I'm currently reading a lot of stuff- one of the books I'm reading is "Super Sized Kids: How to rescue your child from the obesity threat." Written by Walt Larimore, MD; Sherri Flynt, MPH, RD, LD; with Steve Halliday.
It's packed with super sized greatness. :) I haven't gotten through the whole thing but throughout the book they sprinkle in 50 ways to SuperSize your Kids. I thought I'd share what I've read so far.
#1. Believe that your child's SuperSize status is normal.
#2. SuperSize their portions.
#3. Let your kids eat frequently at fast-food restaurants.
#4. Give your kids lots of soft drinks!
A few points that I found interesting:
They did a study that followed obese children to obese teenagers to obese adults. Children in the study who were obese as teens died as adults at the average age of 46. Not only that, but a different study pointed out that the effect of obesity "significantly impairs quality of life."
"Severly obese kids have a quality of life similar to that of children who have cancer."
What has happened? What has happened that we as adults have become so lazy, unintelligent, and passive in our decision making.
Say 'yes' to knowledge. This is my motivation.
Underdeveloped societies suffer from: TB, malnutrition, pneumonia, parasites, typhoid, cholera....
Affluent America now suffers from: obesity, heart disease, stroke, lung cancer, liver diseases, drug addiction, alcoholism, divorce, abused children, suicide a murder.
Take your choice.
My last point(S):
- It's not about appearance. It's about health. I heard on the radio the other night that by the age of 2 a kid can recognize a McD's (or any other frequented fast food store) by their logo. How awful.
- As a person commented in my last post, wouldn't it be nice if HEALTHY restaurants had "playplace"s? That would be a good help.
- Wouldn't it be even nicer if we ATE at home (which is important what we eat there too...) and had our own "playplace"?
- I think it's awful how parents introduce their children (fat, obese or fine) to fast food so frequently. Maybe you disagree. That's fine. This is my opinion based on my observations. You can make your own. In fact, I encourage you to do just that.
Say, "yes" to knowledge and research it yourself.
4 comments:
As a mother of two boys (16 & 10), I don't believe eating right is a choice for some families. Go and figure what the dollar menu will give versus the grocery store for healthier choices. There are a lot of unemployed people trying to feed their families on next to nothing and pay their bills (if they haven't lost their house yet).
My oldest isn't active but likes walking. Trying to teach him to eat right has been hard (he has asperger's). The youngest is into every sports available yet he's overweight. Football and genes haven't been nice. He comes home from football starving (late in the evening) and even though we have fruit and healthy choices, his genetic makeup isn't skinny. I've wished for that since I was his age and so has his father.
There is the other side of the healthy eating thing-anorexia/bulimia Genetic makeup and predisposition have a lot to do with it - not just choices in foods.
Sorry~to Heidi who posted.......but will you please read what you wrote in your first sentence outloud.
You have sold yourself short (and your family)...by limiting your choices. You state that eating right isn't a choice. And then you go on to explain why people are fat and that they can't be a healthy weight. You can go to the grocery store and buy food that is healthy and feed your family, on a limited budget. I did it for 25 years of raising our children. I still do it now. Life is about choices.....and in your post you are limiting yourself and those around you.
To Heidi and Anonymous and any other readers:
Thank you for posting! I'm glad that we can have this discussion in hopes that people's minds can be open to all perspectives.
I actually am in the process of analyzing our budget compared to when we ate once a week at fast food compared to now, maybe once a month, just to see the difference. Hopefully I can post those results, informative links, and of course my opinion about the matter soon.
A side note about the "healthy eating" anorexia/bulimia. That is NOT healthy eating, those are eating disorders. Health eating is not about looks, its about looking at what you eat. Sometimes genes aren't the skinny ones, and that just makes it harder.
And I agree with anonymous- it IS about choices. Thanks for all the input.
I agree with Anonymous. Healthy eating is a choice. Everyone has a choice between eating healthy and not (or fast food). One of the major reasons fast food is sooooooo appetizing is that it is FAST and someone else is making it. Today's world is all about being in a hurry. You can without a doubt eat healthy while living on a budget. If you cook your food at home and fresh, it will most likely stretch your dollars out. Grow your own garden that will really save money! Take your lunch to school or work! Another thing to remember is portion sizes. I am not completely against fast food or restaurants; I AM against going ALL the time. Fine, go to the restaurant. There is not law or rule there requiring a person to finish all of their food on the plate(s) before leaving the facility. Ever heard of a doggie bag? It's ok to leave with food. Another thing to do is order your food specifically how you want it. If it does not meet your expectations, send it back. You are the customer, they are there to serve you. Do not feel bad about sending food back.
About the football kid: blaming a weight problem on your genes is really sad. I'm not saying that that is not a factor, but you can work with it or around it to benefit that person in the best way possible. Portion sizes is an important thing to remember. Remember when we were all kids and we weren't aloud to leave the table until we had cleaned our plate? It worked then because our parents gave us reasonable portions. Now a days, society is doubling and tripling our portions and that mentality from our childhood is now hurting us. America has "clean-your-plate" syndrome!
Destiny
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