Obesity in the US - aka Food For Thought

[patusai]

I got a bag of Fritos out of the vending machine this afternoon and I, for some reason, remembered back to when I was a kid. I stopped at the corner store while coming back from school with my grandfather and I remember the Fritos bag to be much smaller than the regular size bag is today. I think it was one ounce. Today there are plenty of different sizes. I think that we are being encouraged to eat more. Eating more makes us want to eat even more, food companies make more money, doctors and drugs makers make more money because we are killing outselves and, all in all, the economy gets a good shot in the arm. We're doomed!

[Sohan]

My son's school just cut their PE programs. It's one of the better schools academically, so I guess the philosophy is "strong minds, flabby bodies". We live in a condo so its hard for him to play outside. I try very hard to keep him active with sports and exercise, so I think he's going to be fine.

But then, I have the schedule and time to be able to do this.

Respectfully,

Sohan

[Red J]

Obesity is a really alarming problem. Type 2 diabetes,as a direct result of childhood obesity, has skyrocketed in teenagers. This disease was unheard of 30 years ago in teens. Many factors come into play. Eating habits, sedentary activities, video games, etc. When I was a kid, we used to go outside from the time we got out of school until dinner. That has changed. Parents are too afraid to let their kids outside due to the media hype of stranger danger, plus the kids prefer to exercise their thumbs on joysticks.

To get decent life insurance you have to get weighed, fall into the acceptable range, and not smoke, otherwise you are in a high risk category. The day will come when health insurance companies will give you a better rate based on weight due to all of the obesity related disease.

The school system in my area has eliminated french fries and regular ice cream from the menus and encourages daily recess for the kids. Childhood obesity has been identified as a real problem that could potentially wreck our health care system because many of the medical problems of the future could be prevented with simple diet and exercise education.

[KarateK]

Its horrific but its not confined to the US.

Its also worrying though that my daughter who is 7 told me today that a boy in her class told her to go on a diet as she is fat. Now I know its only kids but its still worrying.

I think thats awful Sohan that your kids school have cut out their PE programmes - whats the use of all that brain power if they are going to die young and never achieve their full potential?

[Sohan]

Its horrific but its not confined to the US.

Its also worrying though that my daughter who is 7 told me today that a boy in her class told her to go on a diet as she is fat. Now I know its only kids but its still worrying.

I think thats awful Sohan that your kids school have cut out their PE programmes - whats the use of all that brain power if they are going to die young and never achieve their full potential?

They cut out languages for the young kids also. Now they won't begin foreign languages until age 12 (many can barely speak proper English as it is)--missing a prime time to burn it into those little gray hard drives. With the influx of immigrants and globalization of our economy, language skills may help determine the future success of our children. I am constantly amazed when I travel to Europe how many languages the young people are comfortable with.

Is it any better in the UK?

Respectfully,

Sohan

[KarateK]

They don't usually start languauges until high school - aged 11. But my daughter is lucky. She is a member of a spanish club at her primary school but thats out of school so I have to pay for it. Not that I mind cos I think like you, that kids these days need to understand different languages in the same way they need to use a computer. Its vital

I know a bit of basic french but always kick myself for not learning more languages at school.

My daughter thinks its great that she can count to ten in Japanese, Spanish and French... bless

[CheekyMusician]

Yup, the problem is here in the UK, too, as KarateK says. However, my big sister and I were actually talking the other day about our experiences of physical education programmes at school. Both of us agreed that for years we thought that we HATED sports and were useless of them all thanks to our PE teachers. I've spoken to quite a few of my friends who feel the same and many of them have never participated in sports since.

The system was far too competitive. Normally, it was either team sports or competitive athletics and we were very rarely given any choice over what sports we participated in. I the 4 years of compulsary PE at high school, there was only one block (we did different activities in 6 or 12 week blocks) that we did that I actually enjoyed, which was circuit training, as we each had our individual programmes to follow and no one was competing against anyone else. However, this was only a 6 week block and I broke my toe after just two weeks of it and had to sit out the next 4 till it healed! Grrr! Typical!

I think schools have to be very careful about introducing PE into the curriculum as it is very easy to put kids off sport for life by forcing them to participate in it in a school setting which is almost always a competitive setting.

Thank goodness I found martial arts which rekindled my love of sport!

[younwhadoug]

personally i think government has a lot to do with it. if third world countries had the economy we have they would be in the same shape. but other countries such as many of the asian lands have restrictions on certian items and requirements for martial arts and military education. the elementray school my two boys go to is doing cup stacking in p.e. in the springtime and it seems to last for months. also depression is a big reason for obesity. and anyone who seeks psychiatrist can be and more than likely will be diagnosed with something, further damaging their self esteem.

don't get me wrong thouugh, more and more parents are letting the televission babysit their kids, whether it be video games or movies or cartoons or whatever. every age group from 1 to 18 spends more time in front of the tv than say 20 years ago. not too many go for walks or hikes or camping or really anything physical. i haven't noticed a difference in what i ate at school and what my children eat at school. the difference i see is with motivating children to play outside or even take intrest in sports as much.

[patusai]

with the school cuts money ends up going into the wrong pockets. They cut PE and other non academic activities and yet, in the areas around me some superintendants make over $200 thousand a year. Teachers at at or above $60 thousand a year. Some of these salaries are given to administrators and teachers yet, academically, 30% of the students meet minimum state requirements academically.

[Patrick]

Hello,

It looks like we're going to start getting into politics, which I suppose may be an eventual conclusion for a thread like this. But, since it appears to be headed down that road, I am going to go ahead and close it.

Thank you.