agree that parents need to be responsible for what they are feeding their children, I think this is something we need to tackle as a society. Our meats and dairies have hormones and antibiotics. Our fruits and vegetables have pesticides and fertilizers and are genetically modified. And everything else is sweetened with HFCS or aspartame. And we ingest this poison day after day. And we let our kids ingest it, which is even worse. The madness has to stop somewhere. Has to.

The easy target is the parents of obese children. It is. Especially if those parents are also obese. But while we're pointing fingers around us, corporations are making billions of dollars off of us, and laughing.

Funny how none of the evil corporate influence seemed to have effected any of my 5 kids.
What a coincidence.
Or maybe it's that we decided how to raise ours to be healthy and fit.:noway:
No, can't blame the food companies.
Parents are still in charge and fully responsible.
Why is this so hard? Are we just all victims?
This lack of self-empowerment is part of the problem.

if i didn't eat what i was given there was nothing else and i was sat at the table, looking at it.

i got an eating disorder. so that worked! :-)

Was the eating disorder because you didn't want to eat food, or because you had other issues (control, anxiety) to work out?

I don't see the cause-and-effect here. I'm really not trying to sound mean, but I don't know if that's a fair representation of the consequences of making your child eat green beans.

This is kind of off track but I was sorting through some old family photos yesterday and I came across my mother's senior class photo....from 1950!
There was not one overweight student in that photo (out 119 students)
They came from a semi rural town in Virgina
There was a Soda shoppe in that town but no fast food.
Not every household had a TV.
Most kids helped around the house/farm/neighborhood
Every kid rode a bike because if their families had a car...dad or mom usually took it to work.

I read recently that what the average American piles on their dinner plate in one sitting would have fed a family of 4 in 1950.
I wonder about all that.

This is kind of off track but I was sorting through some old family photos yesterday and I came across my mother's senior class photo....from 1950!
There was not one overweight student in that photo (out 119 students)
They came from a semi rural town in Virgina
There was a Soda shoppe in that town but no fast food.
Not every household had a TV.
Most kids helped around the house/farm/neighborhood
Every kid rode a bike because if their families had a car...dad or mom usually took it to work.

I read recently that what the average American piles on their dinner plate in one sitting would have fed a family of 4 in 1950.
I wonder about all that.

This was a different America - a totally alien culture.
This was the WWII generation - not the hand-wringing, sniveling crybabies brought up by the "baby-boomers".
Much has changed, and today, taking ownership of your life and tapping into self-empowerment is not the norm.
Back then, people knew no other way to live.

What the heck caused baby boomer parents to change parenting from the way they were parented to be so much more laxed on upbringing of kids and less willing to discipline? (this probably is off topic from the childhood obesity exactly... but I know it plays a role in it.)

I was raised by a baby boomer parent... but my mom, and her two siblings were overweight growing up, and my grandparents never were by much at all until they hit their middle aged to older years. I obviously don't know exactly how my grandparents parented my parents... but my dad's parents were losers who never paid him any attention, and I know for sure he strived to parent better than what he received. But my mom's parents SEEM to have raised her the same as she and my dad raised my brother and me. Our morals, values, education... all good... but eating habits suck. Still to this day my grandmother thinks we have to have dessert with everything AND eat it first! We are from Texas, so I don't know if it's the fact of southern traditional fried foods and sweets that was part of my family's issue... but I do know the comfort eating was a big role for sure. You "cured" everything with food in my family!

When I was growing up, the information was simply not there. There's no excuse now. It's our responsibility as parents to educate our children and to guide them into a healthy lifestyle. I couldn't imagine how I would feel if one of my children became a diabetic as a teenager b/c I ignored their obesity as a youth! If you need educational resources, inbox me. I run a non profit nutrition company and our primary focus obesity education and prevention. You should really watch this video.

http://theweightofthenation.hbo.com/films/main-films/Crisis. It's bad enough that McDonalds and other fast food places spend Billions in research to figure out ways to entice our children in to eating junk food.

For me, childhood obesity is a black and white subject - child abuse. The end.

The PARENTS control what the kid does, and what comes into the house, and what kind of eating habits these kids will have. If they are obese, the parents should take the full blame and, to a radical extent, I think they should be charged with child abuse.

Here's my personal reason.

My aunt is massively obese (350-400lbs). Her children have always been heavy and there is no excuse. They are now fully grow and MASSIVE. I think my one cousin is actually pushing 500lbs and it is ALL her fault. She never taught them how to eat properly, she encouraged eating unhealthy foods and unhealthy/lazy habits, and she wouldn't LET them play sports. They were 'too violent' for her.

With all of the information out there, if someone has excessively overweight kids (I'm talking 200lbs at 10 years old here), there is no excuse to be this way. None. And with all the health risks of being overweight, not to mention the emotional and mental risks, I seriously think it should be a chargeable offence.

I also think the same of dog owners who have fat dogs. You control what goes into this dogs body, so therefore, it's your fault they are fat. The end.

Like I said, my opinion on this is very black and white and it may be too extreme for some.

The PARENTS control what the kid does, and what comes into the house, and what kind of eating habits these kids will have. If they are obese, the parents should take the full blame and, to a radical extent, I think they should be charged with child abuse.

To some extent. You can't FORCE a kid to eat things. I tried to push the issue with my fifteen year old when he was five. I was going to MAKE him eat that broccoli. He ate it all right... and made himself throw up on the table. My two year old will throw things that he doesn't like on the floor and will go hungry before eating something "ucky." (This is why I keep other things around that are healthy that he will eat.)

Sure, I can keep things out, but I can't force good eating. I'm going to guess that you don't have children. Once you have your own, you realize that everything is not as black and white as you seem to think.

Wrong.
As I already mentioned, success is a choice - no excuses.
First, none of my kids are fat but very fit - head and shoulders above 90% of their peers.
We have 5 kids.
I make them train and eat what I prepare, and we allow no junk food, soda or TV.
They indeed carp, and my response is always the same.
Eat what I make, or eat NOTHING, and in extreme cases taste belt leather.
End of story.
I refuse to raise what I see too much of in American society: fat, underachieving kids who will grow up to be fat, unhappy adults.
They can hate me now to love me later or whatever. It's not a popularity contest.
As a parent, I have a job to do.

As a parent of now adult, weight healthy children and a middle school teacher, I have some perspective. I am happy that my daughters are today fit, nutritionally aware consumers. I got great advice from my pediatrician when they were toddlers: prepare wholesome meals, don't have any food in the house you don't think is healthy, and make food a non-issue. I served meals but never required them to eat. There were no battles about so many bites or trying things or eating this to get that. at the end of the meal, everything got cleaned up and we were done until the next meal. Snacks were fruit or a few crackers/peanut butter, etc. but never enough to replace a meal. Since eating a meal or not never became a power struggle, my kids learned to try new foods because they saw me eating them and their natural appetite persuaded them that turning down too many items would not be a good Idea.

SO many have a gut on them that just giggles away (all while wearing a two piece or no shirt as if it’s OK and acceptable to not even cover it up